Screening interview was first. About a week or so later, I had to do a writing exercise. The exercise consisted of providing a 1-page summary for two patents. The purpose of the exercise is to target each summary at an audience that is generally well-read, comfortable with the basic principles of science, and curious about the topic, but not deeply experienced in the specific technical art of the piece. Each summary should include an explanation of why the patented technology should be of interest to the audience. For example, the piece may be similar to one that would appear in "Popular Science" or the Science section of the New York Times. The patents were US 6,033,857 and US 7,487,719. Finally, I did an interview with the team, including a patent agent, attorneys, and a partner.

A month after submitting the application, a 30 minute phone interview with a patent agent was scheduled by a recruiting specialist. The scheduling process was quick, as the recruiting specialist was very responsive. For the phone interview, it felt like the interviewer did not prepare questions