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Garmin
3.3 of 5 147 reviews
www.garmin.com Olathe, KS 5000+ Employees

Garmin Interview Questions & Reviews

Updated May 20, 2013
All Interviews Received Offers

Getting the Interview  104 Interviews

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17%
10%

Interview Experience  94 Ratings

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2.6730769
104 interview experiences
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Product Architect at Garmin

No Offer – Interviewed in Olathe, KS (US) Feb 2013 – Reviewed May 20, 2013

Interview Details A job database sent an email suggesting the job as a good fit. Despite having written to Garmin in the past (and hearing nothing in reply), I sent in a resume expecting to hear nothing back. I did get a call and the folks I spoke to over several calls seemed pleasant. I went out for an interview in Feb 2013.

The interview questions were largely technical, about database search algorithms that I'm not familiar with and specifics of the implementation of the standard C compilers. The tools I use every day are specific to other weird processors and the managers I interviewed with didn't seem to care that I don't use the same tools they do.

One interview was with the fellow who runs the innovation group. In preparation for meeting with him, I had jotted down several ideas that I thought would be reasonable enhancements to Garmin's line - some handheld, some automotive and some marine improvements. I filed Provisional Patent Applications (PPA) on them before traveling. That conversation went well, or so I thought.

The flight back was cancelled due to weather problems on the east coast. Shortly after getting back, I heard that I had been denied a job I hadn't applied for. Then I heard about the one I did apply for. Also no.

Garmin agreed to pay the extra expenses and it's now May and I still haven't seen a check.

I have since licensed two of the design suggestions to Garmin's competitors and I'll be curious to see whether Garmin "thinks of them on their own" or not.

The biggest concern I had was Garmin's managers jokingly referring to themselves as a "cult". It seemed rather cultish when I toured and it was disturbing to hear comments about the "cult" or "you never have to leave the building" and "you'll like our family better than your own". I knew during the tour & interview that I couldn't work there, so being turned down wasn't a problem for me.

Interview Question – Difference between "stack" and "heap"?   View Answer

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Director of Recruitment and Retention at Garmin

No Offer – Interviewed in Olathe, KS (US) – Reviewed May 03, 2013

Interview Details Very professional and timely. Initial phone screen, follow up conversation, face to face at corporate HR - all arrangement made and either direct billed or reimbursed. Detailed interview schedule shared. Very nice and again professional. Was told to expect feedback and updates in 2 weeks as of May 5 it will be 8 weeks and not a peep.

Interview Question – Nothing   Answer Question

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Software Engineer I at Garmin

No Offer – Interviewed in Nov 2012 – Reviewed Apr 14, 2013

Interview Details One phone interview with HR. This was basic resume questions/tell me about yourself. About a week later was a technical interview via Skype.

Interview Question – There were questions about data structures (linked lists, etc) that I was not confident with at the time as I have an analog background. I imagine they would be easy for anyone with more experience in that area.   Answer Question

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Software Engineer at Garmin

No Offer – Interviewed in Diamond Bar, CA (US) – Reviewed Apr 13, 2013

Interview Details Waited about 1 week to get contacted by HR after sending in the resume. The procedure then is pretty standard, started with HR phone screening, followed by technical phone interview, and finally in-person interview.
The HR phone screening already asked some behavioral questions. The technical phone interview consists of OOP and C++ memory management questions. The on-site requires the applicant to solving a programming problem in OOP, then discussed some programming language keyword usage, and finally ended with a brain teasing question.
In overall, the HR is very effective and responsive.

Interview Question – The brain teasing question is totally not related to coding, but one might be easily get stuck in computer mindset after doing the coding problem in the front.   Answer Question

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Software Engineer I at Garmin

No Offer – Interviewed in Diamond Bar, CA (US) – Reviewed Apr 12, 2013

Interview Details It's about a two hour interview. You get a combination of technical and behavioral questions. There is a half hour programming exercise which you then review with the interviewer. After that you're given a brain teaser question.

Interview Question – Brain teaser: most buckets filled with infinite number of balls that weigh 1 gram, but one bucket has balls that weigh 2 grams. How do you find the bucket that has the 2 gram balls with only one weigh in? Follow up after you solve it, is what if there are two buckets with 2 gram balls?   View Answer

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Embedded Marine Software Engineer at Garmin

No Offer – Interviewed in Linkou, T'ai-wan (Taiwan) Mar 2013 – Reviewed Mar 31, 2013

Interview Details English Test for 1 hr, which is the same as TOEIC test including reading /listening.
Be careful of the listening test that employee will need to memorize some keywords to answer the question.
Then a C/C++ test for 50 mins, including linked list / multiple inheritance / recursive / prime number finding.
After above, the HR will introduce the company then the team manager will have a interview with the employee.

Interview Question – the UI library issues   Answer Question

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Applications Developer Intern at Garmin

No Offer – Reviewed Mar 29, 2013

Interview Details Had a phone screen interview. Was essentially just a resume overview with description about the job.

Interview Question – Nothin much, since it was a non technical round the only point of extra thought for me was the hourly compensation expectation.   Answer Question

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Oracle EBS at Garmin

Declined Offer – Interviewed in Kansas, KY (US) – Reviewed Mar 25, 2013

Interview Details Started with a small interview with HR recruiter on phone(mostly behavioral questions) and then she arranged an interview for the technical round. Questions were fairly basic and went for 45 minutes. Next day interview was scheduled with the IT Manager and she too asked behavioral questions too. Then they invited me to their campus for an interview where again they asked me behavioral questions.

Interview Question – None but too many behavioral questions questions.   Answer Question

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Design Certification Engineer at Garmin

Declined Offer – Interviewed in Olathe, KS (US) – Reviewed Mar 22, 2013

Interview Details Standard Procedure- a phone interview with HR recruiter followed by an on-site interview.On site interview was purely technical which asked basic questions of electrical engineering(combinational logic,op-amps and rlc circuits).I was also asked to explain a project I am working on in as much detail as possible.

Interview Question – The HR person asked me to explain technical aspects of the project I was working on.She was trying to write everything I said instead of understanding what I am trying to say.This made conveying information to her a bit challenging   Answer Question

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Software Engineer at Garmin

Declined Offer – Interviewed in Diamond Bar, CA (US) – Reviewed Mar 15, 2013

Interview Details The first phone interview was a simple screening and gave me a chance to establish some expectations regarding the job and compensation.
The second phone interview was with the would-be manager. He is very knowledgeable and asked decent questions that allowed me to demonstrate my knowledge of software programming.
The final interview was on-site with the manager and another developer. They showed me to a room, gave me a set of programming objectives, and sat me down in front of a laptop. This is probably the best and most effective way to demonstrate me knowledge of programming. I was comfortable the entire time and really enjoyed the task they gave me. Roughly after half an hour they came back in and put my code up on a projector where we then proceeded to discuss what i had concocted. We discussed my design pattern and the finer details like initialization list, constants, threads and memory management.

Overall it was a very positive process and the team there must be a talented bunch. The technical recruiter is also very responsive and made the whole thing run smoothly.

Interview Question – What is the difference between Windows CE/Embedded and a regular Windows OS?
What is the difference between a mutex and a semaphore?
How would you use the keyword mutable (C++)?
  Answer Question

Reason for Declining – Accepted a competing offer. Pay was slightly below market.

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Good work experience

 Current Senior Software Engineer in Olathe, KS (US)

Pros: Very technical, hands on work. Good benefits, great products. Plenty of creative freedom. Fun place to work Full Review `

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