Applied online through the Cree website. Heard back from the hiring manager within a couple weeks. Had a phone screening with the hiring manager and then a skype interview with his team 2 weeks after that to present my doctoral research. Both interviews were strange, the phone screen especially. He would beat around the bush of what he wanted to know, and phrased the questions in such an odd manner. He also asked me a question set up as, "would option A or option B would be a better way to do this thing?" Well, it was neither and he was trying to trip me up. He tried this more than once, and I find that to be rude. Reading through some of these interview reviews, I was really dreading the worst. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as I feared, and the hiring manager wasn't as rude as some of the reviews indicated. However, I still had a negative experience and I'm honestly glad I didn't get an offer. There wasn't a good fit on either side apparently. As a note, one of my friends also interviewed with them and did get an offer. He declined because they couldn't agree on salary. What they offered wasn't going to be worth working 50-60 hours a week for a manager with a big ego.

Interview process consisted of phone screen, followed by full day presentation/interview/lunch. Afterwards was invited to dinner with several of the interviewers. I found that the Cree interview process was very enjoyable. The interviewers were warm and friendly, and interviews felt much like research discussions one would have with colleagues. Obviously, some questions were still challenging and were designed to try and test knowledge/thought process. Presentation was around 30 minutes max while individual interviews varied from 30-45 minutes each.