Raytheon’s panel interview is mostly behavioral: the hiring manager and two or three engineers ask STAR questions, then a few short technical questions. The behavioral questions candidates report most are describe a conflict with a past teammate and how it was solved, tell me about a time you worked on a team with different perspectives, walk us through a project on your resume, and why Raytheon.
The technical part of the same panel covers C and data structures; those questions are on the Raytheon interview questions hub, and full panels are on the Raytheon interview experience page.
RTX’s six values
RTX, Raytheon’s parent company, lists six values:
- Safety: We prioritize safety in every aspect of our work.
- Trust: We act with integrity and do the right thing.
- Respect: We embrace diverse perspectives and treat others the way they want to be treated.
- Accountability: We honor our commitments, expect excellence and take pride in our work.
- Collaboration: We share insights, learn together and perform as a team.
- Innovation: We experiment, design, build and transform with speed and agility.
Common Raytheon behavioral questions
1. Tell me about yourself
Sample answer: “I graduated in May with an electrical engineering degree and a computer science minor. My senior project was firmware in C for a small radar target simulator on an ARM board, where I wrote the DMA-driven ADC capture. Last summer I interned on a test team writing Python scripts for automated hardware checks. This Software Engineer I role is embedded C on sensor hardware, which is the work I want to keep doing.”
2. Describe a conflict with a past teammate and how it was solved (Respect, Collaboration)
STAR sample: “Situation: A teammate wanted to rewrite our firmware in C++ two weeks before our demo. Task: Decide without splitting the team. Action: I asked what problem he wanted to solve, which was messy state handling, and proposed refactoring just that module into a state machine in C. Result: We finished the refactor in three days, the demo ran without resets, and we agreed to revisit C++ after the deadline.”
3. Tell me about a time you worked on a team with different perspectives (Respect)
STAR sample: “Situation: On a capstone with mechanical and electrical students, the mechanical side wanted a smaller enclosure than our board allowed. Task: Find a layout both sides accepted. Action: I set up a meeting with the CAD model and board outline on screen, and we moved two connectors to the board edge. Result: The enclosure shrank 15% and the board fit without a respin.”
4. Tell me about a time you raised a safety or quality concern (Safety)
STAR sample: “Situation: During a lab test, the power supply current limit was set above the board’s fuse rating. Task: Fix it before the test continued. Action: I stopped the test, showed the lead the settings, and we added the limit to the pre-test checklist. Result: No damage, and the checklist caught the same setting a month later.”
5. Tell me about a commitment you kept under pressure (Accountability)
STAR sample: “Situation: I promised a driver for our sensor by Friday so the team could start integration. Task: On Wednesday the sensor’s datasheet timing turned out to be wrong. Action: I measured the real timing with a logic analyzer, told the team about the one-day risk, and worked through it. Result: The driver was ready Friday afternoon with a note on the datasheet error.”
6. Tell me about a time you did the right thing when nobody was checking (Trust)
STAR sample: “Situation: I found that a test I had marked passed the week before had used the wrong configuration. Task: Correct it. Action: I re-ran it, told my lead, and updated the report. Result: The re-run passed, but the record was now accurate. I would rather report it myself than have someone find it later.”
7. Tell me about a time you shared knowledge with your team (Collaboration)
STAR sample: “Situation: Only I knew how to flash and debug our board. Task: Remove that bottleneck. Action: I wrote a two-page guide and ran a 30-minute session. Result: Three teammates could flash and debug on their own, and our test cycle sped up.”
8. Tell me about a time you tried something new to solve a problem (Innovation)
STAR sample: “Situation: Manual hardware checks took two hours per board. Task: Speed them up. Action: I wrote a Python script driving the power supply and multimeter over SCPI. Result: Checks dropped to 15 minutes per board and caught a bad regulator we had missed by hand.”
9. Walk us through a project on your resume
Framework: Goal, your part, the language and tools, one hard decision and why, how you tested it, the result. Expect follow-ups on the language: a Glassdoor reviewer’s panel went over resume projects and the programming languages named in the job.
10. Tell me about a time you made a mistake
Framework: A real mistake, how quickly you reported it, the fix and what you changed. This maps to Trust.
11. Why Raytheon?
Sample answer: “The posting is embedded software for radar, and my capstone was a radar target simulator. Raytheon builds the full sensor, so I would work next to the hardware and test teams. I am a U.S. citizen and comfortable with the clearance process.”
12. Do you have any questions for us?
Strong questions:
- “Which processors and toolchains does the team use?”
- “How do new engineers get onto programs while their clearance is pending?”
- “What does a strong first year look like on this team?”
Real examples to prepare before a Raytheon panel
| Story type | Prompt | RTX value |
|---|---|---|
| Conflict | A disagreement with a teammate you resolved | Respect, Collaboration |
| Safety or quality | You stopped or flagged something unsafe | Safety |
| Commitment | You delivered on a promise despite a setback | Accountability |
| Integrity | You corrected a record or reported a mistake | Trust |
| New method | You tried a new tool or approach that worked | Innovation |
Answers that hurt in a Raytheon panel
- Blaming the teammate in a conflict story
- Listing a language on your resume you cannot answer basic questions in
- Hedging on clearance or defense-work questions
- Long stories with no result
Quick answers
Describe a conflict with a past teammate and how it was solved
Use STAR: what the disagreement was about, what you did to understand the other view, how you reached a decision, and the outcome. Keep it on facts rather than personalities. Raytheon software panels report this question, and it maps to RTX’s Respect and Collaboration values.
Tell me about a time you worked on a team with different perspectives
Pick a team where people disagreed on approach or came from different disciplines, show how you used the difference to improve the result, and give the outcome. RTX describes Respect as embracing diverse perspectives.
Tell me about a time you raised a safety or quality concern
Describe what you noticed, how you raised it with evidence, and what changed. RTX lists Safety first among its six values, described as prioritizing safety in every aspect of the work.
Tell me about a commitment you kept under pressure
Give the commitment, the obstacle, what you did to deliver and the result. RTX describes Accountability as honoring commitments, expecting excellence and taking pride in the work.
Why Raytheon?
Name the product area on the posting, such as radar, missiles or sensors, why it interests you, and the skill you bring. Show you understand the role needs U.S. citizenship and a clearance and that you are comfortable with it.
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