I was contacted by a BV recruiter because I had applied for a position in June of 2009, and the company had another opening. During the intitial phone interview, the recruiter described two positions: the one I originally applied for as well as a different one. After some discussion, I decided to pursue the IPM role. After the initial phone screen, I had a screen with a manager, which was great. Both of the phone interviews were very conversational, which made for a very relaxed and informative scenario.
I was asked to come into the office and meet with three people for three different 1:1 interviews. I think the only constructive criticism about this piece is that I didn't know ahead of time who I would be meeting with. Perhaps that is done on purpose, but at the time the first interviewer didn't know where I was to go 2nd, and I couldn't tell her!
For the next phase of the interview process, I was asked to come back and give a mock kick-off presentation to a panel of people. I did find out who would there ahead of time (it changed - no big deal). I did receive some mis-information, but I was able to get it figured out in plenty of time so that I didn't spend time on the wrong presentation.
After that, I was asked to some back for the leadership/ exec interviews.
Here are my thoughts on what my actualy experience was like:
a.) Every person I met with was engaged in the interview process. I never felt as if someone would have rather been reading his/her email or taking a nap, which, believe me, has happened.
b.) Every person I met with was super-friendly - can't say enough about that.
c.) The recruiter was phenomenal! She kept me updated and she never left me hanging (after the first in-office interview, I knew before I left the buildling that I would be coming back for the next phase), I loved how prompt everything was.
d.) I think the only constructive criticism about the first 1:1 interviews is that I didn't know ahead of time who I would be meeting with. Perhaps that is done on purpose, but at the time, the first interviewer didn't know where I was to go 2nd, and I couldn't tell her!
e.) For the executive interview, I was told that this would be the easy part - maybe 15 minutes each - but it actually wound up being 1.5 hours and the last one was full of questions!! I honestly didn't mind any of it, it was just that my expectations were totally off of what the reality was like.