California LAO interview questions

After emailing a resume and cover letter, the first interview is through Skype. Then, if you move forward you will have to fly to Sacramento and go through a day process of multiple interviews.

I was contacted by phone with a short screening conversation and invitation to come and interview in person (I was living across the country at the time). I was coming out to CA on other business, so the LAO contributed a portion of my expenses to get to Sacramento. The HR manager was very professional through the entire process. The interview process took the better part of a day, starting with an loosely structured one-on-one interview with the Legislative Analyst, the head of the organization. He asked challenging and thoughtful questions geared toward understanding the way a person analyzes a problem and expresses thoughts. The only thing I regreted in this interview was that I had to say that I simply didn't have an answer to a certain analytical opinion he asked of me. Other than that, I feel I performed well, although I lacked a feeling that I "connected" with him. I can't know for sure, but this may have been a critical factor in their decision to not hire me. After this interview, I interviewed one-on-one with two senior-level directors/managers in charge of a given subject area (local government and higher education). I felt these interviews went extremely well, and had fairly deep conversations with both of them. I felt there was an insightful exchange of ideas and exploration of some of the more theoretical underpinnings of the problems in these sectors. At this point, I believe I went to lunch with a junior or mid-level analyst. He was cordial, but seemed disinterested. We talked about the nature of the workplace, what he likes about his job, and the work he is involved in. It was at this point that I questioned whether this was a place I would want to work. His subdued and unenthusiastic demeanor made me question how much he actually enjoyed his job. After lunch, I had a two-person panel interview with two mid to high level managers. Up until this point, the entire process had been very professional. However, these individuals were nearly constantly looking down at their cell phones unless they were asking a question, and it was highly distracting and made me feel that I was not being seriously considered. After the panel interview, the HR manager showed me to a vacant office where I performed a fairly basic quantitative analysis of some data and a written summary of the findings. I was very confident that I performed well on this exercise. After the exercise, I was free to go. A few days later I sent thank you emails to everyone I met with, and received a reply from only one person. I received a declination letter a couple weeks after that. In general, I would agree with another one of the posters here that it was difficult to discern exactly what they were looking for in a candidate. I was very disappointed in the lack of professionalism exhibited by the two panelists. For background purposes, I was not a recent graduate when I interviewed. At the time, I had approximately 4 years of experience in consulting and at the time, was working for the Department of Defense.