I interviewed at National Retail Federation (Washington, DC)
Interview
Friendly, professional, and questions about resume experiences. Various "tell me about a time" questions focusing on experiences related to marketing, communications, and strategic growth. It lasted about 45 minutes with room for questions at the end.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Can you elaborate on your previous work experiences and how you can contribute to this role?
Process was pretty straightforward. They first called to schedule a phone interview. Then after phone interview an in person interview which came with an offer to me about a week after. There was a few weeks between the phone interview and the in person interview due to some internal meetings.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Basic questions: Tell me a little about yourself, how do you handle stress..
I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at National Retail Federation (Washington, DC) in May 2019
Interview
Breathless, the senior HR employee phoned on a Wednesday afternoon. "We'd love to have you in for an interview. But it has to be tomorrow. Can you rearrange your schedule and come to our offices in the city?" Sure, I'll do that. What she didn't tell me was that I'd also be waiting for more than 30 minutes on one of their sofas for the meeting to start. Or that she and each of the others who would be interviewing me would all be late for their portions of the interview. Or that their spotty technology would fail and disrupt the interview process. Or that--amid her role in top levels of HR--her idea of warmly greeting a candidate was starting the relationship off with "So, you brought this bad weather with you?"
The position was for their foundation, and the bulk of the interview was conducted with an individual in a leadership position of the foundation. In his early thirties, it wasn't clear at all how he was qualified for or skilled in his role in any way. This position centered around this yuckiness: they had issues with a two plus year old program that should have been resolved long ago. They wanted focus. They wanted drive. They wanted a person to fix all of their problems. Their way. Hmmm.
The atmosphere of these offices is off too. My extended wait afforded me a marvelous opportunity to observe two types of employees: leaning around and gossipy, or scrambling and stressed. NRF, what a disappointment and waste of my time. Get your HR and your leadership teams up to par.