Intern applicants have rated the interview process at Cato Institute with 2.6 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 88% positive. To compare, the company-average is 84.2% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Intern roles take an average of 43 days to get hired, when considering 16 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Cato Institute overall takes an average of 42 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Cato Institute as a Intern according to 16 Glassdoor interviews include:
Group panel interview: 22%
One on one interview: 22%
Phone interview: 17%
Background check: 11%
Skills test: 11%
Drug test: 6%
Personality test: 6%
Presentation: 6%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Cato Institute (Washington, DC)
Interview
I met some reps at a job fair and I was invited to come in for an interview as a recent graduate. The interview was very strange, with one guy remaining behind me the whole time intermittently checking his phone and weighing in on the conversation. Pretty standard for a think tank interview. First question: What does being a libertarian mean to you? As a recent grad, I asked about salary and was at first told it was sufficient to support myself. After pressing, however, they admitted it was only 700$ a month, but assured me they had one intern at least who made that work without help from his parents by taking the night shifts at the hostel where he lived after working a full time day for Cato. I almost laughed.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How do you feel working with people with different political affiliations, like anarchists?
Recruiters are chill. You will meet with the director of student program as well as the directors in the departments you applied to. Student program director will ask general questions where as the departmental directors will ask more academic and policy-focused questions.
Mostly behavioral but did also ask some policy-related questions. For policy it was mainly about libertarianism and also some of the questions that were on the written application before the finalist round.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Cato Institute in Sep 2024
Interview
Great interview. Talked mostly about the books on the application about my policy. Included a technical portion for the General Economics role, but it depends on who the research assistant you will be working with is and if they care about your quantitative background.