A corporate recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn. I replied and a phone interview was scheduled. It was 30 minutes and super casual, not the typical "tell me about yourself and your resume." She worked in those questions more casually when talking about my interests, what I did in college, which kept me at ease. They're basically looking to see if you can hold a conversation and are outgoing (read- not boring). I was pretty excited about the company at this point because I bonded with the recruiter, despite what I read and the boring job responsibilities (basically cold calling all day). I was offered an in person interview at the end of the phone interview.
The recruiter called and prepped me for the in person interview, she said it was super conversational and might be with a few people. They just want to see if you can be fun and outgoing. At the interview, I was easing into carrying the conversation like I'd been prepped. I didn't want to be too over the top/chatty from the second I walked in, I wanted to get a feel of the interviewer. However, turns out only one person was interviewing me and it was over before I knew it. It was super surface level and I wasn't asked a single question about my qualifications/resume. At this point I'd been asked "what I did last weekend" 3 times, but nothing skills related once. Thought the 1st round didn't go as well as I expected because I didn't "carry the conversation", but the recruiter called me as I was walking out of the interview and offered me a final round interview and tips for that. Tip: Show your interviewer that they'd be crazy not to hire you!
Final round interview is over a meal. Mine was lunch. Tried to be over the top, but again nothing about the job, my skills, resume, or any of my accomplishments was discussed. They're only trying to see if you can carry an hour long conversation over a meal/outing because this is what you'd be doing in an account management role (which is the next position up). However, the interviewer was kind of awkward. In my experience, in general, someone you are having lunch with will tend to carry some of the conversation as well because that's why they're giving you the time of day. Not the case here. Bring questions to the final interview, there will be time for that. Salary discussion was short and very vague. Basically throwing out large numbers you may or may not make in the next couple of years at best, to hide the fact that the starting salary is 30k with ~50 hrs a week. After lunch, another short interview with another account manager, basically reintroducing yourself and asking any remaining questions you might have.
Overall, I just wasn't very comfortable at this company and what they valued in their recruits. It was fake at best. Don't get me wrong, I'm a people person and very outgoing but I also want to grow as a professional since I'm right out of college. There's room and time to gauge someone's personality while also valuing their accomplishments and talking about what they can bring to the table. In the end, this feeling probably translated in the interview because I wasn't offered a position. The experience was good for opening up to an interviewer on a more personal level, but nothing like any of my other interviews. Recruiter reached out one last time and said it was a tough decision, and that was the only feedback given.
