American Greetings Product Development Analyst Interview

Interviewed Dec 2010 in Cleveland, OH (took 2 months)

I met with an HR representative at a college career fair - I had done my homework on the company beforehand and the positions they were hiring for (product development analyst & merchant analyst). From the first day at the career fair they had 1:1 interview positions for 20 candidates over the next two days. I secured one of these and my 1:1 was conducted by the Vice President of the company. I was extremely impressed by the fact it was not just an HR lackey they send to career fairs. The interview went really well and I received a phone call about 2 weeks later saying they wanted me to come to the 2 day interview event at world HQ in Cleveland. About 20 candidates were at the event - mostly from schools in Ohio and surrounding states. The event started with a meet and greet dinner and tour of the facilities. The employees we met with were all leaders within their divisions and all seemed excited to be talking to potential recruits. The facilities are gorgeous and they are even going to be updating - the only downside is world HQ is located in Cleveland. The next day consisted of lunch with employees who were hired within the last year in the positions we were interviewing for - they seemed a little overwhelmed to be talking to 4 recruits at once. After lunch there were 5 half hour individual interviews. 4 of which with employees in management positions of the interviewee area and 1 with a recruiter. Know your stuff - do thorough research on the company - come prepared with many questions to ask THEM and also have a portfolio of work you have done in the past that you can reference when answering questions.