Blue Shield Of California Business Analyst Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Feb 2011 in El Dorado Hills, CA (took 2 days)

I interviewed for a 4 month temporary Business Analyst position. I was initially contacted by K-Force and provided a job description for which I believed I was qualified for. It took just a couple of hours to get the phone interview scheduled. K-Force was very professional and provided everything I needed to make the call to Blue Shield of California, El Dorado Hills. The interview was scheduled a few days out, which was fine. It gave me an opportunity to go through the job description and match it to my experience to ensure I was properly prepared.

I was provided with two phone numbers and instructed to call the second number if no one was at the first. When I called the first number, I was greeted and asked to hold while he transferred me to a conference room. I thought that he was going to conduct the interview there. To my suprise there was a panel of three people to ask me questions. I figured this would be fine and proceded to introduce myself. It turns out that the job description I was given by KForce was not what BS was interviewing for. I did note, that KForce provided the right job description, but BS wanted only someone to do user testing. I am versed in user testing and felt confident I could still qualify for the position. However, the style in which I was interviewed through me off. I was asked "If I were to write a book about user testing, what would the first three chapters be titled". I flubbed this part up because I got so caught up in creating a perfect title that I felt like I didn't answer the question very well.

I couldn't help but think that the interview strategy was set up to make someone fail and that perhaps that was the culture of BS. The interviewers voices were kind but somewhat smug. I left the phone interview feeling battered and that if I didn't really need a job, that I would not work for them.