ConAgra ConAgra Internship Interview

Interviewed Mar 2011 (took 6 months)

I met with ConAgra recruiters in early fall 2010 during a career-fair on campus. I had an interview the day after meeting the recruiters and it went extremely well. The interview lasted roughly an hour and I received great feedback throughout it. Three days after the interview I received a call from the recruiter, telling me that she was " extremely impressed" and wanted to tell me of " of ConAgra's intention to offer you a position". Naturally, I was thrilled and excited for my next round of interviews.

 Fast forward 6 months with little-to-no contact, and a horribly conducted phone interview in which I was informed of Omaha's polite automobile driving mannerisms and some really strange football facts. I had a final interview in March conducted via telephone, which I felt went extremely well. I was supposed to hear back within 5 days. Again, fast forward about 10 days. I get a voicemail out of the blue from the original recruiter telling me that they were again extremely impressed, but felt that my background in entrepreneurship was my true passion and that it would be bad for the company if they took me on. I was shocked that after 6 months of positive feedback, founded on the promise of a position, I would be turned down based on my accomplishments. I think it is extremely unprofessional for them to admit that as well.

Based on this whole experience I am sure that had I worked at ConAgra, I would have had a terrible time.
To sum it up: slow communication, false promises, and a terrible phone interviewer that (aside from talking about driving and football) basically told me he wanted someone to make him look good before the board at a corporate presentation.

The recruiter that I met at the career fair really did seem like a nice person, who truly thought that I was getting a position. I can only assume that the terrible communication within the company ( which is a comment frequently found in reviews by employees) had something to do with the prolonged process.