Freddie Mac Interview Questions & Reviews in McLean, VA
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Updated Mar 8, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
Ratings are reflective of location and job title.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 24 ratings 
“Average” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 24 ratings
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| 1–10 of 24 Freddie Mac Interviews | Sort by |
Business Operations Associate at Freddie Mac
Posted Mar 8, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2010 in McLean, VA (took 2 days)
First interview was at my college campus. Pretty standard behavioral questions. After I got through the first interview, they invited me on site second round interview. Included two rounders, each with 2 people. It was in a large room with multiple interviews occuring at the same time. They asked you to describe Freddie Mac's business, and then drilled you with behavioral questions
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
flat rate for all college hires
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview, a Drug Test and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Intern at Freddie Mac
Posted Dec 10, 2011
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1.0
Very Easy Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2011 in McLean, VA (took a day)
I had a 30 minute one on one interview that consisted mainly of me describing my previous work and education experience. There were no technical questions, but I was asked some questions about how Freddie Mac works and what they do. I thought the interview went very well especially since I previously completed an externship with Freddie Mac. I sent a thank you not to my interviewer, and have heard absolutely nothing since. No emails to tell me that I was not selected no phone calls, zero contact.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
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Modeling at Freddie Mac
Posted Nov 7, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 in McLean, VA (took 3 weeks)
HR person called me to schedule phone interview, and I had interview with one of the hiring manager one day after. He just wen over my resume and asked one technical question. It took me about 3 weeks to be invited for on-site interview.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
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Inappropriate?
Technology Analyst at Freddie Mac
Posted Nov 6, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2011 in McLean, VA (took 2 weeks)
I applied at my campus and was quickly followed up with an interview. The campus interview had very easy questions (What is SQL, what is an SLA) that anyone applying for the job would know. Also asked three easy behavioral questions. The interviewer was nice, the questions were softballs. Invited to McLean shortly afterwards.
The first night there was a meet and greet on campus. Everyone was thrown into a catered room for 2 hours and we got to talk to other applicants, interviewers, and current people in the rotational program. It was useful to get a little face time with the people who might be interviewing us the next day.
The whole "Freddie Day" thing was a little weird the next day. It's a ~6 hour day of presentations, interviews, and a short tour. So besides all the regular stuff you would expect in an interview like this, there was an awkward presentation about why Freddie Mac wasn't responsible for the mortgage crisis with some data to make FM look like the best of the industry. I'm not saying they're a bad company or caused anything, but you know the point of your discount vacation where you realize you're going to be trapped in a room while someone tries to sell you a timeshare? It felt like that.
There were two 40-minute interviews with two different groups (one full-timer interviewing, one rotational program guy taking notes). The questions are read off a script, so don't expect a natural back and forth. I read that this system felt unfair because the reviewers had different standards. I shrugged this off thinking "How bad could it be?". My two interviews were polar opposites. My first interview went extremely well. It was conversational and relaxed. I was asked some standard team experience questions, some behavioral questions, and simple situations. I had a couple more relatively softball IT questions too. It was mostly related to previous projects I had worked on.
The second interview was garbage. I was put with an older guy with an accent (I'm bad with accents). It was clear he had never looked over the interview questions, he even seemed surprised at what kind of questions they were. This interview was entirely technical and project management based. There were questions about software/system testing, use cases, the different UML diagrams, OOP, databases, XML and risk management. Every time I got a question partially wrong or said I didn't have experience with something led into a short lecture about just how wrong I was. The rotational employee taking notes was silent the whole interview. It's not that the questions were difficult, it's just that I felt like I was constantly being grilled and even correct answers didn't make him happy.
Speaking with the other applicants outside, it was obviously a mixed bag. Some people had interviewers they just couldn't understand, others had completely friendly ones that would push you in the right direction if you were struggling with a question. Probably worth mentioning, we were told the interviews were strictly behavioral and there were probably 80% technical. Also, the group of applicants was incredibly diverse. There were strict computer science and engineering majors to IT, IS, MIS majors and everything in between. Even people did relatively well in the interviews didn't feel the questions really accurately gauged how well you fit the job (But what do we know?).
Following the interviews we got a short tour of the campus. The tour guide was very blunt and told us how it was at FM (mixed bag with managers, current pay freeze, employee apathy), thinking we were newhires and not applicants. He called FM an "OK place to work", which is the feeling I got from most other people I spoke with. Even at a panel earlier, a girl in the rotational program spoke about how she worked 60 weeks and appeared to almost fall asleep as she spoke. This is a person HR chose to sell the company to us! I wouldn't say I had a bad impression of FM, but I didn't get the impression that employees were especially devoted.
This would have been a difficult interview to prepare for considering the breadth of information covered by all areas of all rotations from business continuity planning to security analysis. Only a couple of those areas are actually explored in the interview, which is lucky or unlucky for you depending on what your personal functional expertise is. Know your information systems basics (use cases, SDLC, UML diagrams). Know a little bit about databases (vendors, tuning, schema). Know OOP basics (objects, abstract classes, pointers). Know about software testing tools and methods. Have a PROJECT to talk about. Work experience seemed completely irrelevant unless you had a project from inception to delivery; don't expect to talk much about your sysadmin or technical writing job. Cross your fingers and hope for good interviewers. Failing that, at least enjoy some free food while you're over there.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Technology Analyst at Freddie Mac
Posted Oct 16, 2011
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 in McLean, VA (took a day)
I got the interview through career services. Freddie Mac emailed me asking to sign up for an interview. The first part was easy just behavioral and about experience. The second part was all technical questions. They had a list of technical questions if you said you were experienced with a coding language they made you write it on the write board in the interview room. It was very intimidating.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.
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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Operations Manager at Freddie Mac
Posted Oct 11, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2011 in McLean, VA (took 1 week)
I was an internal candidate. The process for externals is significantly different; but on the whole I would commend my company for their ability to identify, harness, and promote internal talent.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
N/A
Other Details
I applied In-Person and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Personality Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Pricing/Costing Associate at Freddie Mac
Posted Jul 11, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jun 2011 in McLean, VA (took 2 months)
People who work there are very nice. However, the interaction between the team and HR was very unsmooth and I had to wait for a long time to hear back. I did a phone interview with a hiring manager, and was invited to the on-site interview. I met 7 people in the costing team, 30 mins for each person, and went to a lunch with the hiring manager for the last. I got a call back from HR on the next day that I was invited to the next round. The next interview was with pricing team members and I had to have another phone interview with a person who couldn't be there on the interview day. This whole process took about a month or two but I just found out that I was not selected for the position.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Director at Freddie Mac
Posted May 13, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Apr 2011 in McLean, VA (took 2 weeks)
Received an email from HR Rep regarding a job that I applied to, in order to set up phone interview. Commnication was very good at the beggining. During phone interview it was going well until I was asked about a term that from my previous industry we didn't use. I asked the recruiter to explain the term, because there may be a good chance that in my former industry we call it something different. Response was "I don't know what it means, they just told me to ask you about it." At this point I realized I was doomed. I was informed that I would hear something by the start of the next week. After the call, I did some research on the term how Freddie Mac uses it, compared to my former industry and as a result I sent an email to the HR Rep explaining my findings as well as a thank you. The email was recieved and read (thanks to the return receipt), but no response.
Now its the day of when I should be hearing back from HR Rep, but no call or email. I wait till the next day and send an email to inquire, once again my email is opened but no response. A week later, I get a automated message stating the position has been filled. Very unprofessional way for a HR Rep to handle a potential employee. I can handle the rejection, its just that as "job seekers" I guess that we put to much trust into the professionalism of others.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Intern at Freddie Mac
Posted Apr 22, 2011
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2011 in McLean, VA (took 5 days)
Regular phone interview. They asked me some behavioral questions, as well as technical questions. I was applying for an IT position, so they asked questions about programming in general. If you could not answer the questions, then the job is not probably for you.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
No negotiation.
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
More Freddie Mac Intern Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Manager Financial Analysis at Freddie Mac
Posted Mar 28, 2011
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2010 in McLean, VA (took 2 weeks)
Received call from HR, phoine interview, then 1:1, then submitted a writing sample. Received call from HR offering position. Alll this took about two weeks or there about.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
Ask for more then offered, they went up some because my education and experience exceeded job req. MY advice, understand that what they quote you on intiail call from HR is pretty firm, may get more if really impress hiring manager and execeed job reqs. but not typical.
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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