Shaw Communications Interview Questions & Reviews in Vancouver, BC Area

Interviewed Feb 2009 in Vancouver, BC (Canada) (took 1 week)

Initially I applied for the position online, I then was left a voicemail message about the career fair. I printed out the same information used online and then brought it with me to the career fair. There was well over 200 people waiting in the lobby. After a few hours went by, myself and the next few people in line were taken by elevator to another floor, and asked to fill out a one page application. The application was then held onto and I waited in another line for 1:1 interviews.

Interviewees in line were asked again when they were brought to the front of the line which job they were applying for and had to wait to be interviewed by someone from that department. Up to this point, other than the wait, things were very professional.

So the first interview was with someone from the department selected on the application. Several questions were asked which are typical of call centers, mainly regarding availability and scheduling. In addition some job specific questions in which a scenario was presented were asked (in my opinion to check that you know what you are interviewing for.)

The first interview concluded, felt somewhat rushed, but justified in the amount of people interviewing (about 5 minutes per person), I was then scheduled for a second interview.

The second interview was for the following week. The second interview was somewhat more stress inducing, as it also felt rushed, but was significantly longer. Two employees (management or supervisory staff for the department) performed the interview. The types of questions asked were the same questions also asked by other call centers in the area in regards to "what would you do in this situation" and "tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer". They were professional, however the lack of writing very little down suggested that a decision had already been made and the interview was shortened.

I was then taken over to a computer with a test in which was presented as multiple choice. The questions on the test were somewhat out of date, but otherwise was too easy. Some questions were worded in a way that could suggest that all answers were incorrect. eg "Which do you NOT need to use Shaw Internet" of which the answers were "Ethernet cable, coaxial cable, A PC or Mac, Cable Modem" , As Shaw doesn't sell wireless enabled cable modems and some Shaw customers still use the pre-DOCSIS Teryon cable modems, all the answers were incorrect from the information provided. A DOCSIS cable modem model would have a USB port, customers can use WiFi enabled devices by Wifi or Ethernet.

After I left, I received an email as follows a month later:

"Thank you for your interest in Shaw and for your application.
We have carefully considered your application and at this time we are pursuing candidates whose qualifications more closely match our selection criteria.

Your profile will continue to reside in our database and we encourage you to update it regularly. Should we require someone with your qualifications in the near future, your application would be considered at that time.

Thank you again for your interest in Shaw. We wish you success in your future career goals.

Please note that this email address does not accept incoming emails. Please do not respond to this email."

The subject line of the email was for a different position than I had applied for, but otherwise this email has the same language as a competitor does. The questions asked during the second interview were consistent with that competitor as well, which suggests the same interview workflow was in use.

The positions applied for were reposted to the career section of the shaw.ca website, which suggests that the email is the generic "no offer" email, regardless of the reason.