I applied on the company website, and interviewed within 2 weeks on September 1, 2015.
I've never quite experienced an interview like this before.. I got an email scheduling an interview about 2 weeks after applying. Upon arrival of the interview, it became apparent that this was not an ordinary interview.
I was directed down a hallway to an open door, upon entering, I was surprised to see about 50 other people, equally as dressed to impress, all sitting in rows of seats. As I was seated, and over the course of several minutes, a few more trickled in. Finally, the door closed behind the last person to enter.
From there, we were introduced to the Customer Care Director and the rest of the training staff. We were instructed to just mingle amongst ourselves and we would get started soon. However, they didn't move; they just stood there and watched us. So we began to mingle with eachother, and they just quietly observed, covering their mouths as they chatted with eachother.
After about 15 minutes, they went aisle by aisle and selected a group of people to be moved to another room, leaving around 30 of us in the room. From there, the Director told us we were selected to continue to the next part of the interview process.
From here, we were told this was a group-style interview that would last about an hour in total. Moving into this step, they passed out a paper with 5 different questions about yourself on it. We were instructed to fill them out and head to the conference room next door once we were done.
As instructed, we all filled them out and moved into the empty conference/training room. Once we were all in there, one of the trainers told us to mingle amongst ourselves and they'd be right with us. Except this time, there was no trainer in the room. It truly was just us applicants.
So we all started mingling again, and since there wasn't anyone from the company in the room, most people loosened up and actually started mingling. After about 15 more minutes, they came back into the room, and we were introduced to one of the "applicants" who turned out to be part of the training team.
From there, that person began selecting people from the group - at total of about 20 were selected. We were instructed to go back to the first room. We did as instructed, and went back and sat in our original spots.
They came back in after about 5 minutes, and let us know we were the finalist for this training class of 15 people. From here, each person was given an individual interview with someone on the training team.
The individual interview lasted a little bit, as they didn't really ask many work-related questions. They were trying to get to know me as a person, not my work history. From there, I was instructed to go back to the room and wait for the next step.
The final step was with the director herself. She pulled each of us individually and did a more in-depth interview related to work experience. From there, I was told that I was a final contender for the training class, and I would be contacted if I was moving forward.
The next Monday, approximately 4 days after the interview, I was contacted by the director and offered the position, to which I accepted!