Interview for Operations Associate
Phone Interview: Questions like why do you want to leave your current role and Why did you go to College? They are really looking to see if you are reflective about decisions you have made and are making. Be prepared to answer why you thinking about something correctly. They love it when you admit error in your decisions and take-a-ways.
Blitz on Friday:
Round 1. Group Discussion: Sat in room with other candidates and discussed 4 prompts: Should the Penny be dissolved, Should people be able to sell their organs on an open market, Political campaign funds should be restricted, there should be a cap on professional ball player's salaries.
Moderators are looking for: short reflective responses in the dialogue. It is ok that you don't know the answer to a question but important that you try to think about it in different ways. If you come up with creative solutions to problems from the stimulus, the moderator(s) will say that it is out of scope, but it will not go un-noticed.
Round 2. Scenario: Asked to explain how I would prepare lunch for 50 people with fries and a salad. Asked to provide a list of ingredients, expected time needed, and work flow process.
Moderators are looking for an ideal work flow process. What gets the job done quickest and easiest. If you get the most efficient answer from the start, come up with ways to improve the question. They may ask you if you thought the question is a good indicator of anything. Yes, it is.
Round 3. One-on One with manager.
Moderator: Very similar to Phone interview. Why do you want to leave your current role, why the college, why BW, what are you passions. They are looking for a personality and culture fit here at this point.
Round 4: One-on-One with Head Manager
At this point my interview broke. I gave feedback on how round 3 went and that the role that I was interested seemed too entry level, through no fault of my own or my recruiter. Manager was understanding and gave me good feedback.
Two Weeks Later- Interview for Control Analyst
Round 5. One-on-one with Manager
Review of Resume. Manager didn’t like that resume didn’t include full job history. Seemed to think this was distasteful. Asked again what passions where and answer: strong academic interests in dramatic literature. I explained many of the career/academic decisions I had made as “practical.”
Round 6. One-on-one with 2nd Manager
Review of Resume. Similar to round 6.
Feedback from BW to recruiter: We are going to pass on candidate because his real passions are dramatic literature.
Takeaways: BW prides itself in its attempts to be frank and truthful in the workplace, which is incredible siren call. Each interview felt like a get-to-know-you session which was refreshing (coming from an environment where you are all but asked to hold your tongue) so I felt relaxed and carefree – all while being challenged to provide non-surface explanations. Thrilling. Mind Opening. But when I was asked what my passions where and answered dramatic literature (“DL”), I should have asked them what that question meant to them and its significance. I dropped the ball and should have challenged them. Had I asked I might have learned how the question was weighed and analyzed in a way that distorts the intention of the very question. The distortion: If BW eliminates a candidate because their passion is DL then the assumption is that the optimal passion is Operations/Whatever role you are applying for. The framework here is that we don’t want to hire people who aren’t passionate about their jobs. BW’s position, in the extreme, is that you aren’t the right candidate if you aren’t 100% passionate about the role.
The correction: Passion is a sufficient but not necessary requirement for excellence, both personal and professional. Maybe it is my wrong view of the world but personal and professional passions rarely overlap except in the case of entrepreneurial, creative, or academic pursuits, and that most people take jobs and careers out of qualified interest, not passion. If passion is made a necessary requirement for a role, the role and the company ultimately suffers. A compartmentalized individual, with few varied and multi-faceted interests/passions, is less likely to bring new insights and developments to a role and a company. That person is just there to do a job- that is not what I believe BW wanted to imply.
Seeing how BW has no entry on passions, in the 123 pages of Principles laid out by Ray Dalio, I am informally submitting a 211th Principle:
211. Passions make people interesting. Not everyone should be the same-that would be frightening. Unique and diversified passions make communities strong.
So to a BW candidate, be honest about your passions then tied them to the role considered. Had I done that I think I would have got an offer, but at the time didn't think such an explanation was necessary.