I applied through college or university. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at CIBC (Toronto, ON) in Nov 2013
Interview
Applied October 2013 and was interviewed two weeks later at the CIBC office in Toronto. Interview was 30 minutes long and I was asked mostly behavioural questions. I was asked about school achievements, short and long term goals
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me a time when you were a part of a team and you did something to help the team achieve success
I applied through college or university. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at CIBC (Toronto, ON) in Nov 2020
Interview
I was invited for 3 phone interviews with three departments in CIBC. I never considered applying to CIBC before. I always applied to RBC or TD. But I ran into 2 employees of the bank in a virtual networking event and they told me good things about the bank. So I decided to apply and I was fortunate to get invited to not one but three Co-op interviews. I had a very pleasant experience with the first interviewer (hiring manager). She was very open, professional, and respectful. At the end of the interview, she told me what the next steps could look like.
On the other hand, the second interview started off bad from the get go. In the call, I was met with the hiring manager and her colleague. The collegue called me by the wrong name(seriously? this was not ok). I brushed this off but I could tell the hiring manager was not happy/interested to be doing the interview. Her colleague started to speak in length (almost 15 minutes) about the position (mind you this is a 30-minutes interview). When that was over, the hiring manager asked me 2 meager questions (the questions below) and that was it. She told me we are out of time and I should expect to hear from them tomorrow. I knew something was off. I received her call the next day and she told me "Unfortunately, the position was given to someone else". Well, no surprise there. I knew I was being interviewed for a position that was filled when she told me they will male a decision the next day about who to hire for the position. One day is enough to perform analysis on candidates for the position? I stayed professional on both calls and thanked her for her time. But the experience left me fuming because they were unprofessional and I felt like I was belittled. Even if I was given the position, I was never going to accept the offer (even though the position aligned well with my experience and education) because it would mean I would have to work with someone who most likely seems like a Theory-X manager.
Why I am writing this?
1) I have a v good job and I am not desperately looking for opportunities. But, I worked in a bank before coming to Canada and it was my plan to join one of the big banks after graduating from school and to eventually see whether it was a place for me to stay. Reputation is everything, I hope the bank takes a second look at how this can be prevented in the future.
2) For anyone who has been invited to a CIBC interview and came here to see reviews, a single incident does not define the bank. But I do encourage you to ask questions as much as possible to make sure a) it is worth spending your time to prepare for the interview and b) Is that a manager I see my self working for?