Things start off with a decent dinner at a decent restaurant the night before you get to the real interview process. The current employees will likely be no older than their early to mid thirties. One of the CSX people will be substantially senior to the others. Your meal will be mostly uneventful. Ask a few questions to keep the attention of your hosts (obviously). If you put effort into it you can likely get them to divulge some info on the next day's festivities (our group did).
Face to face interviews the next day are completely run of the mill. Nothing I could say would make a difference there.
During the case presentation someone from the dinner will likely show up along with the most senior person you'll have run into at this point. It's likely that their opinion of your presentation carries more weight than anyone else observing.
I challenged the implicit assumptions in the case material. Many of them were unreasonable, bordering on absurd. The most senior fellow did not seem to like that at all.
Summary:
None of the questions are difficult. You will not be able to differentiate yourself from your competition by use of technical skills. If you can build a cash flow model and discount the flows you have nothing to worry about on that end. You just have to be more likeable or strike their fancy.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
None of the questions in any portion of the interview process are difficult.
I applied through college or university. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at CSX (Jacksonville, FL) in Oct 2014
Interview
The interviewers were extremely nice and professional in their approach. All interviews were conducted 1 on 1 except for the case presentation. We were treated to dinner the night before the interviews, and were also treated to lunch the day of. Overall a great company presentation that knows how to recruit the best.
I applied through college or university. I interviewed at CSX
Interview
CSX approaches their interview process extremely early, even for internships. I had an interview in late August and received an invitation to the final round interviews in early November. My interview was pretty casual and very open, and I took that to be a positive reflection on the culture of the company as a whole.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
If you had $2million to spend on a project, how would you go about deciding whether to add new locomotives to our fleet versus building out new track to a new line of business?
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at CSX in Oct 2013
Interview
Apply -> finance test online -> phone interview. The whole process was really laid back but when it came to the end of the phone interview they asked a question hat really threw me off guard. Then I got an email saying although I'm really impressive we don't wanna move on
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
If there were two airlines that were merging what factors would you consider?