This job interview was OK. We had a group project. We had to introduce ourselves and tell our "about me" speech in front of all the other applicants, which was awkward to say the least because you know you are competing with all of these people. The part that really caught me off guard most was being asked as my first personal interview question how I thought I did. I wasn't expecting that and hadn't really had time to process, so be aware of that during the group section. I will say their group project/interview is likely effective at pulling out how people actually behave in stressful group settings. I generally found that the interview with government employees went much smoother than that with current fellows. It seemed like the current fellows really grilled me. It's hard to judge from that short of a time, but after having interviewed somewhere else recently, it seemed like the fellows were pretty full of themselves.
Another odd part of the interview for me is that the website definitely talked a lot about looking for innovative thinkers, but the interview focused on lot on how you handle your ideas not being implemented. One really weird question I got was, tell me about a time your ideas weren't implemented and you turned it for good" or something like that. They also really wanted to know how I do when I am told to do something I don't agree with. I don't know, but it seemed to me like they wanted to hear that I would suck it up and do it without discussion. That's the vibe I got anyway.
There were several questions like that which were just worded oddly and I didn't have a true story I could share or wasn't quite sure what they were asking. Another weird one was, "how do people view you after meeting you in a professional setting?" What a dumb question....first of all, how would I know, and second of all, since I am not even out of college yet, I haven't exactly had a lot of big professional business meetings.
It seemed like they did the best they could to intimidate us and sort of weed us out. I just had an interview with a company yesterday that made me feel totally welcomed, spoke very transparently about the organization, etc., so that experience made me think less positively about the CHF interview process.
At the same time, the fellows had set up a fund to pay travel expenses for those who really needed it, and they seemed friendly enough during the "break section" when we weren't being interviewed. I would suggest bringing a LOT of questions for interviewers though, since the ones you prepared might get answered during the group portion.
I guess overall I would say it was just OK. It seemed like they made it overly stressful, making applicants switch between floors of the building for each interview, but maybe that's just the nature of the beast. I will say if I am offered a job at the other place I interviewed, I'll take it in part due to the fact that the way they tried to make it the least stressful as possible gives me more assurance about the company culture than I received from the CHF interview process. I still think this is a great program doing good work and an amazing opportunity to learn from high up people in city government. And honestly, I am glad I did the application process. I learned a ton from the interview and the application pushed me to get creative. Don't let my review stop you from applying. Just try and have fun and remember you'll end up wherever you are supposed to be!
They said they would notify us in a week but made us wait at least two. Even then, the answer for me was that I was waitlisted, as they have to verify their budget with city government before they can offer the full number of positions. The weird part is that they don't tell you how many others were waitlisted, just that not everyone who got an interview was and that we should know within a month. So, be prepared for that (i.e., you should probably keep applying elsewhere! That's what I did!).
Hope that helps!
