For my current job I was first contacted by a head-hunter and did a phone interview with him. Then I was put in contact with someone in charge of hiring and did a phone interview with him. Then I was put in contact with my potential department manager and did a phone interview with him.
In the meantime I was contacted by another head-hunter working for a vendor that worked for the the company I was already interviewing with, and I did a phone interview with the site manager, then met him at a hotel for a one-on-one interview. I was extended a job offer from them that I waited to accept.
Then I was contacted by another head-hunter working for a different vendor that worked for the copmpany I was interviewing with. I never got an interview with them, guess the head-hunter wasnt impressed.
Finally, I went to a dinner the night before my interview where several dept. managers took turns telling us how great the company we might work for was going to be. They had us sitting at tables mixed with potential employees and dept managers.
The next day I had 4 interviews. The first was with a kid working in HR who asked a lot of questions about how I deal with conflict. the answer to these questions (at least the ones I gave) were that communication is the key. First I talk with the person I'm having a problem with in order to help them understand what my issue is. If that doesn't work I talk to my most immediate supervisor and let them know what is going on. I said that I would normally expect that to be the end of it, but that if my supervisor was unable or unwilling to solve the problem and he hadn't passed it up the chain that I would contact the next person in line and let them know what the situation was. If working with my own dept to solve the problem didn't work I would contact HR. That seemed to be the ticket. I was asked about difficult work situations in the past and how I handled them. I was asked about hypothetical situations and how I would handle them. Another about working for a difficult boss. Turns out communication and mutual understanding is almost always the right answer. Except when safety is an issue, then you can't yell loud enough or fast enough to anyone in the comapany to put a stop to the safety concern.
Then I had my technical interview with my potential dept manager and two other dept managers. They asked technical questions about the field I work in and verified my qualifications. I had to solve a few puzzles/logic questions. They wanted to verify that what I had stated was my previous income was correct, so I showed them my paystubs.
Then I had to meet with the site manager, but this was very breif, as I suspect he just had to sign off on all new hires and wanted to at least see them face to face before doing so.
Then I had to submit a urine sample for a surprise drug test.
Then I met with the hiring manager who actually asked a few questions about my expectations and my impression so far. A few of those and he gave me a written offer. I think they were interested in verifying my previous pay because it was slightly higher than their standard offer, so they upped the offer to match. Other people who came out of the military were not asked to prove their pay. I think mine was differnt because I lived in San Diego and got a pretty hefty housing allowance from the Navy. Aslo, I had been promoted quickly and was a rank higher than a lot of people only serving one enlistment. I accepted the offer on the spot.
I don't think it hurt that my potential dept. manager graduated from BYU and my name is strikingly similar to the person the college was named after. He didn't need to know that my ideology is radically different.
All that for a silly little high school drop-out like me? Take that, Mr. Fredrickson!
I've had over 20 jobs in my life and I can't remember once interviewing face to face and not getting the job. Altough Select Comfort and NPS offerd me lesser jobs than I had applied for. In both cases I took the lesser job, but quit within a month.
