Started with an interview at my university, then got invited for a final round, on-site interview in Peoria. I had to call their travel agency to choose my own dates of travel (all covered by CAT).
You will get paired up with a host, an employee who has nothing to do with you getting hired or not. He took me and another candidate out to dinner the night I flew in. The next morning was interview day.
We get to one of their many buildings in Peoria (not HQ), and sit in on a briefing about the company and what they do. This was self-explanatory. A couple of the hosts got to share their experiences in the entry-level leadership development program.
Then it was on to three hours of interviews. All STARs questions. 3 hours. of STARs. I didn't think they made that many textbook, cookie-cutter questions, but apparently they do. You will get sick of answering them; I did. I like to think of myself as an overachiever, as if I've accomplished a lot outside of just schoolwork in my time at university. It seemed as if none of this really impressed them. I got a VERY old-school vibe from a lot of them.
First interviewer, engine guy. Old school guy, was asking somewhat dumb questions about previous projects (i.e. have I ever used 3D printing, which is pretty standard now). Could tell he knew a lot about diesel engines, not much else. Managerial level.
Second interviewer didn't even start with an intro, just fired away at STARs questions on his piece of paper. He asked if I had any questions at the end, to which I had to reply, "what do you do?" He was surprised he forgot to do introductions. Managerial level.
Third and final interviewer finally strayed a bit from the STARs questions, wanted to see if I would be a good fit for the company/Peoria. He was my favorite interviewer, and he asked the unexpected question below. I think after talking to him, he and I both realized I may not be a good fit for the company. Managerial level.
Throughout the interview process there were snacks and a 10 minute break between each interview.
Afterwards, they had "goodie bags" for us, a sling backpack with some pens/foam tractor/notebook/ etc... Then it was off to lunch at the cafeteria at CAT. All I'll say is, try to eat a large breakfast; lunch was not very good there.
Over lunch I realized that we weren't actually seeing any of the awesome development that CAT does, but instead seeing the things we were "allowed" to see. This frustrated me, because I wanted to see all that the company had to offer.
After lunch there was a presentation about benefits, followed by a trip to the tractor assembly plant down the road. We took a tour, it was okay; just assembling pretty big machinery. By assembling, I mean it was just blue collar workers bolting parts on; no parts were being manufactured/tested/autonomously assembled here. Wasn't actually cool until we saw one of them driving around. The tour was way longer than it needed/was scheduled to be (they showed us where/how new line workers get trained...), and I nearly missed my flight home because of that.
Overall okay experience, STARs questions got tedious. Would have liked to have seen more of the amazing development this company does, but instead only saw an assembly line which wasn't very active.
