After applying online for the position I received a call from the Boston HR office and had a very informal phone interview (the lady was super nice), after which I was told Chicago HR would contact me to schedule an in-person interview. I received an email one week later scheduling my group interview session that was to consist of four people at a half hour each. Upon arriving the other candidates were sitting in the waiting room, which was a slightly awkward moment. I was informed at that point that one of the people I was supposed to meet with wouldnt be able to make it. This was unfortunate because the interview schedule was traditional-case-case-traditional, so I missed out on an opportunity to let my traditional interview skills shine again and lost the chance to have another good impression that could have pushed me over the top. I was thrown off guard by the case-study questions. In all honesty I think they were ridiculous. They were as follows: 1) If there are two small bookstores in the mall and a large company purchases them both, should you close one or keep them both open? 2) Sell me this stapler (this was stupid, awkward, and in my opinion unfair as I was not attempting to get a job involving sales). 3) How many lightbulbs are in Chicago? (another stupid question that is truly unfair) 4) A credit card company tests a direct-mail campaign by sending red envelopes to 100 people and blue envelopes to 100 people (random samples). Assuming the red envelopes resulted in 1 person signing up and the blue envelopes resutled in 2 people signing up, how would you advise the client to proceed with the campaign? I left the interview feeling I did OK, but received a call exactly one week later politely informing me that I wasnt the right fit. Bummer!

Phone screen with a specific recruiter was probably the most uncomfortable experience I've ever had. The conversation went left from the beginning, it just felt like there was little interest in the work I had done and a lot of bias based on an earlier scheduling mixup we had earlier in the day. I think recruiters are often the first line of introduction to your company and this recruiter definitely didn't make feel like I wanted to work there.