I showed up at the appointed place and time and they gave me a list of the questions they were going to ask me during the interview. I then got exactly 15 minutes with the questions to formulate answers. Several of them were multi-part questions where the parts were sometimes related and sometimes not. Then I was escorted to a room with a three person interview panel. The same three people interviewed every candidate. After introductions and a couple of disclaimers, they read me the first question. Then I talked. And when I finished talking, they read me the next question. And once again, when I finished talking, they read me the next question and so on. There was absolutely no feedback. No followup questions, no clarifications, no stopping me if they had had enough examples. They said nothing. They just waited for me to finish talking and then they read the next question on the list. While I was talking, they were taking notes. I found it unnerving and unnatural.
When the panel finished with the list of questions, they asked if I had any questions. I asked about the procedures after the interview, how many jobs, how many interviewees, etc. The panel either didn't know the answers or were not allowed to give out the information to any of those questions.
And then I was done.
From talking to coworkers, who have been through the process before, supposedly there is a score sheet where they tally how well you answered the questions. If you left out a part of a question, you would get no points for that. So if you didn't answer the questions exactly, it would be possible to be well qualified but not do well on the tally sheet. After the points are tallied, the panel breaks any ties.
So how did I do? I've had no feedback one way or another, so I have no idea. But I tried. Now onto something else.
