The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Diageo (Baltimore, MD) in Aug 2009
Interview
I initially applied for the position after seeing it posted on Careerbuilder.com. I was contacted several days later by one of the Talent Recruiters who conducted an initial phone interview with me. A lot of that interview consisted of me describing my past work experience since I came from a military background. The were some questions about working in teams and technical acumen. Mostly she was concerned with assessing my leadership ability.
The recruiter then put me in touch with the HR Director who conducted a brief phone interview with me as well. This interview was very similar and also touched on Root Cause Analysis skills and experience.
The meat of the entire process was a day long open house at the facility. During this event, those of us that were invited were given a tour of the facility. We had to prepare and give a presentation on change management, participate in an individual and group root cause analysis exercise, and finally sit through two seperate 1:1 interviews. At the end of the open house they even had a social hour and cocktails.
I was invited back after the open house to meet with the Plant Vice President in what seemed mostly like an informal interview. I was made an offer at the interview which I accepted several days later
My perception of the company is that they are very people oriented and they want to make sure that you as a manager are not only concerned with results but how those results are achieved. They are very into positive motivation and team building and as a multi-national company they value diversity. My suggestions are to not focus to much on your experience and focus mainly on demonstrating your leadership potential. Make sure you prepare adequately if you are asked to attend an open house and make a point to be sociable with everyone you meet. Remember this is a company that make and distribute premium spirits. If you aren't comfortable socializing, you should work at a cardboard box factory.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What kind of experience have you had bringing about cultural change in any of your previous jobs.
The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Diageo (Plainfield, IL) in Oct 2011
Interview
It is hard to get an interview in the first place. I only finally got a chance because I knew someone there. The interview started off with a call to go into a third party testing center to take a proficiency exam (was not too hard). A week later I received a call to come in for an interview which consisted of three people and took about 45 minutes.