I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Experian (Nottingham, England) in May 2017
Interview
The process took 3 weeks. I applied online and was contacted by HR that asked several questions regarding my CV and qualifications. I was then invited to a face to face interview.
The interview was awful, cold and uncomfortable. I was interviewed by a Programme Director and Head of PMO. I felt the interview questions were unstructured, asking a lot of questions around their current issues on the Programme and felt there was a high expectation to have knowledge and insights of their current problems. Unless I have worked with this company before, it was difficult to actually know the exact issues they were current facing. When I tried to provide them an answer, they quickly pointed out I was wrong with my answer and proceed to tell me the correct answer. I found this quite strange and off-putting. I was also asked random questions that had no linked to the current discussions such as "Do you think PMO can make the decision to close down projects". I wanted to laugh at this point and was thinking, are you seriously asking me this?
On balance, because of how the interview was poorly conducted, I did not demonstrated enough examples as I just gave up as it was pretty obvious after 10 mins, I was not going to get the role. I did not bother following up with HR until I saw an agency advertising the role at a much lower salary than my expectations. HR confirmed I was unsuccessful via email but offered no feedback. I asked for feedback and was told "I did not demonstrate enough practical experience of working across multiple geographic locations or experience of working with IT Vendors". This was never specified in the job role as a specific requirement. If they did along with the low salary offering, I would have never applied. Waste of time.
I wanted to feedback and tell them to at least make the candidate feel at ease.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Do you think PMO have the authority to make decisions on closing a project.