The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Geographic Expeditions (San Francisco, CA) in May 2018
Interview
I applied via Indeed.com. It had typical screening questions and asked for a minimum of 2 years of administrative work and 1 year of international travel. I submitted a cover letter as well. I received an email 4 days later asking to set up a time for an interview at their office in the Presidio. The salary and benefits were also outlined to ensure I was still interested. I was also sent an email describing how to find their office as it is a bit tricky. I arrived early and was able to find the entrance to their building. If you’re looking at the main Tides building on Torney Ave (where the cafe is at) it’s out and around on the left side where there is a large parking lot. The interview was held on-on-one in a small conference room. The office is nicely decorated with objects from around the world and consists of a long hallway with rooms on each side. I was told it had been a hospital before, which made sense from the layout. Towards the end of he long hallway was an open office area with computers and desks. Very airy and well-lit with natural light. The Presidio is beautiful and green and the building is white with many windows. It feels welcoming. The interview was enjoyable and deep. The questions were thought-provoking and asked me to reflect my experience and past as well as future goals. We even discussed my master’s thesis from 12 years ago! It was almost like a conversation about my professional hopes and dreams. Afterwards, I was asked to complete some tasks via email, including writing a customer service email answering a prompt, replicating a document including format, answering some math questions, and reading a 16-page brochure for a trip and answering several questions. The tasks took a few hours in total. It was overall an enjoyable experience. It felt very respectful and open.
The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Geographic Expeditions in Apr 2012
Interview
All communication prior to the interview was done over email. I arrived late to my interview because I was lost in getting to the office in the Presidio. The interviewer was nice about it, though, and understood that it was a difficult place to get to. The interview was 1:1 and held in a very comfortable room I believe to be the waiting room they have their clients wait in. Questions very not tricky - What do you think GeoEx do? What experience do you have in dealing with customer service? etc. In addition, there was a lot of personality questions, which surprised me. They were questions like, what would your ideal job be? What 3 words would your previous supervisors describe you as? What do you imagine yourself doing in 10 years? What are your 3 passions?
I learned a lot about the company, but unfortunately, I was not the ideal candidate for the job. The company benefits look good though.