Was asked to participate in the initial Hirevue Webcam Interview. It seems to me to be nothing more than a screen test. A quick way to eliminate people based on superficial traits without wasting the time of anyone at the company. I can think of no other purpose for it. And here is a question I would have for any company doing this. Would you put your best sales person in front of a camera and have them answer canned questions about your services or products in an attempt to sell them?
If the answer is no, how would they expect candidates to sell themselves using such a format? It's the same thing.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What makes you interested in this role and Mercer?
I applied online. I interviewed at Mercer (Norwood, MA)
Interview
Step 1: Online video interview. It was a skype-esque setup in a location of my choosing (I was just in my bedroom, dressed up of course) and I log into a server where a question would appear and then give me 30 seconds to prepare, and then the video answer would begin to record. I would press a finish option on the screen when I was done with the interview.
Step 2: I was invited for an in person interview with three rounds of people. It began with 3 people of assorted hierarchies within the department I was interviewing for, then 2 more people, and then a third wave of 2 interviewers that were closer to recent college grads and a younger crowd.
Note:
I applied for several positions with similar sounding titles and wasnt even sure what the position was when I interviewed. I also didn't do as in depth of a check on the people interviewing me.
Tips to people interviewing here or anywhereL
-bust out the pen and pad
-take the time before hand to review what the position youre going to be interviewing for and the company itself. its ok to not be perfectly knowledgable of the position or company as they wouldnt expect a college grad to know exactly what the position entails, but the more you know about the company and at least what the position deals with the better it looks.
-take the time to go through linkedin and some google searches to find out about your interviewers. they tell you their names on purpose to instigate this kind of behavior. in my experience, i found it helpful to write out the names, schools and titles of each person and then some other noteworthy topics. once you bring up that one little random thing about them, or ask them how they got into that first job they had listed on linkedin, thats a good sign that you came prepared.
I am now employed, however I regret that when interviewing for Mercer I wasnt as prepared. Who knows what my future would have been had I been prepared! Do your homework!
The interview process was pretty easy in the beginning. I had a phone interview with a recruiter. Then about a week later, I was called in for an in-person interview. The in-person interview lasted about one hour and a half. I met with a total of 6 supervisors. After the in-person interview, it took almost a month to hear back and receive an offer. The recruiter did not keep in touch after a verbal offer was made. I had to keep reaching out to him for updates, because he would never reach out to me after the verbal offer was made. I started almost 2 months after my in-person interview, so the process can take a very long time.