Got a phone call about a interview. Interview was scheduled 2 weeks later via Teams. It was with one HR rep, 2 Project managers. It was based around situational questions, I was told to answer using the STAR technique. Both interviews were EXTREMELY robotic. I’ve never been in a interview situation where the interviewers don’t take time to get to know the interviewee. It was straight into the situational questions and that’s it. I dont think this was the interviewers fault as they are just following the company protocol but it really made it hard to have any genuine conversation. Probably the most backwards interview process I’ve ever been in and I’ve had over 10/15 interviews throughout the last 5 years. I’m glad I didn’t get this role in the end as it shows what the organisation are like.

I applied online and received invitation for interview within about 4 weeks, whole process took about 6 weeks to the interview date. Interview took place at HS2 HQ in Birmingham and was a competency based interview led by a Senior Project Manager, a Project Manager, and a member of the HR dept. Daunting as I'm no good in interviews. The HR rep gave me a run down of the interview process then the Senior PM explained in detail about the whole project and the role I was being interviewed for which was interesting and delivered exceptionally. After this introduction it was my turn, and at this point it all went a bit wrong (from my prospective) as basically I just crumbled. This was the first time I have been in a competency based interview which I knew it was going to be because I'd done my research, but I think a combination of nerves and probably to much research meant I'd filled my head with lot of pointless info and suffered brain freeze once I was asked a question, confidence left me at this point and I didn't really give a good account myself. Both the Senior PM and the PM who were asking the questions could obviously see at some points I was struggling and showed great humility in keeping the conversation flowing and teasing things out of me with respect to my experience, their professionalism in the situation was commendable. I did ask HR prior to the interview if they would like me to deliver a presentation of the kind of projects I am involved with, they declined as they said competency based interviews will be used to determine my suitability for the role. In hindsight I wish I'd took the presentation with me as a fall back option. I am from a completely different industry and both interviewers showed interest when I spoke about it, I think probably realised I was more comfortable talking about that than trying to relate it to the role I was being interviewed for, the presentation would have possibly helped me to give a better account of myself. Needless to say I didn't get an offer, I'd have been more surprised if I did. Even though I crumbled I rate the overall experience a positive one because the people interviewing me were nice, showed exceptional professionalism and showed genuine interest in my experience. I'll go away and try to gain a bit more experience and hopefully come back.