I found the position on Monster.com. I submitted an application and received an email from the hiring manager the following week. We set up an interview over email and I went into the company’s office and had three 1-on-1 interviews – one with each member of the team I would be joining. The first interview was a bit strange, as the interviewer seemed far more nervous than I was. This person did not ask any difficult questions. They more wanted to know about some specifics of the duties of my previous job. They also asked me to provide three words to describe myself and they asked me how I would deal with a conflict with a co-worker when one arose. The second person who interviewed me was a junior member of the team and it was clear that this person had never interviewed anybody in their life. No questions about industry knowledge or experience. It was more like me interviewing them. However, they did provide better responses to my questions regarding the position than the first interviewer and I was able to understand the job a little better. The third interview was with the department head. While I expected this to be the most intimidating interview, it was actually the most comfortable. The person was far more comfortable interviewing me than the first two people and the conversation was a bit less formal. This person was most focused on trying to figure out what kind of person I was and to make sure that our personalities would mesh.
While the office environment seemed like it could be a bit stuffy, the people seemed genuinely very nice and unintimidating, which was important to me. I tried to just be professional self and it paid off.