Phone interview with HR, then had another phone interview with the hiring manager. Interview went well -- a few hours later, I was sent a long survey with questions about MS project. The questions were very detailed and most would be very tough to answer if you don't have access to Project (in other words, I had to do this survey while I was at work, on my work computer. If you are currently unemployed, and don't have a copy of MS project on your personal computer, good luck! You can, however, Google the answers of course. Perhaps they still think it's 1995....
They gave me only 24 hours to complete this. I thought that was pretty unreasonable but I still filled it out.
I passed their MS project "test" and was invited to an in person interview.
I met with 6 people and the interview lasted almost 4 hours. It was exhausting.
I kept getting asked very specific, detailed questions about MS project. The questions were so detailed that it's tough to answer questions like that without sitting in front of a computer. "How do you access this function in project?" "
What the heck? I felt like I shouldve studied a book on Project before this interview.
As I was in the interview, I realized that they were looking for a MS Project expert. That, I am not. I use it but I am no expert. I knew this wasn't the role for me. I'm a PM. In my 10 years experience, I've never had a project succeed because of my knowledge (or lack thereof) of a software tool; it succeeded (or failed) because of a human element -- in other words, being a good PM really relies on your soft skills.
They don't want soft skills in their PMs in TOS (that's the bank's IT Dept). They want hard skills in MS project, Clairty, etc. Those seasoned soft skills you have with negotiating with stakeholders and working with SMEs goes out the window here; but if you can access some obscure function in Project, you're golden.
After my interview, I felt exhausted. I didn't want to work for this group -- it seemed like a tough group to work for (not to mention that they told me the reason this position is open is becuae the previous person didn't make it past her 90 day review. Yikes.
After alllll of this hullabaloo, silence. I didn't get even an email saying thanks but no. Nothing! How incredibly unprofessional! I took an entire vacation day from my current job to go through a 4 hour grilling session, plus a long survey and they couldn't even bother to send a rejection email.
In hindsight, I was talking to an acquaintance and she said that working in Us Bank's TOS (IT) as a project manager is a very very tough environment and many don't last long. Good to know.
Despite all this, I really feel bad about writing a negative interview review for US Bank as I really respect this company.