I was contacted through a recruiter for the position. On their website they had a posted position but throughout the process the recruiter kept saying the interview was purely a talent search opportunity.
I initially had a telephone interview with two professionals from different technical departments, none from HR. The interview was easy, purely behavioral based and questions about my past work history.
After a couple of weeks they set up an onsite, all day visit with two more interviews & a plant tour. Started with breakfast, then a meeting with HR. The HR manager was on vacation so the union representative filled his roll. The beginning was fine, but then he kept repeating himself over and over on how high up in the company the people interviewing me are. Once, twice, fine... but 20+ times was both annoying and it made me unnecessarily nervous. Honestly, I hadn't had an in person interview for years so I was already a bit nervous for them, but him stressing how important these people interviewing me are didn't help!
The first interview was with two technical people which was easy. Again, behavioral based and asking about past work history. The second interview was designed for front end 'team leaders' as they called the position (foreman in my industry). I found the second interview difficult as it was with the top person in the company and had a mock scenario which I wasn't expecting. It also had questions on why I like being a - foreman - which I have experience for... but again... I wasn't applying for a supervisory roll, that I was aware of?
My main complaint was there were no clarification on what I was even being interviewed for during the entire process. Was it engineering, projects, team leader? I have no idea! I couldn't even answer the people I was meeting on site when they asked me which position I was going for. I know I was very clear that I wanted to go the projects route but I'm certain that the team leader interview was were I didn't interview well.