The Interviews....Round 1

The next step was to interview with the English First company. Both of us were contacted by representatives from the company and interview times were scheduled to talk with the office in the UK. Ashlee’s interview was scheduled first and mine was to follow a week later (phew).

As luck would have it Ashlee got to conduct her interview in the car during our drive down the 101 to visit my parents in Avila Beach. This not so opportune location for the interview of course led to dropped calls and the fun of trying to get back in touch with someone thousands of miles away. I, of course, was spending more time listening to how Ashlee’s interview was going then on focusing on driving. I wanted to try and get a leg up on the interview in the hopes that I would know some of the questions they would ask. The interview seemed to go as most first round interviews go with any professional job with the usual barrage of questions.

-How did you hear of English First?
-Why are you interested in this position?
-Why have you chosen China over the other location options? (Which are Russia and Indonesia)

The interviewer also gave plenty of time for Ashlee to ask questions that she had about the program and what the next steps are if she was deemed a candidate for the job.

I was able to have my interview at my apartment during my lunch break at my current job at Williams-Sonoma. The location definitely led itself to be a more appropriate location then driving the 101 and I had more privacy (that was until I realized Ashlee was sitting at the door to my bedroom listening to how my answers sounded). Only fair, I suppose, as I was right there in the drivers seat during her interview. The interview was very similar to the behavioral interviews that I went through for both Deloitte and Williams-Sonoma. I was also informed during the interview that there are opportunities for English speakers in China that have a technical background to work with some of the major computer companies (IBM, HP, etc).

As both of the interviews were now completed next was the waiting game to see if we would both be considered acceptable candidates for a position with the company….