I had a very positive initial interview, where I met all qualifications, had a personal and educational connection to the work, and was told by the interviewer that I’d hear back for the next step in a couple weeks. I sent a thank you note and heard nothing back, and even months later (and a second note just to see if they made a decision) I never heard back from them again. I don’t appreciate that level of disrespect for candidates.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Smithsonian in Aug 2013
Interview
I received a very timely response requesting to meet for an interview. The support, management, and executive staff were all extremely friendly and personable. I met with the hiring director and executive director at once - this was very efficient for them and for me. During our interview, I really felt they'd taken the time out to look at my experience and skill set individually to consider how it would complement the other members of the team and their new goals. The interview felt very much like a team strategy meeting and less like a judge's panel; I found this to be a great way of getting a good send of how we could all work together. This was one of the better interviews I've had - no rapid-fire, cookie-cutter questions were asked in order to check them off a template.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What do you think will be the most difficult challenge to taking on this higher role - the aspect of the job which you have the least amount of experience in and the highest learning curve to achieve the desired results?