Title of position interviewed for: Project Engineer
Approximate date of interview: 11/2003
Location: Various cities in U.S.
Submitted on: 10-Feb-04
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Federal Mogul's interview process (for new college grads) was pretty
thorough. The first round was a standard 30 minute behavioral-type
interview on campus with one recruiter. He focused a few questions on
my resume, asking about specific work experiences that I had listed.
The rest of the questions were of the type "Name a time when you worked
on a team and....." Overall, it was pretty relaxed, as the recruiter
was not an HR person at all, but more of an engineering or similar
department manager.
Within one week of my first interview, I received an email inviting me
to one of three Selection Center Programs that Federal Mogul employs as
their second round process. I chose to attend the first program, which
was in Skokie, IL, just north of Chicago. This Selection Center
process is a very big deal for FM - between the three different
programs they invite close to 90 candidates, depending on the year I
guess.
The Selection Center Program was fairly intense, and spanned 3 days.
FM flew myself and 3 fellow classmates (from Georgia Tech) into
Chicago, first class! Of all the second round interviews I've been to,
this was by far the best treatment, although the first class tickets
were apparently a screw up in their reservation process. Anyway, there
were 24 candidates at the Program in Chicago, each of us having our own
room in a Marriot conference center hotel.
The first night of the Program involved a meet and greet dinner and
happy hour (the hotel bar and restaurant were reserved for us) with all
the candidates and about 30 FM employees/managers. For about 3 hours
we all met each other and took turns standing up and introducing
ourselves in front of everyone. As it got later, the meeting started
to wind down and a lot of candidates went back to their rooms for the
night. However, all the employees and a few of us stayed in the bar
and continued to have fun for a few more hours.
The first full day of the Program started at 8am, with breakfast served
for us beginning at 7. The day was full of team-building and
situational exercises. They split up the 24 of us into groups of 4 and
gave us 3 different role-playing scenarios to work through. Each one
had a slightly different focus, but they all gave the FM employees a
chance to observe how we interacted with others and dealt with
problems. Lunch was served and the second half of the day involved a 1
hour written exam, basically testing ethical issues on the job.
Afterwards, there was another role-playing exercise and 1-on-1
interviews. Around 5pm the activities were over, but FM assigned us
homework for the next day. We had to prepare a 5 minute presentation
about a problem we incurred at some point in our lives and how we
overcame it. We had a big group dinner again that night, with arranged
seating assignments in order to force us to talk to different employees.
After breakfast, the second day began with an alternating schedule of a
1-on-1 interview and giving our prepared presentation. Each
presentation was given in a smaller room in front of 4-6 employees
only. This took most of the morning, as there were 24 presentations to
go through. After lunch, there was another round of role-playing
scenarios, where the employees observed each group's interactions.
From there, the 24 were divided into teams of 6 and we were given a
design problem to tackle. They provided us with Lego-type toys (but
much bigger) and gave us an inventory sheet and a few specifications on
an obstacle we had to overcome by constructing something. This
exercise was another team-interaction focus, but it forced each one of
us to physically work together, not just talk. It also tested
creativity and problem-solving. There was no prize for the best design
or anything, but they liked to see how the better-built products came
from the better-working teams. That night, there was a 3-hour happy
hour, dinner and presentation about Federal Mogul.
The next day involved a quick breakfast, one last 1-on-1 interview,
then a trip to the Skokie, IL plant for a tour. They served us lunch
and provided packages of company history, benefits info, etc., along
with mugs, t-shirts and other random little things. From there, we all
went back to the airport for our respective flights (of which 4 of us
had first class).
Overall, the interview process was the most unique experience I've
had. The second round Program was very involved and exhausting, but it
was fun and completely different than most other second or third round
interviews I've taken part in. It gave us a good deal of exposure to
the company, and it definitely gave the employees great exposure to
each one of us.
For one reason or another, FM took forever to get back to any of us (at
Geogia Tech) regarding an offer or rejection. They said it should be
about 3 weeks from the Selection Program, which would have put it at
the beginning of December. I finally got a hold of someone January
10th regarding my status. Apparently the HR manager in charge of the
offers had left the company in the mean time. They overnighted an
offer to me and gave me 4 weeks to respond.
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