Coming off of a series of interviews lasting six hours total, I feel I've been through the ringer. Every aspect of my past, present and future has been scrutinized from every angle, and all that's left is to wait for their decision.
The interviews were with the commercial printing company, Woodridge Press in Anaheim. The position is in the Leadership Development Program as administered by their parent company, Consolidated Graphics. This is a three year intensive program, meant to give its graduates experience in every aspect of the printing industry. They seek new graduates to offer this opportunity.
The first step was a PowerPoint presentation about the LDP, CGX and WPI (Leadership Development Program, Consolidated Graphics and Woodridge Press Inc. for those of you who aren't familiar with the initialisms). This was really the background or the structure behind a conversation with my interview coordinator about how each of these entities fits together, and why I can expect in the LDP. This also included a very brief
This was followed by a tour around the building, particularly the sales floor and production floor. My coordinator explained the purpose of each of the machines and introduced me to their operators. Controlled chaos would be the name I would give it.
From there started my interviews. These ran sequentially, and were approximately fifteen minutes each.
First I spoke with the production manager, who had been with the company for what seemed forever. He knew the history of the business, and was familiar with every piece of equipment they had every owned. A very low key person, he seemed more interested in getting to know me than in intimidating me.
Next up can the financial controller, who had also been with the company for a significant amount of time. She had some excellent insights into the management structure of CGX and WPI. She seemed most interested in the concurrent positions I have held, and how I managed to keep it all straight.
After the financial controller was an account executive who had graduated from the program. She was a very honest (some might say blunt) person who was upfront about all of her experiences in the program and did not sugar coat any of them. I appreciated her straight forwardness, but it was a fast shift from the two previous more laid back interviews.
Finally I spoke with another graduate of the program. He was unique in that he had joined the program with the intention of going into sales, rather than operations or finance. We quickly found that we had a lot in common, including our reasons for being attracted to the LDP and the printing industry.
The most challenging aspect of this rapid interview and shift wasn't filling fifteen minutes, but quickly evaluating each person to whom I was speaking and trying to determine how to communicate my experience to them in a way that conveyed my interest and enthusiasm.
Lunch was enjoyable. We went to the Cheesecake Factory. Having had the foresight to check the menu out before hand I ordered a Salmon dish and a small salad that I knew would be clean and non-intimidating.
Lunch was with the interview coordinator and the last interviewer. They shared with me their experiences with the program and we got to know each other on a more personal level.
Afterward, we went back to the office, and I went in for my interview with the President of the company. And let me tell you, I was nervous. I could almost feel my heart beating out of my chest and had to suppress an attack of hyperventilation -- something that has never happened to me before. At first I was a little confused about the purpose of meeting with him; thinking it was him interviewing me I started by attempting to jump into his stories and comments with my own interview-worthy anecdotes. These were always followed by an extended, and rather uncomfortable, period of silence.
After about two minutes of this really awkward non-flow of conversation I switched gears and took to asking him questions and processing his answers. From there it all seemed to go a lot smoother, and I felt infinitely more comfortable. From him I learned about his experiences with the program, why he feels that it's a good program, and how he continued to learn and grow after graduating from it. I also learned about the functioning of Woodridge Press, and his management style.
What I came away from that interaction was a sense of trust in his leadership; something that I have never experienced resultant of an interview. He seemed very even keel and realistic. The comment he made that I was most taken with was that he felt WPI should not be prepared for the best of times, rather be prepared to survive the worst of times. Rather than having the capacity to deal with the absolute highest volume he can hope for, he instead aims to keep the company breaking even despite record low volume.
After the interview he thanked me for coming in, and told me they would reach a decision in the next week or so.
And after it all, I feel I've been through the ringer more times than I can count. Not that I did anything physically draining, but the psychological and emotional toll was great. I will update later on the final results!
Best regards,
Beth
No comments:
Post a Comment