I found the job fair on career builder and applied online at the company website. I attended the job fair which lasted several hours. During the time I was at the job fair there were approximately 200 applicants interviewing for two different positions. There was a line of people waiting to enter the sitting area when I arrived early so I advise getting there at least 45 minutes early unless you want to wait a long time for your turn to interview. However, many of the applicants spoke to each other in the waiting area about their knowledge of working at the company and their job experiences at other companies in the same industry so it might be in your interest to get there late enough to socialize with other applicants.
The applicants were divided into two groups based on which position they were interviewing for and their names were called out when it was their turn to interview.
The first interview was with a human resources representative whom asked questions from a company questionnaire. You are brought to a medium sized room filled with at least 20 other applicants interviewing the same time as you within arms length of your own interview. The process is chaotic in the sense that it is difficult to hear the person interviewing you at times due to the amount of people conducting interviews in such close proximity. You can overhear other applicant's interviews and must have the ability to focus on your own interview as if no one else was in the room accept the representative interviewing you. After the first interview you are brought back to the waiting area and asked to wait again.
After about 15 minutes my name was called again for a second interview with a team manager who ended up being my manager when I was hired. The interview was in the same noisy room with many other interviews taking place at the same time. The manager seemed to ask me the same questions that the human resources representative asked with some additional questions directed at my knowledge of loan processing and personal work ethic, such as:
"What information do you need to know for loan processing (calculating income) from a customer's pay stub?"
"How many loans did you close monthly on average at your previous loan processing jobs?"
"How many loans would you close monthly here if your goal was 'X'"?
I was brought back to the waiting area and told to wait there until my name was called for a third interview. Not all applicants were asked to wait for second and third interviews and those whom were not selected left.
After about 20 minutes I was called for the third and final interview with the team manager's manager. This interview was also in the same room with lots of applicants coming and going. There was a huge difference in this upper manager's attitude compared to the first two interviews so it is important to be
sensitive to each interviewer's personal style of communication and act accordingly. She was very direct and obviously her time was very valuable my responses were as succinct yet as thorough as necessary to convince her I was the right candidate for the job. After some interview questions she asked me what salary I wanted.
The most important factor to the interview was that they believed you understood the extreme level of stress loan processing challenges an employee with and that you are able to thrive and meet your work responsibilities and goals in that high pressure environment.
The interviewers all take notes while they are conducting the interview. If they don't like your initial response to a question they may reword the question several times until they get the information from you they are looking for. The work culture seemed very casual. The interviewers were dressed casually and had a down to earth attitude. Very few of the job applicants wore business suits. Most were dressed very casually in skinny jeans and very high platform heels. It will be to your advantage to wear a suit or business casual wear because you will easily make a better first impression than the other job applicants dressed very casually.
I was called by human resources about two weeks after the interviews and extended a job offer with a salary higher than what I had asked for during the job interview.