I applied online. I interviewed at Principal Financial Group (Des Moines, IA)
Interview
I was interviewed by phone with a recruiter following by another phone interview with two person from the specific department I applied under. The interviewers asked very generic interview questions like "what are your strengths..." and had no personality in the process (very robotic and boring). It's too bad because I thought Principal would be a fun place to work for but after the interview, my view shift.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Principal Financial Group (Des Moines, IA) in Aug 2016
Interview
Make sure you have ALL of the following before you even apply. If you don't you are wasting your time.
1. 4 year degree
2. "Proficient" (meaning 10/10) with MS Office, Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
3. Typing skills of 45-55 wpm
If you don't have these, don't expect to get anywhere. Even a "processor" job which is nothing more than over glorified data entry putting numbers from a paper application into the computer system requires the above. Not sure why that requires PowerPoint but it does.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Interview questions were pretty basic, what is your background, how does it apply to this position, are you interviewing anywhere else, who is it, and what part of the process are you at? They are very interested in finding out where else you may be looking because this city has a very very small talent pool. They want to know who they are up against, and what the chances are that you will get hired before they get around to deciiding if they want you for the next step. Hiring decisions seem to take about 2-3 months from the time you actually apply. Be prepared with a back up plan.
