The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Interview Questions

- Two rounds of interviews with various accounting team members - Very straightforward questions - mix of previous work experience and soft skills - No tests - Controller and team at the time were very friendly

The interview process was great - the team was responsive and communicative and the interviewers were thoughtful and kind. I ended up withdrawing due to a competing offer, but I was really impressed throughout the process.

Incredibly thorough with several rounds of interviews, psychometric testing and presentations. Met all people I would be directly working with and some employees not directly involved in the role but that would be colleagues.

The in-person (pre-covid) interview process was long, all day. Cycled through different members of the team. Be prepared. Know yourself and your stuff. Nice people. Make sure to bring snack to sustain you throughout the day.

I applied on the Hewlett Foundation website however all the interviews were being conducted by Waldron. After having 3 separate interviews with 3 different people, all different levels at Waldron, I could not even get them to respond to an email about the status of the recruitment. I had to follow up numerous times and kept getting "thanks for being patient" and then eventually they just never responded. I understand recruiters are busy with numerous candidates but after 3 rounds of interviews it's simply common courtesy to follow up and let a candidate know if they will not be continuing with the recruitment process. Not impressed with how the recruitment company handled it.

The entire process lasted 5 months from application to offer. I submitted a resume and cover letter online and heard back that I would be contacted to schedule a phone meeting about three weeks later. The process was not that transparent. The phone interview was with the head of the department and it went well. The conversation was surprisingly casual - mainly about interests and experiences and less so about specific skills or achievements. This was followed a couple months later by an in person all day set of panel interviews at the office. I met about 13 people that day that ranged from folks in the program to others with my job title across the organization to HR. About a week later I got a phone call to go over the terms of the position and prepare me to receive an offer letter.

A contact forwarded my resume/cover letter directly to a staff member at the Foundation. About 1 week later, I heard from the recruiting agency that was leading the search for the Program Officer role. That same week, I had a phone screening/interview with the recruiter. It lasted approximately 20 minutes. Immediately after the interview, the recruiter viewed my LinkedIn profile. During the phone screening, I was told they would be in touch by the end of the month letting me know if I made it to the next round of interviews, and sure enough, they did follow through with this timeline.

The process began smoothly. However, the team continuously missed deadlines including rescheduling interview dates and times and dates they promised to provide updates. The team was unresponsive to initial emails for updates.

Interview process is long and done by a variety of staff across a variety of programs. One full day of interviews. Be prepared to answer a wide variety of questions. Do your research on the Foundation, program, the staff in the program and be able to speak wisely on communication, diversity and learning.

Interview with the Head of IT and another IT Staffer. Head of IT was pregnant at the time--perhaps 8 months. IT Staffer was playing the "Bad Cop" while she was playing "Good Cop". Major problems began when the Head of IT told me that "this job seemed beneath" me. Add to that the question the IT Staffer asked me about "what kind of manager do I work with best". Basically they were doing everything possible to sabotage this interview. I would later learn from one of my colleagues that he also worked this position for 3 weeks or so before they fired him. Basically the staffing firm was doing everything they could to salvage this relationship and it appears their client was doing everything to destroy it by accusing the staffing firm of sending out the wrong candidates. Regardless, it reflected badly on my reputation and would eventually be one of the reasons why I no longer do business with the staffing firm involved.