CAL POLY Interview Questions
& Process

I had one interview, and it was in person. I met with a group of people who are currently student employees and also some full-time staff members. They asked me questions about different scenarios. I heard back about their decision within a week.

I was a finalist for the TRIO Director position. I flew out to California for the final round interview, which was several hours long. This flight was $800 round trip. I met everyone in the office and got a campus tour. At the end of the day, I was told I was the last candidate and would hear from them soon. Two weeks passed, and I was informed the hiring manager had Covid. More waiting. I never heard back from the hiring manager. During the interview, they mentioned issues with staff diversity at Cal Poly SLO, noting all the admins I met were white women. However, they apparently hired another white woman for this director role months later. It seems like when all white women are in charge, hiring more white women is considered diversity. They can't help themselves.

I applied online and about a month later, I got an email to fill out very detailed questions about my role in previous companies, which were basically all the questions you'd expect in an interview, and more. Then a few weeks after that, I got an invite for an online interview. It pretty much went over the same questions again. They said they just needed to schedule an interview with the hiring manager. Everything seemed good, but then weeks and months went by. I followed up after a month and got no response, and followed up a third time with no response either, which was very unprofessional. Eventually, about three months after the online interview, I got an email saying the position had been filled. It was very unprofessional all around. I wouldn't work for them or apply there again.

The process took a while and included phone calls, Zoom meetings, and in-person interviews. The in-person part was pretty conversational. There was one panel interview where half the people didn't show up, which was a bit odd. Also, not many people replied to my thank you notes afterwards.