Consumer Technology Association Interview Questions
& Process

The process involved me being asked about every single job on my resume. Then, I was asked my graduation year with a rude, "Um, did you not graduate?" It’s not on there to prevent age discrimination. Did you not learn that in HR school? Oh wait, that doesn’t exist.

I was excited about CTA but ultimately left really disappointed in them. I had 3 rounds of interviews: the 1st with a recruiter, and the 2nd two were both 90 minute in-person interviews where I met multiple people from the team. After 2 weeks of not hearing anything from the HR person, I reached out asking for an update and reiterated my interest in the role. After over a month of no response, I sent one last email thanking them and asking for any advice on how to improve (I assumed that I did not get the role despite no confirmation). I finally received a response that the team was still in the process of deciding and that I'd receive more info in a week, which left me with more hope. Well now it's been two weeks since then and no response. I only found out that I did not get the role by searching the job title in Linkedin and seeing that someone else posted about getting it. After taking PTO off of work to come into their office 2 times and being strung along for 2 months, it should not take me sleuthing on Linkedin to find out that I didn't get the position. It's awful that they treat people like this but maybe I ultimately dodged a bullet.

The whole thing from the HR call to the decision takes about 2-3 weeks. You'll talk to HR first, then the department heads. Everyone's pretty nice, but they're really looking for substance. A lot of the internships are in PR, comms, and sales. The research internships are also pretty great since you get to work with top people in the field and lawyers from interest groups (research and gov affairs). The CEO actually cares about the interns, he used to be one. Not a ton of perks, but hey, it's paid.

I applied online. The whole thing took about 3 weeks. I interviewed at Consumer Technology Association in Crystal City, VA. First, I had a phone interview with the HR manager. About a week later, they emailed me to come to their office for an in-person interview with the IT Sr. Director, IT Director, IT Senior Manager, and HR manager. It was a really positive experience, and it took about 2 hours for everything. Everyone was super nice. I haven't gotten an offer yet because there's one more step: a technical skills test.