CUNY (City University of New York) Interview Questions
& Process

I interviewed at The Mexican Studies Institute at CUNY located at Lehman college campus. I met with an Assist. Dir. and an Admin Coordinator. An intern was also present. They asked a couple of standard interview questions but the AD did most of the talking. I felt the conversation went well. At the end, I was asked to think about the chat and send a message the next day indicating if I wanted to move forward to a second interview with the Institute Director. I found this a bit odd, as it's usually the other way around. Nevertheless, I did reach out the next day and followed up about five days later, but never received a reply.

The interview experience was positive, characterized by a professional yet welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. I interviewed with multiple CUNY institutions and received an offer. They follow a set of standard questions for all candidates and include a brief teaching demonstration.

So, for an Analyst role here at CUNY, it's pretty structured. You start by applying online, gotta upload your resume, cover letter, maybe a statement of interest. If you pass that initial check, HR sends it to the department. Then there's usually a quick screening call, like 15-30 mins, could be phone or video, just checking your background, if you're interested, know about CUNY, and the usual stuff like salary and work eligibility. After that, if you're good, you get a main panel interview with a few people from the department – supervisor, director, peers. They hit you with behavioral, technical, and scenario questions. Like, if you're a data analyst, they might ask about Tableau or Excel modeling, or if you're a finance analyst, they might ask you to do a budget or forecast. Sometimes, they'll give you a skills test, like analyzing data, writing SQL, or making Excel reports. For higher-up jobs or really competitive ones, you might have a final one-on-one with a big boss, like a dean. Once you clear all that, they'll ask for references and run a background check, which can include fingerprinting 'cause it's NYC public employment. Everything checks out? You get an offer from HR detailing salary, job stuff, schedule, union, benefits. Then there's onboarding.

This was for CUNY Career Launch, which was really just a straightforward behavioral interview. They asked why I wanted the position and how Career Launch would help my career, given it would be my first internship. It was actually pretty brief. The interviews with the actual companies were also quick and simple, another behavioral one, and they didn't really check my technical skills.