Monterey Bay Aquarium Interview Questions
& Process

I had 3 interviews for this role. Initially, I was presented with a few options for the first interview schedule, which I selected. However, these options were then deemed unavailable, and I was given two new, separate scheduling options. After I chose one, that was also unavailable. I then told them to proceed with whatever they could manage, and eventually had that interview. Following that, I had an interview with HR. I had taken the day off for a 1:00 pm interview, but received an email an hour prior stating the HR person had left the office due to illness. When we finally had the interview a few days later, the HR person mentioned they had never actually been to the office because they couldn't afford to live in the area and worked remotely. The overall process lacked professionalism and integrity, though the interview itself wasn't challenging.

A few months back, I interviewed virtually for a communications job at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with someone who is staff level. It was a really bad experience, honestly. The interviewer was late, maybe five minutes, and seemed super casual about it, even though she's in a pretty high-up role. She asked me some basic stuff about why I was interested in the aquarium, and I talked about how much I care about ocean conservation. She didn't seem very engaged with what I was saying, and some of her questions were confusingly put. I've been a supervisor and done a lot of interviews myself, and this was easily one of the worst I've ever been through. She hardly let me ask any questions and seemed like she wanted to wrap it up quickly. The whole thing was supposed to be 45 minutes but only lasted 20. I obviously didn't move on, and no one told me why. I know these jobs are competitive, but even when I don't get a position, I'm usually treated with respect. It makes me wonder about the aquarium's culture, especially since they seem to have a lot of high-level openings.

It was a phone screening that lasted 30 minutes but it got rescheduled twice. Then there was a first interview, also 30 minutes, which got rescheduled once. Finally, a panel interview was scheduled but it got rescheduled once too. Right before the final interview, I was told they picked another candidate. They were not transparent, kept rescheduling, and always had excuses, which makes me think they have unstable HR and biased hiring managers. I don't want to apply for any other job there unless the culture changes. I won't be supporting or visiting the bay aquarium anymore knowing how they treat their employees from this.

I first had a screening interview that gave me a better idea of the role. A few days later, I had an interview with 3 supervisors from the Guest Experiences department. The interview lasted about an hour and included a questions portion and an activity presentation portion. I could choose which part to do first. For the activity, they showed me several props, and I had to give an impromptu 5-10 minute presentation on the prop I chose.