OMD Director Interview Questions
& Process

A recruiter from OMD contacted me on LinkedIn about a position, including the client and salary. This was unusual for agency recruiters, but I was interested since it was within my expected range. I had a 15-20 minute call with the recruiter to confirm job details. She also mentioned her boss would contact me about another role at a sister agency. He did, and I spoke with him, but then heard nothing for a while. For the OMD role, the first interview was a 30-minute chat with a Director from a different OMD client, which was pleasant. Then, I had a great conversation with the Executive Director, where we openly discussed my interests, role needs, and salary expectations. About a week later, I spoke with two more people, a Senior Director and a Managing Director, both in the same department but working on different accounts. I spent 30 minutes with the Sr. Director and an hour with the Managing Director. These conversations were excellent; we discussed interesting projects, shared our expertise, and even planned future work. I felt very positive after these discussions. I later learned the team liked me and I was a good fit. The recruiter mentioned that offer details would take time, which I didn't think much of then, but looking back, it was a warning sign. Around the time of my first conversation with the OMD Director and before my latest chat with the recruiter, the recruiter's manager contacted me about the sister agency role. He said he'd passed my number to the C-Suite lead for that discipline, and she would reach out. She texted me almost immediately to schedule a call about roles at her agency. I was upfront with the sister agency's C-Suite executive, telling her I was close to finishing interviews for the OMD role and expected an offer. She acknowledged this by mentioning she was inviting multiple people to the meeting for efficiency. It was clear she was trying to recruit me, which felt good for my ego but created a politically awkward situation I wanted to avoid. I felt recruiters within the same company (manager and subordinate) should coordinate better to avoid putting candidates in this position. So, I contacted the OMD recruiter to let her know someone from the sister agency was setting up interviews. She quickly asked me to confirm the C-Suite executive's name. About 30 minutes later, the meeting invite from the sister agency was removed from my calendar without any notice. A week after my final talk with the OMD recruiter, while still waiting for offer details, I found out the role hadn't been financially approved, which was why I hadn't received them. On Friday evening, the recruiter emailed the offer, which was much lower than initially advertised on LinkedIn, lower than I'd stated throughout the interviews, and lower than I'd told the Executive Director. I replied stating this and also mentioned I had other interviews and an outstanding offer at the originally discussed amount. I asked for a counter. She said she couldn't do anything as finance had already approved a figure, a common excuse I know from my agency experience. She ended her message with a sarcastic comment about my other offers. I was very disappointed with the entire process, especially since I was genuinely excited about the role, the work, and the potential mentorship from the discipline leads I spoke with. I'm sharing this to highlight the talent of the discipline leads and to ensure my negative recruiting experience is noted. It might also be worth clients considering the talent they're paying for if this is how agency recruiters operate.

The interview process involved one phone call and three in-person interviews, which included a presentation. They responded more quickly than other companies I've dealt with. The HR representative was very friendly and quick to respond. The interviewers were knowledgeable on various subjects.

It was pretty standard for the media industry, involving a few conversations, a lunch meeting with the manager, and then an offer came about a week later after some back and forth on salary and whether I'd be willing to make the move. The people I met were very nice and seemed like genuinely good colleagues.