ORBA Interview Questions
& Process

It took a month to get through the interview process. First, I had an initial interview with a recruiter. Then, I went on to interview with 11 people. At one point, the recruiter forgot to email me, so I had to rearrange my schedule to meet with the Directors with only 30 minutes' notice. I spent weeks interviewing with groups of people, including a peer group that had no interviewing experience and asked very specific questions that only someone working at OBRA would know. After 11 interviews, they told me I was 'too experienced' and feared I'd get bored and unhappy, so I didn't get the job. It was a waste of my time. It was a big red flag that they wasted my time when they could have known my experience from my resume. It's also a big red flag that it took 11 people to decide. (That's 8% of OBRA's employees). I think I dodged a bullet.

The interview process is pretty relaxed. If you're recruited on campus, you'll have an on-campus interview. After that, they'll let you know if you're invited for an office visit. The office visit takes a few hours, and you'll usually meet at least 6 different people: a greeter who shows you around and answers questions, 2-3 separate interview sessions, and lunch with 2 people and HR. It's a good chance to meet many people and see if you could imagine yourself there. The questions are more about getting to know you rather than typical behavioral questions. Don't stress during the interview! The people are friendly and have been in your shoes.

I got a call from marketing to set up a time to go downtown for an editing test. So I set up a time and went to their office, arriving early. I had to wait twenty minutes to be taken to a room for the test. The test had three parts. Part one was editing simple things like addresses for formatting, sentences for grammar, and a spelling test. Part two was editing a two-page document about ORBA. Part three was typing a handwritten letter in business format. It wasn't too difficult. When I finished, I was told I'd hear back from the head of marketing by the end of the next week. The week passed, so after a week and a half, I reached out to the person who set up the test. He didn't respond, but his boss emailed me saying my resume was impressive but didn't meet their requirements. I was confused since I thought they wouldn't have called me in if that was the case. Maybe I edited the documents differently than they wanted. I reached out before coming in to ask about their style guide, but never got a response. So if it was a stylistic difference, I understand, but instead, I got a generic line that didn't really apply.

The interview process was super smooth. I had 3 interviews and a skills assessment. ORBA was quick to schedule everything and got the whole thing done in under 2 weeks. Everyone was really friendly, making the interviews feel comfortable and easygoing. The skills assessment was totally relevant to the job I applied for.