Sempra Interview Questions
& Process

I applied for the Benefits Advisor role by submitting my resume on LinkedIn and got a call back for an initial screening within a couple of days. I wasn't sure if I was a good fit since I lacked experience in this specific role, but I was happy they reached out. The next week, they scheduled two video panel interviews back-to-back. During these, they mostly asked questions from a predetermined list. About a week and a half after the video interviews, I was invited for a casual in-person lunch at their office. The lunch was very relaxed, with not many work-related questions. They mentioned I'd hear back within two weeks. The second week after the lunch, I got a text saying they'd make a decision the following week. After another week and a half with no word, I followed up. I was informed that the position was offered to someone else. When I asked for feedback, they stated they were looking for someone with more experience in that specific role. It was disappointing that a factor I was upfront about was the reason for not getting the offer. Everyone I interacted with was very nice, though HR took a while to respond about certain things.

Applied on the company portal, took about 20 mins. Had to wait a month to hear back from the recruiter. Then a 30-min video interview with Sr HR happened the same week. Lots of questions were asked, like salary expectations. The interviewer seemed distracted, filling out a form and asking me to repeat myself. A few days later, I had a 30-min interview with the hiring manager, which was a normal chat with behavioral questions about past experiences. After that, they sent a reference questionnaire that my references found tedious to complete online; five references were needed, each taking about 30 mins. Around two weeks after the initial HR contact, in-person interviews were scheduled. They were supposed to be 2 hours but ran longer, with back-to-back interviews with the team. More behavioral questions were asked, and interviewers were writing while I spoke, not really looking at me. The atmosphere was formal and serious. After the interview, HR was supposed to follow up. I waited for weeks, and the company went silent, no rejection, no feedback, just ghosting. It was shocking for a company with a supposed good reputation.

I've interviewed for this role multiple times over the years. It felt like they already had someone in mind and I was just going through the motions. A consistent question in every interview was about my Spanish proficiency, even though the job description didn't mention it and I was told there'd be no travel to Spanish-speaking countries. My interviewer's reaction when I said I wasn't fluent was clearly negative. My husband also experienced the Spanish question in his in-person interview. I had two in-person interviews and one online during COVID. The in-person ones weren't panels, so I repeated the same questions to each interviewer. Most interviewers were nice. I got the sense that the audit team lacked deep EHS technical knowledge and industry experience, apart from their long tenure at Sempra.

The whole experience was very pleasant and professional. This is a large company with a well defined org structure. So, all the details such as job description, salary range, reporting structure and career growth possibilities were clear. I offered details on my previous job and my skills during the interview. The process went very well as I was able to demonstrate the outputs in a short and concise format.