US Small Business Administration Interview Questions
& Process

This was a phone interview, no in-person part. They asked some easy questions, nothing too tough. They wanted to know about my background as a lawyer and my reasons for wanting to join the US Small Business Administration. Honestly, it was one of the simplest interviews I've gone through.

I submitted an online application through usa jobs. The application had an online assessment and then a behavior assessment. After qualifying, I had an interview with the regional leadership of this team. The second interview was with members of the national leadership team.

The SBA has a very structured interview process. It starts with a lengthy pre-screening where you have to write essays about your executive core qualifications. After that, HR professionals outside the organization review your application and refer candidates to the hiring organization. Then, the organization's HR group reviews and decides who moves forward. The actual interview is a panel with the hiring manager, corporate counsel, HR, and a manager one level above the hiring manager. It's structured with 12 questions and lasts exactly one hour. You can't take notes and only get to ask one question at the end. The panel will only consider your answers to the 12 questions for their hiring decision. You're not allowed to contact the panel before or after the interview, and you can't send thank you notes to them.

It was a standard interview process. It mainly involved behavioral questions, and they also asked about my knowledge of business operations and important factors like the psychographics of a particular industry's customers. Mostly, they wanted to see how I reacted in certain situations.