Phone Interview was mainly talk about the industry and less of an 'interview'

[GreenFrog]

I just had a phone interview with a boutique consulting firm specializing in one industry, and for the most part, it consisted of the interviewer and I going back and forth discussing technology, the industry at large, etc.

It lasted about 40 minutes and the first 5 minutes or so, he talked about the company. Then he asked me about my background and why I think I'd be a good fit for the firm -- this lasted about 5 minutes. Then we talked a bit more about the firm and the industry. Then he asked me to elaborate on one of my extracurricular activities, which was about 2-3 minutes. He also asked me if I know excel well, to which I replied that I'm no professional expert at it by any means, but that I've had extensive experience with it over my summer internship and that I'm probably more proficient at it than the average college kid. He said that was good and that his firm lives and breathes excel.

The rest of the interview was us simply 'talking.'

Near the end of the interview, he said something along the lines of 'oh shoot, I'm running out of time. As you can tell, I love answering and talking about such topics. We'll be in touch in a few days to let you know further about your application. There will be a 'superday' in February where we bring in 5-6 candidates and interview them more extensively. If you have any other questions and comments, just shoot me an email!'

I then said, sounds good, thanks for talking to me, etc. So in essence, I didn't have the traditional part of the interview at the end where I ask him questions about the firm. He did manage to inadvertently answer two of my questions through his talk about the company, though.

Thoughts on this interview? When should I follow up? Tonight?

 

[Harold falcon]

Email or letter tomorrow at the earliest thanking him for his time.

 

[saiyar1]

Sounds like a great interview.... the kind we all hope to have. Conversational interviews are the best because they show people they can actually work with you rather than just have you crank out data.

Enjoy the superday. It gets more formal there, probably.

 

[GreenFrog]

Originally Posted by saiyar1

Sounds like a great interview.... the kind we all hope to have. Conversational interviews are the best because they show people they can actually work with you rather than just have you crank out data.

Enjoy the superday. It gets more formal there, probably.

I really hope so. The interviewer talked in a more 'rigid' fashion than my past interviewers, who have a seamless gap in between conversation topics -- that is, they don't have many pauses in between what they want to say. I don't think I'm getting my point across, but what I'm trying to say was that the interview wasn't as 'fluid' and natural, especially at the beginning. Near the end, it got a lot more informal and I started asking him questions on his thoughts on certain things, etc.

I don't want to keep my hopes up too high. But thanks for the encouraging thoughts!