1st Recruiter--first interview, after an initial, informal fit screen/discussion, with situational pretty standard judgement/behavioral competency questions. Female phone interviewer for Talent and Organizational Performance group based out of 954 area, Ft Lauderdale, very professional, informative, helpful friendly, Told me right then and there she was progressing me forward. Told me there were 4 workstreams (Change Mgt, Org Design/Talent Mgt, Learning and Collaboration, HR Transformation in the TOP practice) and various levels (experienced consultant, consulting mgr, consulting sr manager etc) for which they were actively recruiting and mid-reorg with a major focus i.e., TOP, dual major i.e., 1 of 4 workstreams, and a minor 1 of 8 industry areas, Apparently they do these interviews every Friday in different regional and city locations and you can interview in a city that wouldn't necessarily be your base. There were open positions posted on their career website, but after the process, I have a hankering that they are out there fishing for a pool of talent to keep "on hand" for need due to communicated growth.
2nd Interview--independent consultant female who used to work for Accenture in their Finance Org (yes, I said Finance for a TOP/Human Capital practice) who stated they contract her out for situational judgement/behavioral phone interviews. It was the most grueling nitpicky SJ/BC interview I have EVER participated in both as a candidate and and interviewer (I maintain recruiting experience). She was friendly and professional but repeatedly asked follow up questions I had already answered, in GREAT detail might I add, given I'm certified in TS (Targeted Selection) interviewing. After literally running out of detail, some of it made up due elaboration to her excessive probing, I began to answer with "I think I already answered that when I stated...xyz". Her follow up questions were at times repetitive and seemingly superfluous and as would be expected, never specific, always generic: what else did you say...did you convey anything else...is that all that happened, was anyone else involved, were there any other outcomes, were there any negative results etc. Super thorough, super annoying. See specific interview questions for detail.
3rd Interview--consulting manager or sr manager male phone interview out of Chicago office who didn't ask any SJ/BC questions. Super informal and friendly. Mostly a skills interview, reviewing work experience on my resume via job function, role and responsibilities. He reconfirmed the org structure but didn't know who and where was hiring or when and redirected me back to the recruiter, or on to the final interviews by stating he was recommending me to progress.
4th and 5th interviews--F2F interviews by 2 partners and senior executive males out of Chicago TOP practice and, I inferred, directly responsible for deciding if you are getting a job offer. Both professional, but one of an obvious higher caliber, appearance as well as impact and style. Both friendly but one even friendlier and more informal and personable (these are the ones to "beware of" because its easy to get "too relaxed".) One in the L&C work stream and the other in the Change workstream, minoring in (I gathered) telecommunications and gov industries respectively Mostly asked generic strength/weakness/preference/5 year development plan/direction questions. I got the distinct interview at this point that they weren't really assessing experience or skill, just "fit". And, turns out I was correct. I was sure I nailed the offer. Asked the 2nd one the final steps of the process. He indicated they circle back with the process stakeholder and discuss high potential candidates.
Followed up with the recruiter with some final questions I hadn't time to ask in person and sent expenses; sent thank you re-confirmations to the partners a few days after that. On receipt of one those emails, the recruiter (likely prompted by the recipient) emailed me indicating she had meant to follow up with me and had been busy. We scheduled a discussion time and when such ensued, she answered my final questions and sandwiched that although the feedback was all positive, that they would not be making an offer due to "better" fit and a very competitive candidate pool. When I probed further, I realized I wasn't just competing with others for open reqs, but that I was competing against an "unknown" fit standard that I didn't understand where I had "fallen short".
Overall the experience was professional, polite, friendly even but I'm baffled where and why I ultimately screened out.