This was a rather uncommon, off-cycle hiring process focused on current marketing professionals with 1+ years of experience, unlike the on-campus process. Applied via current employee referral on Tuesday, 8/15. Received an unscheduled phone screen from HR on Friday, 9/8. Was contacted later that day via email to set up a phone interview with a current marketer. Completed the phone interview on Tuesday, 9/12 (after a last minute reschedule from Monday, 9/11 due to interviewer schedule conflict). Received another unscheduled call from HR on Friday, 9/15 inviting me to the in-person final interview in Minneapolis on Wednesday, 9/27. The on-site experience is fantastic, but intense. Starting with a relaxed dinner with a current AMM, the following day begins early at 8am with a breakfast accompanied by another current AMM. After breakfast all (6 this particular day) interview candidates are taken to a small room with a laptop and a rather large (for the time constraints) case (printed PowerPoint slides). The computer does not have the internet and you are given 1.5 hours to create roughly 7 slides. They have switched the model to include a (simple) marketing plan, including financials, instead of 3-4 questions. After a short break, you are allowed to review your printed slides to prepare a 15 minute presentation for later that day. After this, we went a tour, which was a fun way to wind down from that stressful activity. This is followed by lunch with an AMM and one of your peer candidates. After lunch, it's off to round robin interviewing. Each candidate is given a meeting room and the 3 interviewers rotate. There were 2 behavioral interviews lasting 45 minutes each and 1 case interview, totaling 45 minutes. The behavioral interviews are very straight forward, one was more traditional behavioral while the other was marketing skill specific. The case interview consists of 15 minutes of presentation and 20-30 minutes of interviewer questions regarding your case. It's less about being right or perfect than proving your understanding of brand strategy, consumer insights and other key marketing skills. Pro-tip: use the rest room before the first interview, there are no breaks in between. After the last interview, all candidates gather back in the HR office at which point there is a debrief with the HR Manager and you get your General Mills shopping bag of goodies. And just like that, a long day ends up feeling quite short! As promised, HR reached out on Friday, 9/29, but unfortunately due to the schedule of some key leaders for the decision process, they had to defer on decisions until Monday. On Monday, 10/2, HR called again as promised, even if it was after 6:00 PM EDT. :) At this point the verbal offer was extended. The formal offer follows with 24-48 hours later via email. Overall, a very fast process with only 4 true interviews, including the phone. HR usually beat expectations by a long shot, or at least met them. The entire HR and marketing team involved were very kind and welcoming. I'm super stoked to be a part of that team in the future! :)

I recruited at an MBA conference in September, and completed my round one interview over the phone in October, and a week later received an invitation to do a final round interview in Minneapolis. Along with this invite, they sent an online assessment that included a personality assessment and a quantitative portion. For the final round of interviews, Mills flew me out on a Thursday for a dinner with a current AMM. This dinner is not with a decision maker but an opportunity to speak 1:1 with a first year AMM and ask all of your questions. Friday was interview day on campus from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. including breakfast with an AMM, 75min case prep, lunch with an AMM, campus tour, 30-minute presentation of the case, and two 30-minute behavioral interviews. Please note that you are interviewing Mills as much as they are interviewing you. That said, each meal is 1:1 so be prepared to drive the conversation. Ask good questions about Mills, Minneapolis, and your hosts experience and share about yourselves. The experience was great. GMI Talent Acquisition facilitated each part of the onsite interview from my flight and hotel, to day of logistics. When I checked into my hotel, they provided me a Mills goodie bag which was a nice touch. Additionally, each piece of the day seemed very intentional. ie. My meals were with AMMs with whom I had things in common, be it a school or other affiliation. The interviewers were tough with some challenging follow-up questions but very fair. Overall the experience was very positive.