Second stage was the 'face-to-face', although it was conducted remotely due to Covid-19. It was a little odd. A second interviewer who I was not expecting joined the meeting and did not introduce himself. The main interviewer did not bother to introduce this person either. The mainstay of the interview was a series of very prescribed competency questions, effectively protracted interpretations of "tell us about a time when you did X". I was given advance notice of precisely what these questions would be along with guidelines of how they wanted me to answer them using the 'STAR' framework; that's situation, task, actions and result for anyone not au fait with corporate jargon. I was also invited to explain at length the reasons that Co-op is so wonderful, ethical and a super-place that I'd love to work at. Judging from the material that was sent to me ahead of the interview it was safe to assume that a sycophantic response would be mandatory for success. Repeating the company values from their website was warmly received. Once the HR designated section of interview had passed I was asked a handful of very general role-specific questions, which were vague and required significant expansion through my own questions. For example, "what would your SEO strategy for groceries be?". Any answer to that question without a data led analysis of the market is going to be worthless; you can explain your approach, but you cannot provide an answer to 'what your strategy would be'. At the end of the process I asked if there would be a second stage as typically an interview for an SEO role would involve receiving a brief and giving a presentation to demonstrate knowledge. I was told that there would not be a 2nd stage unless exceptional circumstances were met and they were forced to decide by two equally worthy candidates. I would hear back from them by Tuesday next week (the interview was on a Wednesday).
