I interviewed as part of the NYC recruitment effort in the move from St. Louis. The process started after I was contacted on LinkedIn, which encouraged me to apply based on my profile. The person who contacted me on LinkedIn was non-responsive to my requests to speak before applying, but I went ahead with the application. After applying with my resume, I completed two online screeners – one personality assessment and one logical reasoning test. After passing both tests, I was asked to submit a series of 1-3 minute video responses to questions. Some of the questions were: 1) Tell us about yourself; 2) Describe your dream career; 3) What is your favorite beer brand and why; 3) Describe an innovation you worked on; 4) What would we find out about your interests based on your web history. Within a few days, I was informed I was moving on to the next step: a structure interview 1:1 via Skype. About a week later, I participated in a 30-minute Skype call with a Marketing Director. It consisted of a few behavioral questions, and I was provided the opportunity to ask my own questions. After probing, the interviewer let me know I was being considered for a role that would be a lateral move from my current position. I informed him that I was most likely unwilling to consider a lateral move. He let me know there were limited roles at other levels. The next day I received an email informing me that I was invited to Selection Day in NYC. The email asked for confirmation that I could attend and asked if I needed travel arrangements. The week before the interview, I had a preparation call with an HR representative. The HR representative explained me I was being considered for the "brand" function, but provided no detail on the role or level. Selection Day starts with a happy hour on Friday evening. This was a "casual" atmosphere with candidates and ABI leaders at a NYC bar. Most of the candidates were local to NYC. Happy hour provided limited opportunity to better understand what ABI was seeking. Almost all of the candidates were less experienced than I myself, which made it unclear if my comment about not being interested in a lateral move was heard. Leaders included the NA VP of Marketing, Budweiser’s NA VP of Marketing, Bud Light’s NA VP of Marketing, the NA VP of Innovation, the NA VP of Insights and various HR team members. The happy hour was scheduled 6:30-8:30, but lasts later for those that stick around. It was unclear if it was appropriate to stay late – but the HR representative mentioned the next day that she did not leave the bar until 12:30 AM. On Saturday, candidates split into groups of 5 for 2 hour slots throughout the day. The first hour is a series of 5 10-minute "speed dating" interviews with ABI leaders. Each 10-minute session consists of 1 candidate and 2 leaders from ABI: 1 from HR and a team leader (e.g. Bud Light VP, Innovation VP). It goes by fast, and most questions are behavioral. Next is a panel interview with 5 candidates and 5 members from ABI (2 HR, NA VP Marketing, 2 other leaders) sitting on opposite sides of a long table. The session starts with each candidate presenting a slide they were asked to prepare before the interview. Each candidate’s slide answered: 1) Why are you a good fit for ABI?; 2) What is a big opportunity for ABI and/or the beer industry? After candidates present their slide, ABI leaders ask questions to each of the candidates in no particular order. Rarely is the same question asked to multiple candidates. The candidates are told they can jump in with their input if they have something worth sharing, but it is not clear if this is truly encouraged. After the 2-hour session, HR informs candidates they will find out if an offer will be extended that evening. ABI sent an email that evening stating they need more time. The next day I received a call from HR informing they will not extend an offer. No additional detail is provided. It was a different type of interview than anything I had experienced previously, but overall I was disappointed with process. As an experienced candidate, the lack of transparency was extremely disappointing. During the happy hour, I developed a great rapport with at least two of the senior leaders. One leader specifically let me know they were already thinking about me as a potential fit on their team. The rapport appeared to extend into the formal interview on Saturday, which is another reason why ABI’s decision not to extend an offer perplexes me. In the end I'm not sure if I would have accepted an offer as the ambiguity about the role and cookie-cutter answers to many of my questions during the process were not inspiring and appeared inauthentic. “Access to people” and “Be where the trends are happening” were repeated multiple times by different leaders – and it came across as something HR prepared for the leaders in a "how to answer candidate questions" guide.