I'm listing as much detail as I struggled to find information when I was researching. I hope this helps others!
This was the most in depth interview process I have ever had. I applied online and forgot about the position. Six months later I was contact for a phone interview directly with the hiring manager. You only get emails from a group box and never a contact name. There doesn't appear to be flexibility with dates/times as they didn't ask if it worked for me, just the interview would be at this time.
After a 30 min phone interview I was invited to come to Dubai for an in person interview. Again, I was told when the interview would be and not asked if it worked for me. And since it did work I didn't put up a fuss. They did confirm me in Business Class which was excellent, though I wasn't allowed to use the lounge.
I arrived Saturday afternoon and the interview was a 2 day process beginning on Sunday (first day of the work week in Dubai) at 7am and you were required to be there by 6.45am. Most of the other candidates were pilots and they had their own set of interviews, but I also became friendly with a few other candidates for other HQ positions (and some that were going for the same position).
I was really impressed with the HQ. The building was beautiful, they have a food court and many onsite services such as banking, insurance, mobile phone store, etc. I checked into the recruitment centre which is a separate reception just for interviews.
I was told that it would be a 2 day process PROVIDING I was successful on Day 1. I couldn't imagine flying all this way and not making it to Day 2!
Day 1 started with an assessment. There were 4 candidates including me and were all going for the same position. They brought the 4 of us into room and told us we had 3 hours to prepare a presentation. We had to answer about 8 questions, a few of which were related to a couple of articles that they provided. You could not use the internet or any other resources and it was very specific to this job role, so either you were familiar with the current events of this area or you weren't.
They split us up into 2 different rooms, so I actually had to SHARE a room with one of my competition. We sat face to face using laptops and in silence for 3 hours. I finished in about 2.5 hours and had a short break before I had to present to a panel. One being a hiring manager, one was the HR manager, and the other was the same level as the hiring manager from another department.
They told me I would receive a call by 2pm that day if I was successful to come back for Day 2. After the presentation they had scheduled a tour to visit a school, an apartment, a villa, and the clinic where you would receive medical care. I met a few other people going for other HQ position, and again 2 guys that were both competing for the same role.
I received a call while I was out on the tour saying I was indeed successful to Day 2 and to report back again at 7am the next morning for psychometric testing. I did the same again and this time was brought to the corporate psychology department.
I had to take 2 tests. Once was a timed test, something like 37 questions in 12 minutes and you had to use various information across several tabs to get the answers. The second test I found quite difficult, but I did end up finishing early. I think I just lost interest, it was early, I was tired. They would give you a short paragraph and you had to answer if the provided statement was true, mostly true, neutral, mostly false, or false. I really don't understand the different between true or mostly true vs not. I also had to complete a personality test the evening before that they sent via email.
I then met with the psychologist to discuss the results. She was nice but it was strange. I had never met with a psychologist before. I probably answered too extreme on a couple of answers, but I consider myself a very black and white person. I also scored on the "low end of average" on the tests. Oh well.
I finished around 11am and I had a break until 2pm before my final interview. The final interview was only with the hiring manager and the HR manager. It wasn't anything too difficult and I had prepared a presentation on my plans for the role. It was also obvious they had already spoken to the psychologist and reviewed my test results prior to the interview. It lasted about 90 mins and then at the end they asked more detailed personal questions, if I was married and if I had any children, which still seems so odd. I was told I would hear back in 2-3 weeks.
So in the end, I had a pretty good interview experience. It was intense and I'm glad I went, though I won't be rushing to do it again. I followed up at 3 weeks and was told I was unsuccessful. I asked for feedback since I had invested so much time into the whole process and was told it is their policy not to provide any feedback which is a bit disap