I submitted my resume via email and was then contacted by their Senior VP to do an online skills test. The task was to test how well I could find, document, prioritize and cite data culled from online websites, journals, books, and research reports on a specific topic. There was one assignment, which I was given two hours to complete. My topic was the following:
Research topic #1 (2 hrs): Vehicle-to-Grid Case Studies and Analysis
Your task: Please identify and describe 3 – 4 projects in the U.S. which utilize vehicle-to-grid
technology. Then give an analysis of the key challenges in implementing widespread national or
worldwide adoption of vehicle-to-grid technology
I finished within the two hour time period and sent my results back. I was contacted about two weeks later to set up a second interview, but was told that the Senior VP would be out of town for the next 3 weeks. The interview itself was very easy; there were three people interviewing me, the Senior VP, the Assistant VP, and Co-CEO. They each talked about the company and their role there and what I would be doing if I was offered the job. They initially talked about the job as if it would be a project-based contractor position (non full time position) and asked if I would be amenable to that. I told them that I was, but preferred a full time role.
I received an offer three days after the interview. Negotiation was futile; they simply don't do it.
Perceptions so far:
For some reason, four of the top five executives in the company are female. That isn't a problem per se; I just think it's interesting that it is composed this way. No one really talks to anyone else in the office unless they have a question about work; if you are chatty or like to make small talk with co-workers, this is definitely not the place for you. The only noise is the sound of keyboards clicking. This is a place where you sit like a mindless drone in front of your computer and type for 8, 9 or 10 hours per day. Clients are mostly Japanese government agencies since this is a Japanese owned firm, however, the client-facing positions are primarily reserved for native Japanese.
"Consulting" in this context primarily means that a Japanese government agency is exploring a certain issue, such as cap and trade or Smart grid, and wants to know how it is done in other countries, which are always the same OECD countries: USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia. In other words, the clients want to know, "What do they do in these countries that we can copy?" That's essentially what Washington Core does; information gathering without really making any recommendations. It's not
