No, Sara Blakely, Arthur Blank and Boland Jones weren’t there.
But judges at the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Nebo Agency LLC’s “the Ultimate Job Interview Contest” represented the companies they founded including Spanx, Home Depot and PGI.
Representatives from General Assembly, the online and alternative education company, and Cardlytics, a card-linked marketing firm, which both have offices in the Ponce City Market, also participated as judges.
The interviews were held in early January in a General Assembly classroom at the facility in the former Sears, Roebuck & Co. building, which has undergone a major renovation to transform it into a restaurant, retail, office and living center in the city’s historic Old Fourth Ward downtown.
It’s not exactly that Atlanta provides a direct chute to creating companies valued at more than $1 billion, after all even the lottery odds are pretty slim. But the contest was part of a larger “ChooseATL” initiative aimed at branding Atlanta as “the nation’s best place to live, work and start a company,” especially in technology and related industries.
According to Nebo spokesperson Evan Scott, the idea for the interview contest stemmed from the ChooseATL campaign’s goal to retain college graduates from the city’s universities and attract graduates from schools across the country.
It was obvious that the job interview concept for college students looking to develop a career in Atlanta fit into the “ChooseATL” initiative. Open only to legal U.S. residents over the age of 18 who were still in college or had recently graduated, it attracted 20 qualified applicants.
Each applicant submitted a 90 second video on why Atlanta is a place “to make a mark,” and the initial 10 qualifiers had to prepare a five minute presentation of why they should be hired.
The top three finalists were given an all expenses paid trip to the city for their interview with the five company representatives. The contest promised the winner $10,000, with a $5,000 prize for second place and $2,500 for third.
The finalists Karina Liles, who is pursuing a doctorate in computer science and engineering at the University of South Carolina; Austin Mueller, who is finishing his senior year at the University of Georgia and Chris Triplett, an aspiring film director and photographer and a recent graduate of Georgia State University, each were taken on a helicopter tour of the city and had dinner with business and civic leaders.
Each judge ask a question dealing with how the contestants benefited from their educations; how they dealt with a conflict with a boss or co-worker; why should they be hired by a company; what makes them think that they could make a mark in the city and how would they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1996 Summer Olympics that were held in Atlanta.
The question that seemed to spark the most lively responses dealt with the upcoming Olympics anniversary celebrations.
Leo Tucker, senior vice president of marketing at Premiere Global Services Inc. (PGI), the company that has developed software and affiliated services enabling remote conferencing around the world, was supportive of all the candidates.
“We recognized that each of these candidates could be a great fit in different circumstances,” he told Global Atlanta following the interviews. “They all showed the collaborative, adaptable skills that we think are important and they could speak on their feet and respond to questions that they might not have expected.”
Their enthusiasm for participating in an anniversary celebration of the Olympics seemed to fire their imaginations, he added, which he considered a plus because of the worldwide reach of many companies most likely to hire them.
He also said that in his opinion Atlanta offers an ideal setting for employees to become more familiar with the world generally because it has become such a melting pot.
“Even if your ultimate goal is to have an international career Atlanta is a good place to be because it is a microcosm of the U.S. and has people from all over the world.”
And the winner was…Austin Mueller, who said that with his $10,000 winnings he would be able to pay off the remainder of his student loans.
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