Honda Manufacturing of Indiana

[MCgrease08]

I'm wondering if any INGoers work at the Honda Manufacturing facility in Greensburg.

I have a phone interview next week for a corporate communications gig there and I was looking for some background info on the company, structure, facility, culture, etc.

Any input from current or former employees would be appreciated. I understand if you don't want to out yourself or post anything sensitive to a public forum, so PMs would be great too.

Or just feel free to chime in if you live or work near Greensburg. I don't know much about the area.

 

[bmbutch]

Typically they will ask STAR format questions, Situation-Task-Action-Results. There will likely be more than 1 person on phone with you, & they'll likely ask you a similar question towards end to see of your answer matches. At least that was how they did me when I interviewed @ Ohio plant many moons ago.

 

[MCgrease08]

Typically they will ask STAR format questions, Situation-Task-Action-Results. There will likely be more than 1 person on phone with you, & they'll likely ask you a similar question towards end to see of your answer matches. At least that was how they did me when I interviewed @ Ohio plant many moons ago.

Thanks for the input. I'm used to those types of questions and have heard them in other recent interviews so I'm definitely prepared to answer them.

The HR person called from an Ohio number so I'm assuming she works out of that plant.

 

[bmbutch]

Focus on Teamwork, Continuous Improvement, & Root Cause Analysis. I've been working for the other Japanese Nameplate in Indiana for 23.5 years (12 in KY), & those 3 things are very important.

 

[MCgrease08]

Thanks for the input and PMs so far guys.

For what I've read on some of the job boards, people either love working there or hate it, depending on whether or not they're on the production line.

One thing that's been consistent is that everyone says they offer great health benefits paid entirely by the company. That's really rare these days.

 

[Speedybruin4]

How did it go? I'm originally from there. Not much to do in town, a gun shop or two. Their antique tractor show is coming up later in the month if you are interested in that kind of stuff. Are you looking at moving down there?

 

[SSGSAD]

I have never lived there, but several years ago, I traveled there at least a couple times a week, for work .....

Nice quiet little town ..... A lot closer to Crosley range .....

haven't been there for a couple years .....

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Stayed in Greensburg before leaving for Vevay.

Teaching there in October.

I have always enjoyed it there. They sell guns at a barber shop. Yes, really.

 

[MCgrease08]

How did it go? I'm originally from there. Not much to do in town, a gun shop or two. Their antique tractor show is coming up later in the month if you are interested in that kind of stuff. Are you looking at moving down there?

I did the phone interview with the HR rep. It went really well so I expect to be moved along to the next step of the process. That would involve an onsite visit.

I'm in Fishers now, so I would likely move down there if I were offered the job. A 90 minute commute each way doesn't really appeal to me, but with a wife a 2 small kids, they might have some input.

I'm also in the process of interviewing with another company in Indianapolis which is about 5 miles away. If they make an offer it would come in the next week to 10 days. If i got an offer it would be hard to turn down since I'm so early in the process with Honda and they were open about the process moving slowly.

Either job would be a great opportunity and it's good to have options.

 

[rhino]

Typically they will ask STAR format questions, Situation-Task-Action-Results. There will likely be more than 1 person on phone with you, & they'll likely ask you a similar question towards end to see of your answer matches. At least that was how they did me when I interviewed @ Ohio plant many moons ago.

Do you have an example or two?

 

[MCgrease08]

Do you have an example or two?

They asked several behavioral questions.

-What was one of your biggest accomplishments at work?
-Talk about a time when you had to perform several tasks at once. How did you handle it?
-Name a time you had difficulty understanding or following a process. What did you do to overcome it?
-Explain a situation where you had to deal with dramatic change in a previous job. What did you do to adapt to it?

I was prepared for these and tried to tie my answers to a specific number, either a percentage or a dollar amount that impacted the company's bottom line.

Ex: I used to work as a news writer for a TV station that was going through bankruptcy and was cutting jobs while expanding the number of broadcast hours. We went from having three writers for a four hour show to having one writer (me) responsible for a full six hours. Because they let the other two writers go, I helped the company save $75,000 in annual labor costs while also expanding morning news content by 50%.

Stuff like that.

 

[Speedybruin4]

That's great to hear that it went well. If you do end up moving down that way, I would be more than glad to show you around.

 

[MCgrease08]

Quick update. I have an interview at the plant scheduled for Sept. 2.

I expect I'll get an offer from the other company sometime next week, which I doubt I'd be able to turn down, but until I have an offer in hand I'm moving forward with Honda. We will see what happens.

I feel very lucky to have two amazing opportunities in front of me.

 

[actaeon277]

Good Luck

 

[Clay]

Inlaws live in greenstucky, and wife is from there, so I'm there fairly often. Nice small town, only one real gun shop called "guns and tackle". Good news here is they are moving to a new store, a much bigger store which they needed. Yes they do sell guns in the barbershop, but it was pretty much a joke the one time I've been there.

Not a whole lot to do really, but it is fairly quiet and not much crime that I've ever seen. There are a few chain restaurants and a few 'mom and pop' places around. Most of the mom and pop places are pretty good. My wife still craves pizza from the local pizza king every time we go. The town has grown a little since honda came in, but not to much, just enough to bring a few places to town. It's definitely still very much a small farming community for the most part.

I wouldn't mind living there, but the opportunity has never presented itself. You're still close to Indy and Cinci so if you want the big city on occasion drive an hour one way or the other on 74.

good luck!!

 

[MCgrease08]

Thanks for the info Clay. I look forward to the visit.

I'm sure they sell guns out of some of the barber shops in my old neighborhood on the near north side of Indy, but likely under a completely different set of circumstances.

 

[Twangbanger]

I sold my house there - at a loss - one year before Honda announced they were building that plant. Drat! Location, location, location? How about "timing, timing, timing."

I'm not going to lie, there isn't much going on in GB. There's a nice small country club, North Branch Golf Course a bit closer to Batesville, and Guns & Tackle is a decent small gun store (not sure if Marvin is still involved in it day to day). There's a very small reservoir where you can fish. Wally World pre-dated Honda by a few years, and they built a roadhouse type restaurant since Honda came to town, as well as a small movie theatre, a Chili's and a decent Mexican place in what used to be the Cattlemens' family-dinner type place. Dentist, veterinarian, the basics. And yes, as Kirk said, "Roger's Barber Shop and Guns" is a real thing, but it's nothing special (the atmosphere is like 500 Guns in Indy, with a barber but maybe only one-tenth the inventory). The Sheriff took a bit of convincing to approve my ATF Form 4, so there's that (may have changed).

And the tree growing out of the courthouse tower, yeah (I found it quaint that they'd replaced it a few times).

If you go there, and your life activities will take you to Indy very much, I'd recommend buying a place farther up I-74 towards 465. But do be aware, for some reason I-74 can get tied up really bad in winter sometimes. Cincinnati is an hour the other way on 74, which might be appealing (but I think the residential parts are a bit longer hike than Indy). Columbus also isn't far via 46.

 

[MCgrease08]

Update - I got an offer from another company and accepted it. I called Honda yesterday and cancelled the interview.

I'm bummed I didn't get to see the factory, but excited about the new gig.

Thanks again to everyone for the comments.

 

[bloodandgutsmurphy]

I wish you the best of you in your new career

 

[Joe G]

Congrats!!