Booz Allen Hamilton Senior Associate Interview

Interview Details – I applied for a Senior Associate position on the Decision Analytics team (government side not commercial) at Booz Allen at their McLean Headquarters. The process started in September 2012, and recently concluded in December of 2012, after 4 interviews, and several months of waiting and misinformation, I did not get the offer.

My skills may have not been a match for the job, and I completely accept their decision. But I'm writing this review so that potential candidate know what they're up against when interviewing, and to highlight the unprofessional practices of their HR department.

The process involved 2 phone interviews and 2 in person interviews. But here's the big catch with Booz Allen - when they interview you, they're not really interviewing you for a particular position (though they don't tell you that) they're interviewing you to understand what you skills are to figure out what team you might or might not be a fit for. So obtaining a subsequent interview does not mean you're progressing or advancing and getting closer to an offer, it just means HR hasn't communicated with the people doing the interviewing, and they're simply shuffling you around, and having different groups talk to you.

Each round at Booz Allen is a black box - no one will tell you how many rounds there are in the process, and each interveiw was basically about "let's go over your resume". There were very few other questions, case interviews etc. By the final round, one interviewer talked about how they needed a Microsoft SQL expert, yet I never claimed to have any profficiency in SQL. But it took months of preparing and multiple interview to get to that point, only to be told that that's the skill they need right now.

 Finally, a particular HR associate also "forgot" to tell me that I was being called in for a final interview. She cancelled on me with less than 24 hours notice, said they were rescheduling the interview and then disappeared. When I finally called to ask if I was being considered for the final interview her response was "didn't anyone tell you?" I still didn't know that meant. So I had to speak two other HR people who claimed that I was being considered and invited me to the final interview event. After being asked about SQL repeatedly, even though it wasn't a skill on my resume, I was rejected. But here's the BEST PART of this review. Even though I was rejected for the Senior Associate position, no email was sent. So after waiting another month, i emailed the same HR associate from the beginning to figure out what my status was and she said that she I had been rejected weeks ago and she had sent me an email weeks ago. This was also untrue, as I never received an email from anyone, not to my spam or anywhere, I had succuessfully recieved all emails from Booz Allen in the past. This statement came from the same person who "forgot" to email me to tell me about the final interview.

All in all, buyer beware, the process is a black box, tons of miscommunication and your interests as a candidate come dead last. Please be respectful towards your candidates, you're setting a bad precedent.