Charles River Associates Analyst Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Mar 2011 (took 4 months)

Applied through website, and 2 weeks later received a phone interview by group hiring. The call included an Associate (2nd year), and a Principal. They were pretty nice, asked me personality questions, then asked me to explain a regression in layman's terms. Then they asked for a writing sample and a copy of my transcript in email. They told they'd get back to me in a few weeks.

Three months later, the Principal contacted me again for an in person interview, which I thought was a bit bizarre. I set up a time to go in. Initially met with HR, and he had no information about me, and he was extremely confused about the position for which I interviewed which he thought was filled already. Interviewed with two economists first, who asked me about my skills and experience with SAS and Stata and why I wanted to work for them. Then interviewed with two VPs who basically talked the entire time. One mentioned they had finished with hiring, but may have needed extra help. Lunch with all the analysts. Then last interview with group I was interviewing for. Again, it was a personality assessment. They told me they'd contact me within a week.

3 weeks later they finally sent me an automated email telling me my application was no longer accepted. I'm guessing they were hiring based on a project or need. A month later, HR contacted me and told me they would not reimburse me for travel even though they had sent me travel reimbursement forms prior to the interview. I was pretty displeased to say the very least. It was a process that stretched out way too long, was extremely unorganized, and I felt there was no respect for the candidate's position. I had been interviewing with other companies in the area, and arranged my travel plans around those interviews too, and had I known they would not reimburse me, I could have had the other companies pay for my plane ticket instead of my train and bus tickets.