Applications for the position are accepted online through AT&T's Taleo portal. It comprises of the basic application questions such as identity, previous employment, education, etc.
After you submit your application, you receive an E-Mail asking you to choose a time where you can call into a teleconference (also from AT&T) and listen into the inner details of what the position entitles. There is also an optional Powerpoint follow but is not required that shows you what is being discussed over the phone in visual detail.
After the presentation is done, the hiring manager asks you to choose between set times for on-campus testing at their location which is only optional if you are applying from out of state. All others must come to the testing center in Ocala, Florida. 9:00 A.M. or 1:00 P.M.
When you choose to go to the campus for testing, you go straight to the security desk and give them your ID and sign in and wait in the lobby with other testers. Make small talk, etc. Be there fifteen minute early at the latest. I was there thirty minutes early and got to make small talk with the others. All dressed in business casual with few exceptions and everyone carrying briefcases with their resumé. The resume is not necessary, all you are doing is testing in their building.
Two test proctors will come into the lobby and lead you to a computer room. The door will be left open because they want you to take the test with the noise outside in order to simulate what it will be like working in a call center environment. The test comprises of three types of tests taken on the computer. The first is a personality exam, the second is an arithmetic exam, the third is another personality exam judging your actions to situations in a work environment. The fourth is actually a call center simulation with a thirty minute orientation video within it. All in all it took me about an hour and forty five minutes of the three hour examination time allowed. But that's because I'm awesome.
Those who passed the testing were called by a hiring manager from a California area code. Others were given form rejections by E-mail.
I was called. I came into an interview and it lasted about an hour or so and it was a behavioral interview, asking you how to responded to situations that came from your previous work experience. Then, you are asked to sell the interviewer something. I tried upselling her from a hypothetical basic internet package to one that was speedier, an example of what the call center does.
After an hour, I left the call center and four days later I got a call from a hiring manager saying I passed the interview and was extended a job offer. The job offer was pending a background check, employment check (done through a third party HR website) and a drug test that they pay for, to be taken within three days of receiving the e-mail. I pissed in a cup and apparently I passed. Whoopee.
Within six days of the test, I was offered a starting salary of $24k a year, with raises every six months and extremely comprehensive benefits. The entire process from start to finish took three and a half weeks.