I applied online. I received an email a couple of days later for the online assessment. It's really not as bad as people say. Maybe do some practice questions if you're as rusty at standardized testing as I am. The coding part was a joke for me as I have no coding experience. The whole thing took me about 1 hour and 40 minutes. The personality test is pretty standard with some random math questions thrown in. The phone interview was not the easy chat some people have described. I had a couple of situational/behavioral questions thrown at me immediately and then the guy read from his script for awhile. I had a couple of questions ready, but he answered most of them during his script reading, so I had to come up with more and more. He kept prompting me to ask more questions. Honestly, it was painful. I asked at least 10 questions. The guy was really script-focused and I tried a couple times to engage in a more conversational manner, but he was not having it.
I didn't think I'd get any further in the process, but a week later they invited me to the on-site interview. I went out for the dinner the night before and it was so awkward. The employee clearly didn't want to be there and was not interested in us at all. We got lost walking to the restaurant and ended up going to some crappy place in a mall complex, waited 45 minutes for food, and made painful small talk the whole time. I would say it was a waste of time, but I met a couple of people I spent the next day with so it was nice have some familiar faces. Interview day was actually not as intense as you'd think a day of interviewing would be: the whole thing went from 8:30 to around 1pm (You'd stay longer if you were interviewing for multiple roles.) I actually felt like I did really well. The conversation with the project manager was relaxed: we spoke to a sweaty man in flip flops who read through a piece of paper to ensure he covered the finer points. Make sure you have TONS of questions ready. The presentation is just a chance to see your speaking skills so do something you're really comfortable with (and something your audience won't know anything about). This was in front of my HR person and two disengaged employees (they must have drawn the short sticks.) I was expecting questions but only got one during and two after. The 1:1 interview and case study were really good. The questions aren't difficult at all. (I think because they recruit heavily out of university, there aren't a lot of experience-based questions. It's much more how you think and what your personality is.) Case study was really straight forward and simple. Everyone was really friendly and genuine. I guess I was expecting more glazed eyes based on the reviews talking about the cult-like atmosphere, but everyone was very down-to-earth and honest about their jobs and the company. I felt like I gave strong answers and didn't make a fool of myself at any point.
I think I really dropped the ball in the HR interview. The woman was really abrasive. We went through my entire history point-by-point and some of the questions I felt were aggressive and offensive. Be prepared to defend your life choices up to this point. (Why this university? Why that job? Why did you graduate at this time? Why did you get your master's degree? Why did you move to this place?) And then for salary expectations, I wrote 70K+ which I thought was reasonable based on my research, but she shot me down saying, "we would never offer that." According to her, entry-levels make, at the top end, low 60's up to mid 60's with bonuses. But I'm not entry level and so was expecting the opportunity to negotiate. After all that, the HR lady said that the next starting dates for project managers were JANUARY. Nearly 5 months away. (I spoke to another candidate later who'd interviewed for technical services and had gotten the same news.)
A week and a half later the same HR lady called me with a brief "we're moving forward with other candidates." When I asked for any feedback, she said it was all confidential and couldn't tell me anything. Disappointing after all of that, that I couldn't defend myself to their misgivings (or at least know what they were). They didn't contact my references.
All in all, it was a clear and well-paced interview process, if not filled with endless hoops to jump through. Overall, I'm guessing I didn't get the position because I'm not their target demographic of malleable university students. (I'm 30 - guess I missed the Epic boat!) Also if I was to do it again, I'd leave the salary expectations blank and let them do the talking. And I'd act more enthusiastic. In the end though, despite all the tests and interviews, it felt like random selection. I was surprised I got through the first round and then surprised I didn't get a job offer. So I it's cliched advice from me: just do your best and be yourself!