I applied through college or university. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Esri (Charlotte, NC)
Interview
- Initial phone screening: Covers questions on the candidate’s professional experience and the desire of wanting to work for ESRI.
-Technical phone interview: The group lead will ask several technical questions relating to geodatabase topics. For example...What are delta tables? Rec and post workflow. Creating database versions. Creating users and setting permissions.
- Second phone interview: The HR office will call to ask a few more personality questions. For example...Talk about a time you didn't get along with a co-worker and how you resolved the issue. Where do you see yourself in five years? They will ask about salary expectations. If you say something too high, chances are they might talk about how you can work more hours throughout the week so your income can be a little closer to what you’re asking.
- In-person interview (Charlotte, NC): HR will book you a flight, rental car, and hotel for a four day trip (two travel days, one day to explore the area, and one full 8 hour day of interviewing). Over the course of the interview day you will probably meet with about 8 different people. HR will brief you at the start of the day to cover the overall organizational structure of the support department and then give you an outlined schedule of who you will be meeting with throughout the day.
Next they will bring in one of the support analyst and you will have to teach them how to make a paper airplane while they sit behind you. They will be evaluating your abilities of giving instructions without being able to see what your customer is working on.
One of the group leads will then meet with you to talk about a typical day in the support section and how they monitor support cases. They will briefly go over the different systems they use.
Next they do a technical interview. It’s important to remember the material that the analyst covers because towards the end of the day another analyst will quiz you on the info to see how much you retained.
Next is a logic interview consisting of a sudoku like puzzle, a card game, and a riddle. My guess is they are trying to gauge your thought process on how you approach and solve each one.
You are then put in front of a computer for a writing portion. You have to complete 2 of the 3 essay questions within 30 minutes. One of them is giving driving directions based on a map. Another is a short video of Jack Dangermond giving a motivational talk before a user conference.
During your lunch break, you are paired with one of the analyst for a more relaxed interview to ask about hobbies and your experience.
After lunch you will have two more analysts meet with you to see if you retained the info from the morning’s technical interview.
Next you meet with the group lead that will most likely be your supervisor if hired. He or she will follow up to see how your day is going and what you think of the company so far.
You then get to meet the Support Operations Manager. He has a business background therefore he’s easier to talk to unlike some of the technical analyst that can be a little socially awkward. He will ask about your professional experience and then ask a few STAR questions.
The day is wrapped up with one of the HR staff. They will ask how you thought the day went and what was your favorite interview during the day and why.
They followed up with me a week later to let me know I did NOT get the position and that they encourage me to apply for other positions in the future. I asked if there was any feedback or areas they would like to see more experience in. They didn’t provide any feedback on why I wasn’t selected other than that they had found a better candidate. With a GIS masters degree and 5 years of GIS experience, I thought I had a good shot. I thought the whole interview went great therefore I was shocked when I got the rejection.
Good luck. Practice STAR questions and be prepared to answer the typical "tell me a time when you resolved a conflict" type questions. Oh and practice making paper airplanes.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Esri (Charlotte, NC) in Feb 2017
Interview
4 interviews (over month long process)
First interview- phone screening with an employee in the Charlotte office (asked me problem-solving puzzle questions, questions about my resume, why I wanted this job, what I knew about this job, and about the hiring/interview process. This was about 30-45 mins long.
2. I was passed on to the technical interview which was pretty intense not going to lie. I was interviewed by an employee at the Charlotte office who had the same job title as me. You are allowed to google and have ArcGIS open. They will as you questions you won't know, the key is figuring them out.
3. I was passed onto HR in Redlands for a regular phone interview with an HR representative. She ask things like "how do you handle angry customers" "what do you know about this job" "what do you know about ESRI" and so on...
4. I was asked to go in for an 8-hour interview onsite at the Charlotte office. You will be prepared as long as you investigate, prepare, and are ready for different types of interviews. They are fairly laid back interviews (especially the technical ones), lunch is an interview too but more of about the location and what Charlotte has to offer. A good tip I would offer up is: pay attention to the questions asked in the technical phone interview. Research these and be ready to discuss these in more detail. It really helps!! Also be prepared for a written and puzzle interview...These are really fun and makes you think outside the box. Overall, I had a great experience with ESRI. The wait to find out if I got the job or not almost killed me (background check, calling references, the whole 9 yards). But it was well worth the wait! Be patient!