My first encounter with SSA was at a college job fair about 3 months from graduation. The lady there was dressed to the nines and seemed a little snobby. I later found out she was a manager. Haha. She had a poker face and seemed uninterested taking everyone's resume. I thought I wouldn't hear from them. I received an email a couple weeks later that directed me to their web testing site. I took a damn long 2 or more hour long personality assessment test that keeps on asking the same Q's till it gets your true feelings... can't be a faker on that test. A couple weeks later, I went in for a panel interview and the snobby lady was there again, this time she seemed nice but tough. There were 5 or 6 managers and experts present. First each asked a question, then I was given an complex law with many points and about 3 minutes to digest it, then I was asked to apply that to a scenario and another 4-5 grilling questions. I felt good about it but wasn't perfect. Maybe a month later, as another employer had interest in me, I was called for an interview at a semi local office with what turned out to be the Regional hiring manager and the branch manager. It was maybe 30 minutes long. 4-5 questions more on how I handle stress and the public...also on personality. Next, a couple weeks later, I had to drive an hour away to what turned out being my field office where I was informally interviewed by what was to be my Manager. She asked Q's more on personality and after she took me to get fingerprinted. Almost 3 months passed and I was already working as an assistant manager in training at Target and he Regional manager called to ask if I was still interested and if so, I report to training in 2 weeks. I accepted. As a scholar, with a b.a. in politics sci, I was a GS-7 and went thru long and complicated training class via satellite from Atlanta then toughed it out to GS- 11 step 3 before resigning due to the immense stress.