I was able to receive my interview actually because of the fact that I had a referral, being someone I knew was friends with a higher up. I actually did not have direct experience with the job, but they were looking someone with the ability to quickly learn the software and programs required of the job who would be passionate to grow into it. I had an initial phone screen with the director and manager of the department, who explained to me the basics of the job, and I explained my background and what I was looking for, which took about 20 minutes. Afterwards, I was invited in for an in-person interview which took about 2 hours including a long wait. I first spoke with an HR rep who gave me a folder of all the benefits who also asked some basic initial typical interview questions. Afterwards, I spoke with the manager and director of the department again and they basically spent an hour showing me the software and what I would possibly be doing with it, then explaining to me the in's and out's of the job to see if I could see myself doing it. I was actually not that interested in the job after they described everything to me, despite the fact that I really liked the company and their mission, but I could not bring myself to fake doing something I would not enjoy even though everything seemed good. It seemed like if I could show passion and interest I would have gotten an offer due to the solid referral I had. Overall I just wanted to share my own experience interviewing here as a referred candidate.

The interview process was very fast. First, there was a phone interview, and then I went in for a 4 tiered interview done in one session. The first round was a written exam, then a one-on-one, then a panel of two, last a three-person panel. Each section of the interview was slotted for 30 minutes. It was very long and felt repetitive. When I spoke to the interviewers they did not even know the other people who were interviewing me which felt weird considering it was a medium-sized company. For my last interview, the hiring manager was about 10-15 minutes late and re-asked me questions that I had already answered and it felt like my time was being disrespected as I had to reanswer half of the questions that were already asked. The hiring manager seemed to question my experience to the point where he was asking why I put a specific job title down even though that is the title I was hired for. He seemed to be less personable and more accusatory and this was very offputting towards the end of a very long 2 hour interview process. Although I was not offered the position I would have declined just because of his demeanor and poor communication.