I got an email out of the blue from someone asking me if I was still available. I had applied to a position back in June and it was then September. I was called in and the outgoing PM interviewed me in a hallway at the company because a conference room had not been reserved. Apparently he worked at client site. It was very casual, but odd. He decided I was the right candidate and started the process to make the offer, but I had to meet the SVP first. I had to drive to Annapolis, which was where he was located (the PM was in Fairfax). After meeting with the SVP, I was told I was being offered the job. The hiring process was confusing after that. A recruiter had contacted me, but also another lady I thought was the recruiter, but turns out she was on the program. She was a PCA, but acted as the onboarding person for the program. She worked from home, however. The recruiter was located in California, which was more confusing, and got my offer letter wrong twice. Once I signed the offer letter, the PM contacted me and asked if I could move up my start date by a couple of weeks so we could overlap before his last day and he could train me since there was a lot of technical things to learn for the program since it was a large network. After I went through the trouble of accommodating him, I found he was to overlap with me only two days because he wanted coverage to go on vacation. After that, I was on my own. It's been a fairytale ever since. Recruiters are a nightmare. They can't find their own fingers much less a fully cleared, qualified candidate. No wonder the hiring manager called me himself. I actually applied to the position and a recruiter never even called me!

Online application, phone and in person interviews - 4 total interviews, qualifications must be met to be interviewed, corporate culture outstanding, professional recruiters involved as liaisons throughout process.