I first spoke to a recruiter and advanced to the next stage of the hiring process in Chicago. I was interviewed by two strategy analysts and the department heads in three short behavioral interviews. The questions were fair and I was given a case at the end of my third interview which was not too difficult.

In-house recruiter found my profile online and vetted my interest in a conversation. This was professional and well handled -- got a clear description of the job and the requirements, why they thought there could be a fit. Likewise, the internal HR team at the local office was likewise buttoned up and very congenial. My issue is that I would have been relocating for the position and I think either this is a relatively unusual situation for them or they haven't yet gotten the hang of how to "sell" the agency and its location. The visit was incredibly short -- I met with four people and assumed for this reason that it was a round to vet me down from a longer list of potential applications. I had neither time for lunch nor time to simply hang out at the agency let alone in town. It turned out this was the one and only visit they thought I would have, which was very strange both for me and for them. Felt rushed and gave me a sense that they were over-eager to close the spot -- an indication that maybe it was going to be a churn and burn type of job that they were having a hard time selling. Maybe they thought they didn't need to sell it, but I didn't signal that as far as I was aware. I was interested but doing my own due-diligence, too. Beyond this, for the most part the senior staff I met with were congenial, with the exception of one manager who literally showed up 15 minutes late and left 15 minutes early for a 45 minute meeting, with vague apologies. Everyone gets crunched for time, but to me this seemed a preview for how much time and attention I could expect from my colleague, and it was not attractive. Better to cancel/reschedule outright than be so flippant, I think. Others were interested in me and I got an offer, so they weren't blowing me off because they were sure I wasn't worthy.