This was during the spring, & I'm in MT zone, thus it was an hour earlier in AZ. The recruiter didn't seem to care & called me after 7PM repeatedly. She definitely let on that she had technical experience. It took me a while to realize she was just your average recruiter. Felt like she didn't want me to know that, so at one point I asked her the question: “Do you have some DBA experience?” The issue was that she would ask a technical question like: “What is the difference between a RIGHT & LEFT outer join.” I’d answer & it wasn’t fitting into her script exactly. Very annoying. The next interview was with my future manager. That interview was great. I nailed all but one question. I owned up to it. It was about the SQL Profiler and I answered “ya, I’d have to resort to google on that.” They actually liked that answer & told me how much they appreciated it later on. A few days later, they asked to schedule a flight to AZ. I said yes & got 1 day off from my current employer. They picked me up in a car & brought me to corporate in Scottsdale. I was an hour late cause of flight delays. I sat at corp. security for a good 15 - 20 minutes while they figured out what to do with me. Finally, was led to a small room in HR. Another 10 minutes, then the recruiter came in, talked for a minute mostly about Bob Parsons & how much of a God he is then went over a mission statement on the wall written by Bob. She then gave me a timed test: 15 min. 100 questions. Stupid IQ test. Mostly used a lot of old English, word association. I wasn't told there would be an IQ test & I wasn't prepared at all – left at 4 AM to get there that morning. Anyway, I ended up running out of time at question 65 & failed it, that being said – I got 63 out of the 65 question correct. I chewed the recruiter out for not telling me I “had” to finish it to pass (opposite of most IQ tests – it’s more important to get correct answers) & she let me re-take it. Of course I passed. She did apologize for not explaining it. Then, there was a code test. It was easy, but there were a few cryptic questions which I left question marks in: Example: "What is the difference between a batch & inline query?" I basically wrote down the definition of an inline query & since “batch” is too vague, I just wrote "too vague" or something like that. Also, the recruiter wouldn’t stop talking about how amazing the job is but how I’m going to work harder here than anywhere else. I kept saying, "really? Is this job over 100 hours a week? I certainly hopenot!" At this point, I felt like this was completely not for me. Finally interviewed with my future manager & a peer in person for the rest of the day. This went much better. He apologized for the pointless test and we actually got down to some real Q&A. Turns out I was a good fit. Although, I wasn’t sure my hiring manager would get passed HR after what happened & how I basically dissed their entire process. 2 hours later, in the airport bar & get a phone call with an offer. The letter came 2 days later with a salary amount which was more than reasonable. The bonus amount was stated as a straight percentage. Later I found out it’s only 50% of that for the first yr. I signed the offer letter & faxed it back. However, by this time I was dealing with a new recruiter for some reason. Probably cause I p!ssed off the other one. The new recruiter asked for a start date, I told her 2 weeks. However, they did not tell me it was more than just a criminal background check. This is where some issues started… They did call all of my old employers – every single one. One of them didn’t exist anymore & I had to explain that. Also, they didn’t call my references until this point. They ignored my instructions for calling them and so they could only get a hold of one – no surprise. Then we got to the drug test. I was on prescription drugs (pain killers) & knew the test would fail. I made them aware of this & they seemed very annoyed about it. I told them, I had a prescription. They said that after I failed the test, it would delay the hire process & I’d have to present the prescription once they asked for it. BS!!! I had already given notice at this point & was considering a lawsuit. But, instead I went off the meds for 4 days (painful) & took the test after that to avoid the complications. Luckily, I passed & didn’t have to deal with this. Another 1 week went by & everything came back ok. However, during this time they went ahead & scheduled air travel + hotel for new hire training. The reservations where to a nice place etc. However, this is where I started to get p!ssed again. The recruiter sends me the reservations & gives me a brief (1 paragraph) copy/paste of part of the travel policy. I asked for the reimbursement policy & what’s ok to expense / meals etc. Never got an answer. Turned out to be fine, I just assumed some things & was mostly correct. All aside, I love working here. Just not going thru their interview / hiring steps.