1. After submitting my application online, I was contacted by HR for a lengthy online test (personality, verbal, math). This shows that they get a large volume of applicants, and are eager to eliminate those who don't fit into a certain type of "culture". The test itself looks like a mini SAT test. Make sure you brush up on your 3D/spatial visualization skills. That caught me off guard and took me longer than I thought it would. 2. They got back to me right away after the test, and HR set up a phone interview with me. The phone interview was largely resume-based: "what kind of research experiences do you have" that type of questions. Very simple and straightforward. Make sure you know your resume/experiences well. I was asked to give a salary expectation, I picked one that was similar to my previous job's salary and got a "hmmmm, I see" from HR. I knew it was above their salary range based on glassdoor data., but I backed it up by restating my qualifications (STEM Master's, a few years of work experience, etc.) 3. At the end of the phone interview, I was told during the phone interview that I would get a writing test. The topic itself is pretty easy, but the sources are limited to internet based, free, open sources. You have a week to do this test, which isn't really that much time especially if you work full-time. Be prepared to devote at least 20 hours to this paper. The paper itself bored me to tears, and thinking that I'd be doing that full time at this Hanover job honestly made me panic a bit. 4. A few days after I submitted my paper, I got an automated email saying that I was no longer being considered. I just want to sum everything up by saying that if you love research and writing papers full-time, this is the job for you. I am glad it didn't work out for me, because I would be miserable spending my days googling and writing papers on a full-time basis. I also entered the interview process with a lot of enthusiasm and armed myself with lots of knowledge by researching the company rigorously, but those qualifies did not appear to be important to them.

I met with the director of one of the content areas after a networking event. The director was very friendly, asked appropriate questions, and gave me a clear insight of what the role involved and the company culture. This was an informal interview prior to a more formal interview process with appropriate personnel. She didn't have an opening appropriate for my skill set, but she is going to forward my information to the appropriate folks within the organization. I'm hopeful of a second, more formal interview in the next week.