Being a contractor before, my journey started out with 5 years of oncall contracting work covering emergencies, and inspections, I saw that there was an opening in my area so I applied, had 2 telephone interviews, The Senior Regional Engineer flew out to interview with me near my home town, and later I was flown to Corporate in Rocklin, CA for a full day interviewing with various senior team members and even a team lunch. A very busy, exciting and eye opening day. I was formally offered the position after reference review, a background check and some other paperwork for HR. And here I am.

After filling out the online application, I was contacted by the recruiter via e-mail to set up an initial chat via phone. The initial phone interview asked some basic questions, confirmed the information I had entered on the web form, verified that I was still interested in pursuing the position, and just generally confirmed that I would be a viable candidate and a good fit for the position. After these first steps, I was given an opportunity to do another interview via phone with the person who would be my direct supervisor (the regional engineering manager). We had chatted at length previously, so he and I were already very much on the same page about the position. Next I was asked to fill out some additional paperwork including a formal application, motor vehicle records check authorization, and sign a statement of faith (they are a Christian organization and their mission and values reflect this). The next phase was a trip to their headquarters in Rocklin, California for a day long in-person interview process with the engineering team. They made all arrangements (air, car, hotel) and paid for the whole trip. Never once was I expected to pay out of pocket. This trip was started with a tour of the facility, continued with a functional overview of the engineering team at HQ, and I was interviewed throughout. I spent 30-60 minute blocks all day long with people in the various engineering teams (NOC, rack build/repair shop, RF proof, satellite distribution, operations, site development). Overall the process was relatively casual and laid back. I never once felt stressed or intimidated by the process. The whole thing was more like a series of casual conversations. Lunch with the team was a highlight. The day ended with a conversation with the regional engineering manager who would be my supervisor. After the trip to Rocklin, I was asked to fill out an authorization for a background check. Once the background check was well underway, I was given an offer letter and start date contingent on the background check clearing (which it did several days later). The start date was set to coincide with a two day employee orientation session in California (again, all travel completely arranged and paid for). Engineers spend the remainder of the week after orientation for some training specific to the engineering department. Overall the process took about 60 days. The whole process was extremely thorough yet transparent. Never once was I "left hanging".