I approached the company from a listing on Linkedin on 06/18.
Then I submitted my resume via their online portal. It's been a while since the interview as it is about a year and a half later. I had been thinking about writing this as the experience was pretty bad, aside from the recruiter's great help. The company may have changed since the occurrences below, but overall the interview was one that showed where they were as an organization and their place in the insurance market. More importantly, how I was treated as a candidate was an experience I wanted to share so that others on glassdoor would be prepared with this knowledge and expectation.
Their recruiter approached me via email. We had correspondence over several days where there were questions asked about my qualifications and I inquired about their company, its stability, work/life balance, etc.
Later, there was a phone interview that went well with one exception, the salary start.
The starting pay was less than I was making and I politely declined to proceed with next steps.
After about a week or so the recruiter contacted me again about a raise in the salary start.
I asked to be considered again and the process was started again. There were also now 2 positions within the strategic marketing and development department that matched my skill set.
There was another phone call with the same recruiter that was somewhat informative knowing that she wasn't a technical recruiter and not as well versed in applications I was familiar with and what I may be able to offer in creating user experiences for the company's web assets. There was also a very strong emphasis on the new salary for the job description and that no negotiating would be entertained at all.
I also asked if it would be possible to see the environment while I was there, as I wasn't used to a communal workspace. I was told there was no way to see the workplace or department because of privacy/medical information concerns.
An interview was scheduled and I showed in a suit with an iPad as it is usually customary to present visual work processes, challenges, and solutions for a designer interview.
I was greeted around 11am after checking in. There was a wait. I was eventually greeted by the potential supervisor and asked to come in. On the way there were a few times where my escort was approached to talk about future discussions or meetings about projects. Then a panel took shape with the head of several departments not there yet. At this point there was a web developer, the potential supervisor, and another person within the department. There was talk of where they were going to lunch.
After introductions, I was asked to answer a series of questions that related to my work background and skills. After this there were multiple questions from each person in the panel. They were from a list that each of the panel had. Most were relative. When trying to correlate them back to a scenario that I had worked on or show them, there was a feeling of impatience from the panel.
Also, I started to see all of it's members begin to glance at a clock on the wall behind me. One of the panel was very negative, citing what I was showing was half completed. It was a prototype, but was relative as the job description usually starts with these.
There were then several more glances at the clock. Then, I asked them some questions. There was a lot of talk and explanation that the department and its marketing were now in-house and its infancy. There were not yet computers allocated or software decisions for a workflow of output of products. This was of concern to me.
Again, there were more looks at the clock.
The interview which seemed to only get worse was ended promptly.
There was then more talk of where the panel was going for lunch.
I was then escorted out of the workplace where we were then approached by more people at the company wanting to talk about their upcoming work.
I didn't get the job, but was glad in the end. You never know if these are obligatory because you were in a pool or if there is even a position with an actual job description attached.
What I learned most of all is that the company was undergoing some sort of massive change.
Also, that they weren't very kind to candidates. This goes a long way in predicting how life would be like in the company.
