I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Epic in Nov 2010
Interview
I received an email asking me to apply online. They found my resume. I received an email back that I then needed to complete an on-line personality test. After that a phone interview was setup. A few days later I was contacted about flying to Madison for an onsite visit and interview. The company paid for everything (plane, meals, hotel and taxi). Everyone was super nice; almost too nice.
I have been out in the work force for over 15 years and felt like I was back on a college campus. People interviewing me were very young and barely out of college. I was asking them real world type of questions and half the time I got "deer in the headlight stares" back. These are the people evaluating me for a job?? Also they are very vague about the position you are interviewing for and the actual job responsibilities. One of the taxi drivers told me that Judy (the founder) likes to hire recent graduates. Judy thinks it better to hire recent graduates, since in her mind, it only takes 3 years to full train them and some with real work experience it takes 6 years to unprogram and then re-train. I was there for a day and a half and they were pumping candidates through the process. It was a real cattle call.
There were way too many tests (programming, math, spelling). Spelling - That is why there is a spell checker in Word. At some point I felt like I was taking the SATs again!! Also they wanted to know my HS and college GPAs, and SAT, ACT and GMAT scores. What is the point? My real world experience should speak for itself! I knew I wouldn't get the job since I brought too much real experience and did not fit into thier age demographic. If anything I got to visit Madison for the first time.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
What good and bad things would your references say about you.
The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Epic in Aug 2010
Interview
The first step was an email from HR asking to complete a personality test. Once the personality test was completed HR contacted me to set up a phone interview (1 week). The HR interview was very easy and straight forward. The first question I was asked was my SAT scores followed by questions about my resume. The next day, I was sent an email asking me to take a "skills test" at a nearby library (2 weeks). My test results were evaluated and I was no longer under consideration for the position (1 week).
Don't waste your time interviewing unless you are a top performer on standardized tests and have taken at least one programming class. From the beginning when HR asked for my SAT scores through taking the "skills test," it was evident that they are only looking for a person who tests well on standardized tests (I don't). Work experience, University ranking and GPA do not seem to play a significant role in the selection criteria.
The other posts were very helpful during the interview and testing process. Through the initial interview, the culture appeared as discussed in previous posts.