End of July: I apply online for Progressive via a recruiter. It was a pretty standard application. Nothing out of the ordinary. I forgot to put some things in my application and they were very quick to email me. From what they ask I take they want to see you with a good history of job stability, with at least a year of working with you latest employer. I was sent a link to take a series of assessment tests. The first part was a skills test that involves some simple math equations dealing with addition, subtraction, ratios, and the like. Other questions were more similar to the kind you would see on an IQ test. For example, looking at XYZ graph you can infer that [input observed trend]. Then there was a behavioral section. These questions were trying to determine how I would respond under certain situations dealing with peer pressure and stress in the work environment. There were some personality questions too. All in all I believe it took about an hour and a half maybe to complete. It was timed but they give you a few hours to complete it. I did not get an immediate response. But I was notified that I did pass the assessments.
Phone interview: The interviewer asked nothing but behavioral questions. Tell about a time when you couldn’t complete a task/had a disagreement/did something to increase your efficiency, aka STAR (situation/task/action/results) questions. I did a little research on how to answer these so I didn’t have too much trouble answering them in the format they want. My phone interviewer was very helpful and understanding. At the end of the phone interview I chatted with her for a bit, and she gave me some helpful tips. Although the phone interview is another pre-screen selection, it’s also a warm-up for how the face to face interviews are going to be conducted. They want you to be very specific and give real life situations. They want you to go into detail on what you did in each situation, listing step by step, and a detail of the results that lead to those steps. I tended to focus too much on the situation and not what I did about them, was the feedback I got at the end, but after answering a few I was getting the hang of it. After a few days I got a call saying I passed the phone interview and that they’ll begin the background check.
Face-to-face interview : He asks me basically the same type of questions the phone interviewer asked, all while taking notes. I was allowed to skip questions to think about and come back to them, but after answering so many behavioral questions he deemed he’d gotten what he wanted out of those questions. He asks if I have any questions. I inquire about his experiences and what he likes about the company. He has very good things to say and loves what he does. They whole interview takes about 30-40 minutes. I’m then taken to a current employee and was able to listen in on calls for about another 20 or so minutes. From what I can tell the people there are nice and easy going. So the manager/supervisor for the department I’ll be working in comes and gets me for his portion of the interview – and it’s the same questions. To be honest I can’t say it’s the same verbatim, but they are all starting to sound the same. I can tell though that some of the behavioral questions this time around were a little tailored for this department, concerning with how I deal under pressure, and when I come across things I didn’t know, and lot about dealing with unruly customers. After about another 40 minutes it was my turn to ask questions. We ended up talking about another 40-50 minutes about the jobs, likes, dislikes, perks, and anything else under the sun. Very nice guy. He gave me a detailed tour of the facility. I was told that tomorrow I would know if I got the job or not, that they would all get together and go over my file. Sure enough next day they offered me the job.
Final remarks: Overall I had a positive experience. They are really good at letting you know where you are each and every step of the way. You can also check your status online when you submit your application. Yes, it is a very long process. But for a good reason. They want to make sure you’re going to be happy at this job, because it's a lot of training to go through and then you quit several months down the line. The best advice I can give you is to research the interview questions online and have the answers ready in the STAR format. I’ve read most of the interviews submitted here and I can say some of the very negative ones I can tell didn’t do their due diligence. That will be the difference in you getting this job or not. If you go to the progressive website under jobs they even tell you what to do, what they’re looking for, what to expect, and what questions to think about. I think this is a great job for college grads out of school. This is a great place to develop some good work ethics.