I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at InMotion Hosting (Virginia Beach, VA) in Sept 2015
Interview
I applied directly through their website and was contacted via phone the next day. The phone call was apparently a screening interview. Because I lacked any direct experience with any of the enterprise software that they use, the recruiter decided to try to place me in their training program. Later the same day the recruiter called me again to tell me that the interview for the training program would be in two days and she sent me an email with more information and a "study guide" with instructions to a second "study guide" on their website. This was the only time in my life where I was asked to study for an interview. And this was an interview for a training program.
I tried to study and prepare for the interview but I've never been able to retain information from cramming. When I went to the interview, the building looked recently abandoned or neglected and all the cars in the parking lot seemed to belong to the neighboring businesses. When I walked up to the front door, the entire front lobby and reception area was pitch black with no one at the front desk. I rang the door buzzer a few times and eventually the recruiter who I had spoken with on the phone opened the door for me because she had happened to see me walk by her office window. No one heard the buzzer.
The recruiter greeted me and gave me a very quick tour of the building. Most of the building was as dark as the front lobby. The work floor seemed to be illuminated only by the computer screens that lined the rows of long high school cafeteria tables. Most of the tables were empty of people. It was at this point the recruiter decided to remind me of the company's "casual dress code" as I saw the handful of employees that were there in sweat pants and pyjamas. I guess it is to offset the inescapably soul crushing atmosphere. The offices seemed to be the only part of the building that had any functional lighting. She led me into a "conference room" in the same hallway as the offices.
She led me in to a filthy walk-in closet with a table littered with junked flat screen monitors. She pushed them all to one side of the table as a man walked in with a laptop. The recruiter introduced him as one of the instructors of the training program and that he would be interviewing me later after I took an assessment on the laptop. I was informed later in the interview that the assessment was the assessment given to the employees after completing the training program.
The assessment was limited to 30 minutes, so with the number of questions, you essentially had to provide an answer as soon as you read the question. Even with the study guides, I don' t imagine I did too well on the assessment outside of the technical questions.
About 10-15 minutes after I completed the assessment the man that brought in the laptop came in with a woman who he explained was another instructor for the training program. I realized after shaking the man's hand that he was unkempt, and was wearing dirty jeans with a t-shirt that looked he'd been wearing for the past several days in a row. They both came in with a thinly veiled negative attitude and it was easy to tell that they either were not interested in talking to me, or that they did not want to be there at all, maybe even both. The room suddenly felt incredibly hostile. Regardless, we all sat down at the table and began the actual interview.
They seemed to have a list of prepared questions and it was apparent that they didn't even bother to glance at my resume despite having a copy printed out and laying on the table. Most of the questions they asked me were technical and involved web hosting and Linux. I explained numerous times that I've only briefly worked with Linux through school assignments, which was why I agreed to try their training program so I could learn more about Linux and web hosting. They seemed outright offended that I was more knowledgeable in Windows OS than Linux. They seemed even more offended that I didn't have their company's history, "philosophy," and names of their leaders memorized verbatim.
I don't know how many times they scoffed and asked "Well, didn't you read the study guide?" as their eyes rolled back into their skulls. Anytime I admitted that I was not a subject matter expert on something, the man adopted an increasingly elitist and holier than thou attitude. They told me I didn't have enough knowledge of how their specific set up works and of their company in general for a TRAINING PROGRAM. By the time the interview ended I felt like I could not get out of that dungeon fast enough. They said that I'd hear back from them by the end of the next day, but I didn't hear back from them until I got two scripted rejection letters from two different recruiters about a week and a half later that were of course signed with the company name, not the recruiters'. The whole experience was awful and altogether unprofessional.