In response to the posting on a job board and then at the company's website, I was telephoned shortly after submitting my resume.
After a brief telephone interview and subsequent communications through email directing me to third-party personality tests, a writing test, a background investigation authorization i was contacted to come for an interview within a week. They seemed to be highly charged about my background and experience.
The interview itself went very well until we spoke about compensation. I indicated what I know to be fair market for this position and knowing that I was likely in a competitive process, I even dropped my expectations down a bit.
The problem came later when I was sent the "We're sorry but we have decided to pursue other individuals for this position" letter after about a few days... basically when I was licking the stamps for my Thank You notes.
What is irritating to me personally is that they praised my qualifications and the understanding was that all concerned felt that I could walk right in and handle the responsibilities without question, yet they were about to pursue other candidates.
While the interview process itself was pleasant and invigorating, the results were dismal when the subject of fair compensation came about. There were no further talks about it, no hints given regarding the budget that they were thinking of, and it was as if they were expecting to offer half of my present salary and be very happy.
So the bottom line is that the entire process was somewhat difficult, the experience was positive, but the compensation was very poor and the job is still open 6 months later. It can still be found on several major job boards - along with several independent recruiters on top of that. They obviously want to pursue other candidates that have yet to step forward.
I would be very wary if I were you. Spending the extra time and effort with all of their pre-hire testings and examinations may be a complete waste of time unless you want to give your advanced qualifications away for an extremely sub-standard compensation package. This is the only reasonable explanation as to why I was not offered a position after all of the references and certifications were checked, the tests scored and the writing examination was evaluated.