Bridgewater Associates interview questions

I was contacted by a recruiter who suggested several different positions before this one in their HR department. Apparently, they were looking for someone with more experience for most of their other positions (I am a recent college grad). The first portion of the interview process was a written questionnaire asking typical questions like "Describe your biggest challenge" and "Describe a time where you used common sense." My written portion of the interview was enough for Bridgewater to schedule a phone interview. The phone interview process was pretty long (45 minutes), taped, and basically consisted of my interviewer probing me on aspects of my personality. She asked me three times what my biggest weakness was. Although the actual questions she asked weren't too bizarre, the prying, drawn-out nature of the interview was very strange. Also, she stressed the company culture and babbled a lot about "seeking complete truth" and "determining what is reality" in the workplace. Hearing her talk about it made Bridgewater's company culture seem more like a cult. Ultimately, they weren't interested because I didn't demonstrate enough interest in HR.

After a long process of and personality/skills tests (I interviewed more than a month after submitting my resume, despite the initial contact being right after I applied), the final face-to-face interviews were a little strange. One interview was on skills/knowledge, the other consisted of typical interview questions (tell me about yourself; what did you learn from your experience at....") They really hone down on "company culture" more than anything else and in the end I'm still not sure what they are looking for. It was really hard to get a read on where the conversation was going. The interviews were audio-recorded. Although I was told there'd be a short break between interviews, I was left in a room for half an hour after an "I'll be right back." There was no "I'm sorry that took a while," or offering of a glass of water or anything while I was waiting. They just returned 30+ minutes later and started the second interview. The audio tape also stayed on while I was in the room by myself. I wasn't exactly going to make numerous phone calls discussing the interview, but it still felt weird.