During my last semester as a graduate student I cold-called the nearest ERM office. I had the fortune of catching a senior-level member (25+ years at ERM) while the secretary was out, and what originally was meant to be a 5 minute, get-a-vibe-of-the-company conversation turned into a 90-minute discussion with poignant insight into company dynamics and worklife. The simple fact that someone that high up in the company would take that much time to talk to me immediately gave me a solid vibe for the company, and no doubt gave the company insight into me. I was told to send my resume over immediately, which I did (CC'd to the Branch Manager.)
An interesting feature for ERM is that many of the company's hires are not based on currently-available positions. Instead the company creates positions when they find someone that they believe would be a valuable asset to the company. As such upon submitting my resume to the Branch Manager a new position was created on the ERM webpage. I was encouraged to apply, which I did, and was contacted within several days by ERM's HR department about setting up a phone interview (a.k.a. screening interview). A week later I had the phone interview and again had another 90-minute conversation with someone that was passionate and interested in the company. While I expected the HR department to have trained employees to portray a positive image of ERM, both people I talked to obviously and genuinely held the company in a very high regard and took as much time as they could to answer my questions in detail.
The HR employee was very direct and told me that I would be recommended. Any questions I had I sent directly to that person, who responded back within a few days and eventually set up a second hour-long conversation on the phone to answer my queries. On the other end the Branch Manager effectively told me that the hiring process within the company had recently changed from a branch-made decision to a company-made decision, making it so the entire hiring process was now handled by the HR department (meaning it was out of his/her hands.) I was asked to come in for an in-person interview at the branch office, which I did. I sat down with the Branch Manager and the senior member whom I had originally caught with my cold-call, and after 20-30 minutes it was clear that they were interested in moving forward with the hiring process. Everyone was high-energy and positive (myself included) and since I had practiced standard interview questions (and the ability to answer those questions before being asked) the interview flew by. Afterward I had a video-conference with another ERM employee with whom I would likely work, then introduced to those who were in the office that day and taken to lunch so my to-be peers could size me up and me them (Branch Manager was absent for this). Fortunately everyone was pleasant and it was obvious that I would fit in, so the peer-based interview turned into more of a my-asking-them specific, blunt questions as to their perspective of the company. They were blunt in response, and positive in general about the company. We returned to the office and I was out the door within 10 more minutes, feeling very positive about netting the job.
After this was another month to two of miscellaneous odds and ends, such as having my references reached, various emails with additional questions and (maybe) another phone call (by my request.) I was eventually called and offered the position at the salary I had expected, and promptly accepted. The entire process from cold-call to application to offer took approximately three months, which was fast in comparison to almost every other company I had applied to. As-of writing this review I have been employed for less than six months.
