I applied for a position online and then had a phone interview during the same week with a recruiter. She was from Minnesota and was very pleasant to talk with on the phone. The questions were standard questions about my resume, my interest in the company, etc.
I had an office interview scheduled within another two weeks. However, the firm required multiple steps before the next interview. First, I was required to fill out a Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment. This required two pages with about 100 adjectives on each page to select. The first page had a question that asked how do you think other people expect you to be. The next page asked how do you actually think you are. This didn't seem to be the best way of measuring someone's personality. Second, I was required to select five references and have them respond to 45 questions (rating my past performance on a numerical scale) along with multiple free response questions. I thought that this step was too cumbersome and I actually felt bad when I found out how long it took the references to fill out the survey.
The office interview was scheduled for two hours. First, I had a 30 minute interview with the officer administrator who went over different benefits that the firm offers. Then I had a 45 minute panel interview with three partners and another 45 minute interview with two managers.
There are a few things that I didn't enjoy about the overall process. First, the benefit package didn't seem that good for a public accounting firm. The health insurance package seemed really expensive (the employee portion was over $600/month for a family plan).
Second, I felt the company treated me unprofessionally. I sent a simple follow up question via email to the office administrator on the same day after the interview. I was "ghosted" and never received any communication back from anyone in the office. While more companies feel it is acceptable not to respond to a candidate after the company doesn't feel someone is a good fit, I think the process is very unprofessional especially after meeting with multiple people in one office location. I received an email from the initial recruiter over two weeks later implying that they were choosing another candidate. I understand if they didn't think I was a good fit and I have no problem with that. However, I wish they would simply tell me that straight and move on. I know that the company did not choose someone else because the position is still listed as open on their website today and the position has been reposted on job sites multiple times (it has also been six weeks since I interviewed).
Third, the firm scheduled the interview from 11 AM - 1 PM over the lunch hour. One of the managers jokingly asked if we were supposed to go to lunch. I mentioned that no one had said anything about it. He then said it must be a mistake that the interview was scheduled during lunch and blamed it on the recruiter who scheduled the interview from a different time zone. They never took me to lunch and didn't mention it again. Maybe I'm making a big deal about nothing, but I thought the whole thing was really strange. I'm interviewed in office and attended off campus recruiting events for a dozen different accounting firms and this is the first firm I have ever met with that didn't include a meal as part of the process. It just rubbed me the wrong way.
Fourth, no one at the firm would give me a straight answer as to the real reason for the open position. I asked multiple people whether it was due to growth or employee turnover and I received different vague answers where the subject was changed almost immediately. I figured that it was likely due to people leaving after reading a few negative comments about this office in the last year.
Overall, the whole process just came across as very impersonal to me and like the firm was trying too hard to automate the entire process and treat candidates like a number. I would think that the firm would try harder to make a good impression on potential candidates. I don't think I could recommend this accounting firm to anyone who asks me my opinion in the future.