I applied directly through The Farmers website on July 6 and was contacted on July 27 (Wednesday) by an HR recruiter. The recruiter was very nice. He had me take a Skills/IQ type test and a personality test online. I took the test right away and called the recruiter to let him know I had completed the test. He said I did very well on the test and wanted to schedule a phone interview. He said I could schedule the phone interview for a later date or do it right at that moment. I opted to do the interview at that very moment. It lasted about 20-25 minutes and consisted of behavioral-based questions. The phone interviewer said I had a lot of good stories and said he thought I was what they were looking for. He said he was going to recommend me for an in-person, panel interview.
The following Monday, someone from the local SD office contacted me. She said she wanted to schedule my panel interview. She was pretty rude and seemed annoyed with having to deal with scheduling interviews. She said I could either come in an hour (very strange) or the next day. I opted for the next day as I couldn't be ready and at the office within an hour. I am currently employed in the corporate world, so of course I showed up dressed to impress in a tailored grey suit from Nordstrom. My interview was supposed to be with 3 people, but only 2 showed up. Fine with me. The interviewers were very unprepared, which was a little strange to me. The one woman was asking the male interviewer, "how to ask the questions" and they bantered back and forth for a bit deciding how they were going to do the interview. I found it strange that they would discuss this in front of me and not before I arrived. This was a bit tack and unprofessional. They were nice, and the interview lasted a little over an hour. They asked me about 14 or so behavioral questions and a few questions about my current job and my resume. Some of the behavioral questions were challenging but not really difficult.
Next, they had me shadow a claims rep. The rep was really nice and answered a lot of my questions and told me all the high/low points of the job. She was informative but she cussed a few times (F-word, S-word) and that struck me as odd and VERY unprofessional. The work environment seemed laid back and casual. The employees were not micro managed, which was nice. However, I was still very interested in the job.
I received a call the first thing the next morning and it was the same woman who had first contacted me from the SD office (the rude one). However, she was very pleasant this time. She said, "The interviewers were VERY impressed with you yesterday and 2 more of our managers would like to meet with you on Friday morning." I said, "Great!" and set up the interview. I was excited.
That's when things "got weird." I showed up Friday morning about 15 minutes before my interview. I waited about 30 minutes and a woman came out and said she was sorry for being late. I told her no problem and we went to an office to begin the interview. The other interviewer wasn't able to make it (just like my last interview). She sat down and immediately said she was supposed to ask me behavioral questions but "wasn't going to bother." That kind of stung because I felt like I was getting shorted. I wanted to be asked the tough questions because I wanted to impress the interviewer. She then proceeded to ask me about 3 standard (easy) questions about my resume. I was feeling good about the interview. Then, all of a sudden, she says, "I apologize. I know I'm supposed to ask you something else but I forget. To tell you the truth I'm not really prepared for this interview today. It's been about a month since I've conducted an interview so I'm pretty out of the loop. I know that may not seem like a long time, but it is." VERY UNPROFESSIONAL. I understand she may be unprepared, but to vocalize that to a candidate in an interview is absurd. I smiled and pretended I wasn't angry. I knew, at that very moment, that I had no chance of being hired. Still, I attempted to salvage the interview by asking her a few open ended questions. She answered and it was very obvious she would rather be anywhere else but there. She told me they had interviews the next week and she would let me know by the following Friday either way.
The following Friday came and I didn't hear anything. Figures. On Tuesday, I got the standard form rejection letter. I was disappointed because I feel like I wasn't given a chance to shine in that final interview. I am more than qualified for the position and interview extremely well. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.
I am ranking this experience as "negative" because of the extreme lack of professionalism during the whole process. I don't now how a company expects to recruit quality candidates when their recruitment process is unprofessional and their interviewers are incompetent.
