Progressive’s hiring process is very frustrating. I interviewed for multiple Data Analyst positions at Progressive.
For the first position, I had an HR screen, followed by a technical interview, which consisted of answering questions verbally for one hour with a technical manager. I did not advance beyond that technical screen for the first position, but another team wanted to interview me. I then had 4 separate 1 hour behavioral interviews with 1-2 managers in each interview. The HR recruiter I worked with said it was down to me and one other candidate, but the hiring manager decided to hire neither of us, repost the position, and look for a unicorn candidate. The fact that no one was hired after a large number of interviews over the course of ~2 months really bothered me. I would feel differently if they hired the other candidate; that’s just how it goes, sometimes it’s really close between 2 or 3 candidates who are all capable of doing the job. I would have been able to accept that. However not hiring anyone raises a lot of red flags for me.
I think these longer interview processes are due to either the company looking for that unicorn candidate (which was the case with this position), the hiring manager or organization is really indecisive, or the hiring manager does not actually have the authority to independently make decisions because of micromanaging from senior-level managers and directors.
It is deeply concerning that after 4 interviews (HR screen, technical assessment, and the first two interviews for the position), the hiring team could not determine whether I or the other candidate were qualified to do the job or not. This is frankly a staggeringly high level of indecisiveness. It really makes me question if the hiring team understands the objectives of the position they’re hiring for; is the job description and the duties of the job I’m interviewing for even accurate? Something feels off to me there. Regardless, the other candidate and I should have been rejected after these 4 interviews if we were not qualified to do the job, so I am very frustrated that interviews 5 and 6 occurred.
My last frustration is with the inefficient structure of the interviews as a whole process and how disrespectful of the interviewees time it is. I noted in interview #5 that 2 of the 7 questions I was asked were questions I received in previous interviews, and in interview #6 that 2 of the 4 questions were also repeats.
Then for the last position I was set to interview for after that previous one, I was scheduled for 3 more behavioral interviews. I noted that 8 of the 9 competencies being tested in the behavioral interviews are the same 8 from the previous position. I can understand having 1, maybe 2 more interviews to meet people without repeating the behavioral interviews, but to have 3 interviews that are essentially exact repeats of the previous position (and for a nearly identical position) is a gross misuse of my time and their staff’s time. And after those 3 interviews, it was still possible another round of interviews would be asked for. The amount of repeating the same or similar stories to address the same competencies is incredibly inefficient and frustrating. I decided to turn down the interviews for that last position. I would suggest having the results of these behavioral interviews be tied to the candidate by type of position (e.g. Data Analyst) rather than the specific position.