This was a bizarre experience that doesn't reflect well on the company. I applied to an open position in April 2021 and heard nothing, so assumed I wasn't selected.
Then randomly in June, I get an automated email out of the blue inviting me to do a recorded video interview. I know the company uses this method for recruiting Flight Attendants -- which is more understandable since they are constantly hiring for those positions. But for a Senior Specialist position in the Corporate Office, it seemed a little impersonal.
I felt that a simple phone screen with someone from HR would have been much better -- and would allow me to ask some questions I was wondering about.
But I was still interested in the position, so I went ahead and did the video recording. It wasn't difficult -- just a few technical questions and a few such as "why United?" -- it just feels strange because you're talking at a camera, recording yourself, with no actual interaction.
About a week after I submitted the recorded video interview, I got an email saying that the team would like to move forward with interviewing me and I had to set up time to do virtual Teams meetings (30 minutes each) with four different members of the team.
I set up the meetings and did the interviews. But I found it very odd that I never once spoke with an HR person prior to that. So we never went over common questions like salary expectations and office location and work from home/remote work options, etc. -- all the things you'd want to have the chance to review prior to moving forward with two hours of video interviews.
During the video interviews, I asked the Hiring Manager for info on next steps. She said they still had more interviews to do and then she'd pick one or two people to move onto the final round, which would be meeting with several more folks, including her boss and higher-level managers.
I thought all four of the interviews went exceptionally well and I was definitely qualified for the role and seemed to be checking all of their boxes.
But the following week, I followed up with both the Hiring Manager and the recruiter and was ghosted by both of them. Then about another week later, I got an automated email saying I wasn't selected.
Their whole process definitely needs some work.