I applied through my university's job site and was contacted to take a skills test about a week later. The skills test was a 1 hour excel exercise that was to be completed at home and emailed back. I took the test early in the week and was told I would hear back by the end of the week. Friday came and went and it wasn't until mid-week of the following week that I heard back from them. That was just a preview of the process to come. I got a first round panel interview that lasted 2 hours. At this point there were around 8 candidates. The panel consisted of the people I would be working with/for. There were some behavioral questions, an informal skills test where I was asked to analyze and comment on one of the employee's excel work, and then some slightly more field-oriented questions. There was nothing too stressful and all of the interviewers were very friendly and engaged. At the end of the interview, I asked about the timeline moving forward. I was giving a firm date, but one of the interviewers made a joke regarding how they are perpetually late on their responses. I didn't find that too funny especially how they stressed that timeliness was such an important aspect of the role.
Of course, that first date came and went. A full week after I was told I'd hear back, I finally did and got a second round interview. Apparently, the field was down to 4 candidates and they would be hiring 2. That interview went fine as well. It was shorter and was more casual, but one of the interviewers (who happened to be the team's manager) seemed rather disinterested and hurried. There was no expression or even acknowledgement of my responses. He simply hurried down the list of questions and got me out of there. Again at the end, I asked about the timeline moving forward, and not surprisingly, I got another firm date.
This time, the date passed by over 3 weeks. This time it was the final hiring decision. It turned out that I didn't get the job. The rejection letter was a form email stating that "the position has other candidates currently being considered who better fit the minimum requirements".
Are they trying to tell me after a skills test and 2 thorough interviews that I don't adequately meet the MINIMUM requirements? Shouldn't that have been determined before they even initiated the skills test. And no personalization or even a signature from the hiring manager?
If that's the way EA handles potential employees, I am so grateful I didn't get the job and become a full-time employee. They managed to stretch out 3 rounds over 2 months even though it should have been less than a month based on all the dates they gave me throughout. If they truly were that busy and overworked that they needed weeks and weeks of additional time just to schedule a time for a follow-up interview, then I wanted no part of that.
Many times, a good summary of a company's culture/attitudes can be learned from its interviewing processes. Most companies (even terrible ones) put their best foot forward and manage to put on a good dog and pony show during the interviewing process. EA couldn't even get their act together for their interviewing process and I'm glad I won't have to find out what goes on inside the company.