I applied for the position via the ATS system and was contacted almost immediately by the HR rep in North Carolina. I spoke with her for almost an hour, discussing my experience, salary requirements, and questions for the hiring manager. I then had a brief (half hour) meeting with the hiring manager. She immediately moved me on to the "next round" at the end of the interview and asked me to complete a design project along with a presentation (~4+ hour commitment). At first I was skeptical because it seemed like asking for free work, plus I didn't know how many other candidates were asked to submit proposals, but I thought the position would be a great career move so I decided to give it a shot. Next, I was contacted almost three weeks after submitting my proposal (four weeks from the second interview) and asked to talk with someone in the IT department in North Carolina. The interview lasted for over an hour and was incredibly unprofessional. This employee said several not-nice things about the hiring manager and also spoke poorly of the previous person to hold the position. He also asked me incredibly technical questions (stuff about app development) which was not necessary to the job (made clear both in the job description and in my questions to the HR and hiring manager). Once I asked him a rather technical question about different severs, and he couldn't even answer! I was left with a very poor impression. Please note that at this point no one had yet contacted me to discuss my proposal despite several polite email notes requesting follow up. Finally, I received an email from a second HR representative asking me to present my proposal in front of a panel along with other "finalists" almost a month from the date of the email (three months after I applied and was initially contacted). About a week or so later I accepted another offer at a different company and removed myself from consideration.