It's been said before and I agree, this is a strange recruiting process. I felt like a number, never a person. I recieved several e-mails from Epic recruiters telling me they pulled my resume off Monster.com. The letters were well-constructed and told me what a fit I would be for their position. Please go fill in our on-line application (a duplication of my resume) and then go take the Rembrandt Test. The e-mail assured me it would take no more than 20 minutes to take the test. Ok, I am a VERY fast reader and I have taken similar tests before so am familiar with it. I blasted thru the test, never hesitating, just kept moving rapitly. It took 45 minutest to take the test. So, are they trying to intimidate the applicant from the get-go? Or, is this just the beginning of a misleading process?
Following the Rembrant Test, a few weeks later, another e-mail came to set-up a telephone interview. The e-mail specifically asked for THE phone number I would be at - I provided my CELL number. The interviewer called my HOME number (it is on my resume).
To the question: "Overall, how difficuly was the interview?" It was a joke. While the kid was very polite, he was reading from a script and he was not a very good reader at that. I have significant work experience (read that, over 15 years), yet the kid continued to focus on my High School grades and my SAT scores. Who cares? I graduated from one of this country's preeminent engineering schools, High School is a blur in the past. (And, fwiw, my HS GPA was 3.3....oh, but I was working full time thru HS - not something this interviewer was interested in.) He concentrated more on HS/SAT than my college experience - and while I "only" had a 3.1 in college, I WORKED 40-60 HOURS/WEEK TO SUPPORT MYSELF TO GET THRU SCHOOL. How many of Epic's (or anybody's) other applicants could maintain a 3.1 while working a full time job? Of course, he was not interested in that. If I were only 21 years old, my HS grades 'might' seem important, but, that was a long time ago - he was not at all interested in my work experience. He did not ask one single question about any of my work experience. He called me by my last name; referred to my residence by the wrong state; yet he insisted he had my resume right in front of him.
As the 30-minute telephone interview came to a close, he told me I would be moving to the next step in the process, taking a proctored test (on my logical abilities) at the local library. He said someone from HR would contact me w/in 2 weeks to set it up. About 10 days later, I received the e-mail from HR telling me they certainly respected my many accomplishments, but decided I just was not a fit for Epic.
So, bottom line, my take on the whole thing is:
(1) Epic is growing rapidly (20% per year - both in business & enrollment); this is a good problem to have.
(2) However, the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing.
(3) I would recommend some actual interviewer training - the kid who contacted me, while polite, left me
with a really poor impression of Epic. Granted, he was not from HR, but, he was put out there to represent
Epic.
(4) As an applicant, if you have more than 2 years of work experience, you are probably toooo experienced for
this place. You already have maturity & business accumen. They will be intimidated by your experience
and, therefore, you will not be a fit. Don't waste your time.
(5) If you are just graduating from college, this would probably be a great place to begin your career. I've done
significant research on Epic and it truly looks like a cool place to work; you will get a lot of good training
and experience; the philosophy of requiring "sales" people to actually have experience in the product - 1.5
years - before being allowed to "sell" to a customer is fantastic! That is only one of the things about Epic
that I found very attractive when I began looking at the company.
(6) Sadly, I am over 22 years old; I am over 30 years old - and so, I would never be included in the fold.
(7) A helpful hint for the process & interviewer: identify your position to the applicant. Based on the e-mail I received
from HR, "someone from our team will call you . . ." I was expecting someone from HR to call. So, admittedly,
I initially thought the interviewer was totally unprepared to do the job. VERY late in the conversation, he mentioned
something about his position - and only then did I realize he was not an HR person. Ok, so at that point, I mentally
granted him a reprieve. It would have been nice to know his role was technical, not HR, from the beginning.
I believe things happen for a reason, so no hard feelings here. Disappointment, yes; hard feelings, no. My best wishes to Epic for continued success and to all the recent college graduates who will be given offers of employment.