My first encounter with SSA was at a college job fair about 3 months from graduation. The lady there was dressed to the nines and seemed a little snobby. I later found out she was a manager. Haha. She had a poker face and seemed uninterested taking everyone's resume. I thought I wouldn't hear from them. I received an email a couple weeks later that directed me to their web testing site. I took a damn long 2 or more hour long personality assessment test that keeps on asking the same Q's till it gets your true feelings... can't be a faker on that test. A couple weeks later, I went in for a panel interview and the snobby lady was there again, this time she seemed nice but tough. There were 5 or 6 managers and experts present. First each asked a question, then I was given an complex law with many points and about 3 minutes to digest it, then I was asked to apply that to a scenario and another 4-5 grilling questions. I felt good about it but wasn't perfect. Maybe a month later, as another employer had interest in me, I was called for an interview at a semi local office with what turned out to be the Regional hiring manager and the branch manager. It was maybe 30 minutes long. 4-5 questions more on how I handle stress and the public...also on personality. Next, a couple weeks later, I had to drive an hour away to what turned out being my field office where I was informally interviewed by what was to be my Manager. She asked Q's more on personality and after she took me to get fingerprinted. Almost 3 months passed and I was already working as an assistant manager in training at Target and he Regional manager called to ask if I was still interested and if so, I report to training in 2 weeks. I accepted. As a scholar, with a b.a. in politics sci, I was a GS-7 and went thru long and complicated training class via satellite from Atlanta then toughed it out to GS- 11 step 3 before resigning due to the immense stress.

I got an email telling me to take an assessment. The assessment was lengthy and of medium difficulty. Got an email to set up an interview. Nothing too difficult, scripted questions about situational customer service and PII protection.