I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Premera Blue Cross (Mountlake Terrace, WA) in Aug 2011
Interview
Very haphazard, depends on the group. I interviewed with 4 people on 2 different days. My now boss, their peer, and 2 analysts.
Asked questions about generic experience, some behavioral questions, "In this situation, what would you do." Not a lot of health care type knowledge needed for the IT groups, more general technical skills looked for. Lots of direct eye contact with interviewers, seemed to react most positively to quick answers rather than thoughtful answers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
In the case of a large work request backlog how do you determine the difference between a fix and something that should be bundled as a project.
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Premera Blue Cross (Mountlake Terrace, WA) in Mar 2012
Interview
I received a call from an outsourced recruiter from Manpower who asked me questions and determined which of 2 available jobs was a better fit. She set up a phone screen with the hiring manager. The call got delayed because the mgr was traveling; when I finally spoke to her, it was about 15 minutes between flights. They set up a panel interview with 3 people, followed by 30 mins with the hiring manager and 1 other manager in the same dept. The panel interview went very well, but the hiring manager couldn't remember who I was. It was a 4:30 Fri interview, and she had her coat and bag and was itching to get out of there.
On paper I was an excellent fit for the role: I have IT consulting experience, and 5 years of experience working for an employee benefits outsourcer doing open enrollments, carrier interfaces, and other things directly relevant to the job.
The following Tues I received a call from the recruiter saying that she got "glowing" feedback from everyone I met, but there was another candidate they will be interviewing. After that I heard NOTHING! I called the recruiter twice and left messages, and I sent her an email. I also sent the hiring manager an email.
It's very lame when an employer doesn't get back to you one way or the other.