I applied online in January. The application questions took a fair amount of effort and I triple checked to make sure I thoroughly did the work. I heard back from HR in February and scheduled a phone interview for the next week. The phone interview went terribly. I could barely hear the person I was speaking to and their phone kept cutting in and out and I missed parts of what was being said; when I could hear it was extremely echoey and made it hard to hear. Only parts of the call came through clear. I admit that I personally could have done better, but I believe it would have gone smoother had the above been remedied.
I also found it off putting that the person from HR seemingly made a jab at the company that I do contract work for. I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I didn’t. Maybe it’s the way I interpreted it, but the person I spoke to from HR came off as off putting and it made the call uncomfortable for me (I don’t believe it was her intention, but that’s how it felt).