Applied online via Indeed. I had to answer two questions before I could submit my CV.
I was then contacted by HR 5 days later where I was asked a few questions about myself and told more about the company. I was then invited for an interview in 3 days time which was via Google meet.
This interview was with department manager and head of department. It lasted a full hour. They asked a mix of standard interview questions as well as asking me experience/situational questions. The people I interviewed with were friendly, approachable and spoke a lot about the pros for working at the company.
A few hours later I was called again by HR to invite me to an in person interview in Stafford in 2 weeks time. The office is clean and very modern. This 2nd interview again lasted another hour and was full of more complex, long questions. A lot of “tell us about a time when you did X and how you managed X and what you’ve learned from X”
After the interview I was taken around the site for a brief tour.
I didn’t hear back from the interview very quickly and had to chase them a few times for an update. I was then informed that the position had been filled by an internal candidate.
I did receive feedback which was helpful, however, would have preferred to have been told sooner if they already intended on hiring an internal candidate.
Overall, Interview process is very long and you need to prepare for a lot of situational questions. “Tell us about a time when you did this, if this happened to you tell us what you would do and why” etc. There’s quite a lot of questions to go through. I don’t believe I would have been told I was unsuccessful unless I had chased them. Other than that - the team were kind and I felt comfortable during the interview. Everyone I interviewed with was very personable.