The original listing was on governmentjobs.com. The job required a detailed resume and a lengthy self-screening exam comprising 6 complex multi-part questions. Many hours were necessary for preparing the application.
I was notified a week after I applied that I met the minimum requirements and was "Referred to hiring manager.'
Several days later, I received an email from an HR person saying I could select an interview on the website. There was only slot which was early in the morning.
The job description had lots of management and teamwork questions, as well as general systems engineering questions about hardware, software, and databases. Interview questions were similar but the role itself seemed a bit vague.
Going into the interview, I thought it would be for a generalist systems engineering position, but it was actually a very specific role as a COBOL programmer for mainframes.
I told them I was not qualified for the position, but they were professional about it and said they would continue the interview, so I used it as a practice.
I was given the questions ahead of time and had 15 minutes to fill out a form to use for preparation. There were approximately 10 questions, all of which were multi-part, so more like 30 questions. It is very tricky to prepare for these questions; leverage every second you have. It is very kind of them to let you prepare before you go in but do not go in there thinking you will breeze through these interviews. You will only have time to write some quick bullet points about knowledge and skills you have so you can deliver your answers with slightly more coherence.
I was given the option to either read the questions or have them read to me. I elected to have them read and it appears that is what most people choose to make it slightly more conversational.
They do this to make the process as repeatable and professional as possible.
They took copious notes while I was talking so there wasn't a lot of eye contact, but they were not "cold," they were just busy collecting information.
There were three interviewers including the team lead.
This location is not near the capitol building like most of the other State of Oregon business buildings. From appearances alone, it seems like the departments near the capitol are flush with cash and this location appears to need a cash infusion.
The interview was over in exactly 45 minutes, plus the 15 minutes used to prepare.
The interviewers seemed enuinely passionate about having roles that directly impacted lives. There isn't a lot of time to get to know or read your interviewers because they have a hard cut-off and little discussion.
They are in the middle of a huge integration project (this is public knowledge) moving legacy systems so there are many openings at this time at their location.
The hiring manager recommended I apply for other jobs that better suited my experience which is the death knell of any interview, but I knew that within 30 seconds it was a poor fit.