The entire process lasted for two months. I applied for the solutions advisor early career position which requires 0-2-year experience and at the end I got an email saying I'm not being considered for Sr Associate Solutions Advisor position. Excuse me? Ok, about the process. I first did a virtual recorded interview and then a recruiter contacted me saying that the hiring manager would like to schedule an interview with me. This round with the hiring manager went well (general questions, behavioral questions, nothing technical) and the hiring manager was well aware of my background and skills. The next round is a mixed of technical and behavioral interview, leaning more toward knowledge about statistics and write some pseudo code. That's the time they started confusing me because the hiring manager said the job won't be very technical but the other interviewer said the job will be technical. I believe I fully understand the job because I read the JD carefully so I didn't let that discrepancy they two communicated during one interview bother me. Then moving to the next 3,5-hour long interview with a bunch of people. I spent days preparing the interview because they wanted me to give two presentations. The second presentation I gave was kinda interrupted because they didn't manage the time well for the first one. A bunch of questions regarding the first presentation were asked as if I came as an experienced financial expert while the hiring manager said "it's ok you don't have finance background because I don't either". They also asked questions to test your IQ and this round was very unpleasant to me, not because I didn't do a perfect job, but because I started having a bad feeling about the people and the company. My impression from this round was: do they know what they are doing? Ok, then yes, after waiting for a couple weeks, another round of interview!!! This time they sent me a full-blown training course to see how fast I can grasp SAS. Ok, first of all, I'm new to SAS and the hiring manager knew this from the very beginning; second, I work full-time and I have a family, so I can only try my best to take the training in the evening or over the weekend. The interview lasted for 1.5 hour and as someone totally new to SAS and someone applying for an early career position, I think they should see my ability to learn and I did solve more than half of the problems they gave during the interview. A week later, I was told I got rejected, for a senior level position I never applied for. I wrote this much because everybody says SAS is a great company to work for but this entire hiring process changed how I see them. First, they are not efficient at all; lots of questions are unnecessary and they seem not to know what they are looking for (apparently not looking for someone with good attitude and learning ability). They don't value other people's time because it really shouldn't take five rounds and more than 2 months to know if someone qualifies for an early career position (of course they might have tried to hire a senior-level person to begin with, which is pretty messed up). Second, they deliver one message and then take an opposite action. They would tell you you did a great job and then after a few days you are not being considered. They would say it's not technical and then expect you to write perfect code. They really need someone to organize the hiring process so no misleading expectations occur. I might still not take the offer even if I get one, but I'm very disappointed at how the hiring process was handled and all the wrong/misleading information provided. I wouldn't want to work for a team or a company like this.
