I have always heard good things about HostGator and the work environment, so when I was laid off in October 2011, I decided to apply. At that time, I had a few friends who worked there, and they assured me HostGator was hiring. My application went in, and soon after, I received a form letter "thanks, but we're not currently hiring" response. I thought this was odd, but couldn't do much about it , so I continued on with my job search. A few months later, now February, I found myself still without employment, and a friend of mine had just recently been hired by HostGator, so I decided to apply again. Application goes in, and soon after I again received the "We're not hiring" e-mail. Terrible news, but wait!... it turned out they sent the wrong e-mail. A follow up e-mail came in with a phone number asking me to schedule an interview. Because of the weekend, they scheduled my interview for the following Tuesday. In order to prepare for the interview, I asked my friend who was hired in January about his interview. He told me he had interviewed twice (mid 2011 and this last time in January 2012), and both times he was offered a job. He told me there would be basic questions, but as long as I knew the bare minimum I would be more than okay. He then sent me a list of questions they asked him (roughly 10-15), and said 20% would suffice. Not wanting to test my luck with the "bare minimum," I also consulted friends of mine who had worked for the company for a longer period of time. The ones who had been there longest told me when they applied there wasn't even a test, and another friend who had been there for roughly 6 months told me he had a test, but it was no big deal, and the information I had gathered from my new-hire friend would be more than enough to get me hired. On Tuesday, I go to the interview, fill out a background check form, and then the interview starts roughly 20 minutes after it was scheduled (and here I was worrying about being late). The first part of the interview, I was asked about previous customer support and technical support experience I had, and I told the interviewer about my previous 2 years of work and familiarity with the environment I would be working in at HostGator. Standard questions were asked "how would you deal with an irate customer?" "Tell me about a time when you took charge of a customer's problem in order to assure it was solved" "Describe yourself in 3 words", etc. No problems here. Then came the Interview/Skills test. No assistance was given for the questions (no computer/notes could be used) but because I had prepared I was not too worried. The questions begin and I know some, other things I'm not too familiar with, but the interviewer seems to simply be gauging previous experience. Then everything begins to go far more in depth than I had planned for. I received the standard questions I expected, but was then asked to explain the processes behind them and where to find certain items and how to correct issues, etc. I know this is the job, but none of these items were even mentioned by any of my friends - even the one hired 4 weeks ago - and honestly, the questions seemed more suited for one of the administrator roles (based on what I have read in previous interview reports) rather than technical support. I was under the assumption they would test basic knowledge and then use the two-week training period to expand upon that knowledge, but apparently things have changed. When I completed the interview, I was told they would get back to me by the end of the day or the next day at the lates. I then spoke with my friends again, and they all reassured me that I shouldn't worry about the interview. "The more you know, the more they ask," I was told. A few hours later I received an e-mail telling me they chose another candidate. This leaves me somewhat dumbstruck. I dont mean to come off as someone who expects a job to just be given to them, but in comparison to previous hires by the company, I was on par if not higher. I have experience, I have a college degree, I have basic knowledge and a willingness to learn more. I thought I would have been a perfect fit for the company. Further more, I was unaware there was only one/a few openings. From what I gathered, HG was hiring in droves due to expansion... I don't know. The whole situation was a bit unorganized and weird, to be honest, and HG's hiring policies seem to be a bit sporadic or varying from interviewer to interviewer. I guess it comes down to the luck of the draw.