Filled out an application online. Received email from Progressive that they would like me to come to their Austin, Texas office and take a couple of tests which are administered via computer. Only 2 out of the 7 people who took the tests were offered a phone interview later within 1-2 days. I was one of the two people who who went to the next step, the "phone" interview.
I prepared for every possible question that they might ask. I looked up the history of the company, etc. online. I actually typed up answers so I would not forget if I got too nervous. I was waiting for my interview call, and the interviewer postponed our interview for 3 hours later, and by that time I was extremely tired. I thought I had good answers for the questions. They give you a scenario, and then ask you to give specific examples of how you handled that situation. I had many specific answers as I had worked for a large company as a telphone counselor for five years. However, I was told that my answers were NOT SPECIFIC enough because I did not specify exactly who the customer/client was - instead I said, something to the effect of: This scenario happened frequently with my last position, many clients had the same this issue, problem, etc. and I would give example of HOW I handled the problem, and what the outcome was. I was shocked when I did not get hired. I called back until I got some answers, fearing that perhaps it was my age, being over 50, or being more educated than most of their employees. I was finally told, by the actual interviewer , that my answers did not specify the exact person. I explained to her that I worked with 15 people per day for 5 years, and that the same scenario came up many times in that amount of time, and there was no way to remember the exact person. I went to Glassdoor.com and found out after my interview (too late for me), that this was a major complaint of many interviewed applicants. They found the interviews ridiculous and repetitive. Progressive needs to get real with that portion of their interview.
