My situation may be different than some but I worked hard to get the interview and ace it. It took a decent amount of studying and brainstorming. So if you really want the job, be prepared to work for it.
I applied back in November. My resume is pretty detailed and strategically worded, so if you have a resume that just lists some skills and past work, I would change it. I had help from several people in HR depts. in different companies adjust and fine tune my resume. I would recommend networking and getting someone to do this. You might even get a free lunch out of it. ; ) Anyway... I was referred to the company by an employee and personal friend. That may have helped get my resume through the first elimination round. I completed the assessment right away (nothing difficult about that, only to weed out the dummies). They called to set up my phone interview within a couple of days.
The phone interview was with a recruiter who was very nice. Just asked a few questions about my previous work and school (going through my resume). I have background in retail as a manager and lots of customer service experience, which proved to be essential in the long run. She then explained a little bit about the position and asked my why I chose Progressive. This is where studying about the company helps. Answer it with things like, "I like their values" or "I like the Progressive Foundation" (be more specific than that). Don't answer with stupid stuff like "I like Flo." She then explained the behavioral interview questions and we started on those. They are behavioral questions, study how to properly respond, (you can google it) and think of lots of experiences in your past that may be useful. Do not rehearse answers! I took a nice black portfolio with me, it had a legal pad in it with about 20 possible answers in it. I only wrote down a "title" for each one, little key words to jog my memory if I needed. Do NOT write out your entire response. Anywho, after it was done, she told me right there that they would want to schedule a manager interview.
Manager interview was at the local office. Was not anything special, just more behavioral questions. We didn't talk long, I answered well but conversation didn't go great. The recruiter called a couple days later and told me I didn't get the job.
Two months later they were hiring again. I got fast tracked straight to the manager interview. I studied a lot for this one, I wasn't going to let it slip through my fingers again. I googled the interviewers name and found some useful information from their work history. It seems creepy, I know, but as long as you're not telling them what their favorite color is, they will see it as you put some time in your research. Again, behavioral interview questions. I used the same method(see above), but thanks to the help of friends, I focused more on conversation. Once again, I have history in retail and provided excellent customer service everyday. If you want this job, be an awesome employee at your current employer so you have experiences to talk about in your interview. If you are not currently working, find some volunteer work, with a non-profit or something. That's experience that they will consider.
Sorry it's so wordy, but if you're on here (glassdoor.com) like me, trying to figure out what's next in your interview process, I would want it to be detailed and helpful... I got the offer the second time around!
