I applied online and received an email the next day scheduling me for an on-site interview the following week. The email I received stated the date and time and asked me to respond....which I did. Then, the next day I received the same email and responded (again). Day #3 comes...can you guess? Yes, I received the SAME email AGAIN asking me to respond, plus another email from one of the HR bosses asking me to respond, plus a voicemail. I was able to get through to one of them and show how I had responded to the same nonsense 3 days in a row, at which point they apologized for the mix up. Whatever, mistakes happen.
I got the security clearance form, filled it out and sent it back. Two days before the interview, I receive an email from the corporate recruiter asking me some questions, to which I responded immediately. I then receive a response saying "Thank you, if there is further interest in your resume, we will contact you." Ummmm...ok...? I asked her if this meant I should not attend the previously scheduled (and confirmed) interview, to which she then apologized and said she overlooked that I was already scheduled. Not a fantastic start....incredibly bloated and disorganized from the get-go.
So anyway, I go to the interview in San Diego. It was me and another guy interviewing for the same position. Right off the bat, we're both dressed like complete clowns in "Business Professional" attire (full on suits and ties) while everyone else in the building is wearing jeans and t-shirts, all of whom were trying not to laugh too openly as they walked by and glanced at us.
A total of 5 interviews took place. The first was with a lady that gave a PowerPoint presentation on the company and described the culture. #2 was with a senior software engineer for one of the (many) projects. He was pretty serious but easy enough to interview with. Next came another tech lead for the same project, who was generally much friendlier and laid back. Third was a head systems engineer who asked the behavioral questions. Finally, we were taken to lunch with another guy who we were able to just speak casually with.
They said I would hear back in a week, which came and went with no response. At week 2 I emailed the corporate recruiter point-of-contact and inquired about the status. At this point I had other offers on the table and I was starting to get irritated by having to postpone decisions due to BAE Systems' blatant disorganization. The recruiter didn't write me back, even though she usually responds within a couple minutes to an email. A few days later I email her yet again, to which she doesn't respond (AGAIN). At this point I wrote the company off and accepted another offer. About a week later I receive an email from the recruiter with canned nonsense about how the hiring manager "has decided to move forward in the process with another candidate that more closely matches the skillsets that are needed for this position." LOL!
I've been rejected from plenty of jobs, but this one really blew my mind. The reason is that I don't see how anyone could have possibly interviewed better for the project that those two engineers were leading. I know the other guy I interviewed with was into stuff like android apps and web design, while I was more specialized with low-level programming and graphics APIs like OpenGL and DirectX (exactly what that particular project was engaged in).
I honestly think the rejection was yet another fantastic blunder on the part of HR and the corporate recruiters. It's impossible to say what actually happened, but I can be fairly certain that the hiring manager did not reject me. At this point it no longer mattered since I accepted another offer, but I found the entire disorganization to be both distasteful and off-putting. I don't see myself ever applying to another defense contractor if this is what one can expect when working with such corporations.