JB Hunt – the massive trucking firm – somehow found me, I think, on LinkedIn. One of their internal recruiters reached out to me and set up a phone screen. The phone screen is a typical first conversation in which you tell them about your background, they tell you about the company, and then issue a coding challenge – in this case, on HackerRank. My initial conversation was for a remote position in the Dallas region and went about 45 minutes. Since it was an HR-style recruiter, I could not deep dive on technical questions I had. Most applicants shouldn’t have problems with the initial phone screen. Passing this first milestone gets you a request to complete a HackerRank assessment (test). HackerRank is a very popular screening tool that combines various types of questions (multiple choice, true/false) with short coding exercises using a code editor with a subset of what you’d find in a full integrated development environment (like Visual Studio). The assessment consists of about 15 questions and takes 2 to 3 hours to complete. My particular assessment had two sections – coding and database. I was able to get through the coding portion but not the database portion (three questions). Attempts to contact the recruiter after completion of the assessment were fruitless – they didn’t have the courtesy to write back, so that should tell you something about this organization. If you turn out to be the kind of assumed superstar Hunt is seeking, you might consider other places first. If their recruiting organization is any indication of the kind of place they are, they’re a typical, large, disconnected enterprise with poor communication.