Applied online and was contacted by the recruiter to do an initial phone interview. The initial phone interview was very typical - questions about my background, interest in the company, understanding of the company and my salary requirements (which I didn't provide because I'd heard the pay at this company was low). The salary range for this position was quite low - mid to upper 30's, but I said I'd still be interested in the position because of the great reviews the company has online and my interest in working with a great group of employees. At this point I was asked which day I could come in to the office to meet with staff.
During this first round of in person interviews I met with three current member advocates for 30 minutes each. Questions ranged from why I wanted to work there, challenging customer situations I'd handled before, etc. The staff was very friendly and all expressed how much they enjoyed working there. Each employee I met with had a copy of my resume and had thoughtful questions to ask about my experience.
About a week later, I was asked to return for another round of employee interviews. This time I met with the Member Advocate Manager, the COO and Director of Culture. All were passionate about the company, easy to talk to, and allowed me to ask whatever questions I had. Unfortunately, at this point it was hard to come up with any new questions, and seemed a bit over-kill to meet with so many staff. During my interview time allotment with the COO, I was told that the position I was interviewing for wouldn't have any openings for about 3 months (a fact I was not told while meeting or interviewing with anyone else). He asked if I'd be interested in a sales position instead.
I agreed to the Membership Development Representative (MDR) position interview and returned the next day to meet with people from the sales team. This interview completely changed my opinion of the company. The first person I met with was extremely rude and condescending. This individual hadn't looked at my resume (nor had a copy like all the other people in the company I'd met with). The person spoke to me like I was wasting their time, told me the position was just making 120 outbound cold calls a day. When I mentioned that the job description said warm leads, and that the job description sounded more varied than they described, the interviewer replied that the description was wrong and that if I wasn't 100% ok with that, the interview was over. I said I wasn't 100% ok with it but would like to learn more since I had a different understanding of the position. I was then told "well, if you aren't 100% on-board with that, then we're done here. I hope you didn't have to drive from Boulder." I was in and out in less than 5 minutes and not allowed to meet with the other people I'd been scheduled to interview with after.
The next day I emailed the recruiter thanking them for letting me interview for the sales/MDR (call-center) position, and I'd still like to be considered for the Member Advocate opening, even if it was a few months down the road. I received a reply that they were no longer considering me for the position.
While the company defends their intense job interviewing as a way to preserve their tight company culture, it seemed a bit much to have someone interviewing for an entry level position spend 4 hours interviewing. While the people working there seem very happy, it is quite an intense environment of work-out extremists who need a day job to fund their fitness habits.
If you are interested in this company, make sure you know their company culture and motto, as you will need to know this in the interview process. They are very proud of their culture and if you want to work here and are a huge fitness enthusiast, if will be a great fit. However, there seems to be some kool-aid drinking....