I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3+ months. I interviewed at CarMax (Richmond, VA) in May 2018
Interview
A CarMax in-house recruiter reached out to me. He scheduled a phone call with me, then did not call. I checked in with him and he scheduled another call, but, again, did not call. The third appointment he told me he had been ill, however I thought it rather unprofessional that no one from CarMax called to cancel those first apts. Despite that, he was very nice and the call went well.
I had several phone calls with members of the UX team that went really well. After about 4-6 weeks they scheduled an onsite interview. The recruiter was very encouraging and supportive at that point.
I was required to fill out the online application form.. .That is a UX nightmare! It took over 3 hours, kept losing my information and made me realize how much UX help CarMax needs.
My flight was delayed and I didn't get to my hotel until 10pm the night before the interview. I think CarMax should schedule interviewees from out of town for 2 days, the first day starting in the afternoon, as I was starving (the restaurant kitchens close early in Richmond) and tired.
I had over 6 hours of interviews with 8-9 people, usually in groups of 2. The first part of the process was a drug test. I had not been offered a job yet, so found that to be an invasion of my privacy, not because I use drugs, but it could also give CarMax information about any prescription medication I might be taking. I would suggest doing drug testing after an offer is made.
The people who work at CarMax are wonderful! Friendly and kind, I can't say enough good things about them. I also had to take a written "logic" style test, but the recruiter had assured me that it didn't count for much, and since we had gotten behind schedule, I did it fairly quickly, with not a lot of thought, which may have counted against me.
I wrote thank you notes to all the people who interviewed me, but did not hear anything. A week later I reached out to the recruiter, but did not get a response. I reached out again a week after that, and eventually I was sent a formal email stating that they were pursuing other candidates. I did reach out and ask for feedback as I am always interested in improving my skills, but was told that company policy is to not give feedback.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a time when a project you were working on failed.