Applied for the position through their website. I received a phone call a phone call from the company both one day after applying and two days after applying. I didn't answer either call, as I wasn't expecting them, and had been dealing with a lot of recent spam phone calls. Three days after applying I received an email from the hiring manager stating that HR had been trying to reach me to set up a phone interview, and wanted to know when I could make myself available. I apologized and explained my recent issue with spam phone calls, and wrote back that since I primarily work phone home, that any time the following day would be fine. The hiring manager quickly responded via email with a time of 10:30 AM.
The following day I was called at about 10:35 AM. After some initial small talk, I was asked about my role at my current employer, and what I do on a day-to-day basis. The hiring manager showed some familiarity with my organization asked if I reported to a specific person and how my role interacted with the organization's actuarial department. When I explained that I didn't report to the person that he mentioned and that my department's interaction with the actuarial department was limited and mainly between managers he seemed a bit disappointed.
The hiring manager then began asking about how diverse the type of work I doing was, and I replied that it generally wasn't very diverse. He stated that the role I was applying for was rather diverse and asked whether that would be an issue for me. I stated that it would not be an issue and that I am an inquisitive person, and felt that a more diversified role would suit me. He then mentioned something from an old resume that I had used to apply for a position shortly out of college - there didn't seem to be a way to delete it on the application site, so I just left it and added my current resume. He mentioned some of the skills I mentioned regarding account classwork and reading financial statements. I explained that that was an old resume and told him that those skills were from school and not something that I had used professionally, but felt that I pick up those skills easily.
He asked how I felt about going from a primarily work-at-home environment to working in an office setting. I knew that this wasn't something that I was interested in due to the hours long daily commute that it would entail. I told him that I wasn't sure if that was something that I wanted to do; he seemed a bit upset by that response. I was expecting him to say that this role probably wasn't for me then, but instead he said that he'd let me think it over and would maybe have HR contact me for an update. He then asked if I had any questions. I asked if there was an actuarial exam study program, to which he answered yes without going too much into detail. I then asked about his team at work, and told me how many people were under him and explained that they all basically did the same work, and that work was assigned based on how workload each person had. I wanted to ask more questions, but the hiring manager didn't seem very engaged in the interview, so I just asked what the next step in the hiring process was. He told me that he'd narrow the field down to two candidates that would interview onsite. He said that he expected to make that decision rather quickly, but that those not selected probably would not here from HR for a while. I thanked him and that was the end of the interview.
The phone interview was on a Friday, and I spent the weekend debating whether I was willing to make a permanent daily commute. I decided that I was not, and thought that I should email the hiring manager directly rather than waiting for HR to call. In the email, I let the hiring manager know that I was not interested in making a permanent daily commute. I also told him that when I applied for the position, I knew that I'd have to commute daily for a time, but was optimistic that after an initial learning period of a few months to a year, some sort of alternate work schedule could be arranged.
I sent the email and expected a quick response thanking me for letting him know, but I never received anything.
