BofI Federal Bank Interview Questions
& Process

It was a 3 round interview process and each round was about 45 minutes. The whole thing was super easy. The recruiter was really responsive and kept me interested the whole time. I got the offer pretty fast. I had to complete two Wonderlic tests, which were simple. One was a take-home test and the other was done on site. The test has 50 questions and you have 12 minutes. You don't have to finish all of them. To really stand out, try to complete all 50 questions correctly. Some hiring managers have a minimum score requirement to advance to the next stage or for the on-site interview.

So, there were a few phone chats, then we moved to the in-person interviews on-site. Also had to do a bunch of those timed Wonderlic exams, the math/verbal/logic ones, before the interviews, and then another proctored one on-site. The whole thing felt pretty unprofessional, especially the recruiter or exec I dealt with who was really disrespectful and just crass. They also cut the compensation offer by 30% which was wild. Plus, they didn't cover travel or even validate parking. Definitely not the best recruiting and interviewing practices I've seen in my 10 years in consulting and Fortune 500s.

I applied online and went through a long interview process. It started with 3 phone interviews and a wonderlic test. Then, I was invited for an onsite interview with the hiring manager, CEO, and 2 managers, and I completed another test. About a month later, a new hiring manager contacted me because the first one was no longer with the company. They wanted me to come in for another interview with the HR person and the hiring manager. This second interview felt like a waste of time, and I suspected they weren't serious, even though I tried to confirm their seriousness beforehand. I regret the time and money spent traveling for it. Except for the hiring managers, everyone else I interacted with, from reception to the interviewers, was pushy, aggressive, and sometimes rude. I was barked at to sit, told where to sit, ordered to follow, and handed a background check to fill out before even starting the interview. I was rushed to a room while being asked inappropriate personal questions. Few people introduced themselves, and the office was quiet. It felt more like an interrogation than an interview, as if they were trying to catch me in a lie. The HR interviewer even took a text message break mid-sentence, then changed the topic to technology difficulties. I'm unsure if this was a test of how I handle rude management. The HR questions were all negative, with no positive ones, and the hiring manager only engaged in conversation. I got the impression that the job would involve dealing with a lot of negativity. The other reviews about a cold environment and harsh management seem accurate. I'm relieved I didn't get the job, though I might have taken it despite my gut feeling to leave immediately. It was the worst interview process I've experienced.

This place has some issues with its reputation, and they're aware of it. I talked about their Glassdoor reviews with both the recruiter who got me in and the hiring manager for one of the jobs I applied for. They said they've made a lot of changes recently, bringing in new people because they had the wrong ones before. This also explains the Wonderlic test, which they give both at home and in the office. They needed some data to avoid hiring the wrong people again. My impression was they made candidates take it again in the office because some people had others take it for them at home. I agree it's a bit much, but it seems like a workaround for not having an HR department to handle screening. It feels like they're making candidates cover some of the HR costs. Not having an HR department is really strange to me and seems telling. Despite this, I would have considered a job because they are growing a lot, offering real chances for advancement and skill development, which I'm interested in. I figured if I went in with my eyes open, it could be a good opportunity. I also really liked talking to most of the people I met, and they seemed genuinely happy to be there, which surprised me given the negative reviews. Overall, my initial wary impression from Glassdoor didn't match my experience, though some red flags did appear later, matching some of my initial concerns. I'm still unsure about this place. I had a phone screen for a digital marketing role, which went well enough that I was invited for an interview. We had an honest discussion about the role and if it was a good fit for me, and we decided it wasn't. I felt this could have been figured out over the phone, but since they're expanding the team and department, I guess they wanted to see if they could place me elsewhere. The hiring manager liked me enough to recommend me for another position in a different group, and I interviewed for that on a different day. (They didn't make me retake the Wonderlic in the office for the second interview, for what it's worth.) I talked with the hiring manager about her team's immediate and long-term needs, and she seemed impressed with my background. She even discussed how she might rearrange things on the team to fit me in. She liked me enough that she introduced me to her two bosses. It looked like they were going to offer me a job; she mentioned needing to discuss rearranging some things and adjusting the job description to better suit my skills and her needs. She asked about salary and my availability to start. An offer seemed imminent. However, when she got back to my recruiter a few days later, they decided to 'go in a different direction.' That was the end of it. It's still unclear what happened, as she responded to the recruiter's calls with a short email, and everyone, including the recruiter, was surprised. It was a puzzling experience all around. While I was initially disappointed not to get an offer, I realized it was probably for the best when I felt a sense of relief. A final thought: as someone else noted, they don't cover parking costs during interviews, which I see as a red flag, especially since one interviewer mentioned they interview so many people it would be too costly to pay for everyone's parking. For a company that, according to the four people I interviewed with, is growing 30-40% annually, you'd think this would be considered overhead. Combined with their low pay, it's not surprising and says something about how they value employees. In summary, there might be good opportunities here, so be open-minded but cautious.