Vertafore Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process started out well, and I was hopeful about starting my career here. The recruiter, Erick Valencia, mentioned that I'd need to prepare a presentation for the final interview where I would teach the interviewers, Griffon Elrod and Nate Brown, a topic I'm passionate about. I chose to present on 'how to write an argumentative essay.' However, this presentation never happened in the final interview, and there was no discussion about it. I'm unsure if this was intentional, like a psychological tactic, or if there was a communication breakdown between Erick and the interviewers. It also seemed like they had already decided on me before the interview, because the interviewer barely looked at my resume, misidentified my major, and then asked me to explain how that incorrect major related to sales. After being rejected, I asked Erick for feedback, but he never replied. It was a bad experience overall, but I wanted to document it. This was two years ago, so maybe things are different now.

I applied online to Vertafore and my profile was shortlisted. They sent me an online Cognitive Aptitude Assessment, UCAT, which I had to pass along with a personality profile assessment. HR called to let me know I passed the tests. A few days later, the job description changed to require SQL development abilities. I told them I have about two years of experience and a lot of knowledge in SQL performance optimization. HR said my current experience might not be a good fit for the current situation.

I applied through LinkedIn and the hiring process had 4 rounds. First was a cognitive assessment and behaviour test. Then a technical discussion/interview. After that, there was a ground discussion. Finally, an HR discussion. The interview lasted about an hour. They really focused on the skills I listed on my resume and asked questions about my projects. They also asked questions about my resume from start to finish. The skills I mentioned were python, java, django, bootstrap, html, css, javascript, mongo db, numpy, pandas, and matplotlib, and they covered all these topics within that hour. The interview went really well and was a positive experience.

The interview process at Vertafore was the worst professional experience of my 20+ year career. I was interviewing for a VP position reporting to the C-suite and after many rounds with other executives, I eventually connected with Amy, the CEO, on a weekend to complete the final round. I assume I did not get the position as I NEVER heard back from the recruiter. I texted her (her preferred method), emailed her and the hiring manager and finally after 1.5 weeks, heard from her offering a phone call to which I reported promptly - but guess what - NO response back from her. The entire interview process was marred by this same behavior and would go like this - the recruiter would email me, I would reply back, I would not hear from her for a week or weeks, I'd assume the process is dead, then suddenly I'd hear from the recruiter that I need to speak to someone urgently, then once again there would be no response for days or weeks, and then she would text me to set something up the same day. There was an absolute blatant disregard for my time and this process has left me pretty gobsmacked. I have tremendous respect for all of the executives I spoke to at Vertafore, however the recruiting team represents the culture of the company, and it did not show up well. I wish Amy and her team the best as they try to scale. Hopefully they read this and address some of their recruiting practices.