First application is filling out an online form, much like any other online application where it is basically a copy and paste from your resume. There is also a series of questions where you answer in "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" fashion based on personality questions like "I am a team player", etc.
Two weeks after filling this out I received an invitation to an online video application. Much like a Skype interview, you recorded your answers in video format. You watched a video, and at the end it presented a question. You had one minute to prepare your answer, then 30 seconds to record your answer. There were no second chances and no opportunity to take a break if you need to come back to it.
After submitting this video, I received an email about a week later inviting me to an in person interview. I received two locations (Seattle and San Francisco) and received a few options for each (every Wednesday in August were my choices to pick from for Seattle, San Francisco only had one option). I went on August 31st to Seattle.
IF YOU GET THIS FAR, I WOULD RECOMMEND BEING IN STATE AND SOMEWHAT LOCAL. I PAID for my own flight in and out of Seattle and my hotel while I was there, Alaska Air paid for NOTHING out of this and it cost me nearly $600! I am very upset about this especially because I did NOT receive an offer and will never get that $600 back!
Once you choose your day, you appear at a chosen hotel that they will send you an email about weeks in advance. A few days before my interview, I received another email, very short notice, that the location had been changed to another hotel in Seattle. I arrived at 7:30, as requested, and the process began at 8.
At 8 they took us to a conference room in the hotel. As we went inside, they asked our names, checked us off a list, and had us do a reach test to make sure we could reach 60 inches without shoes on. Inside we received our name badges that had two times on it. It read "G: 00:00" (with a time on it) and "I: 00:00" (also had an actual time). They did not say this meant "group" and "individual" and left us to figure it out. They started with a video about Alaska Airlines and then we went around, introduced ourselves to the table we were sitting at, and representatives at each table from Alaska answered any questions we had. Then we started the group and individual interviews.
Group interviews were like this: Everyone who had the same group interview time was pulled aside at once and pulled into another room. We were sat down in front of two representatives we hadn't seen yet. They broke our groups into two smaller groups of three people each and gave us each a scenario where we would have to figure out how to deal with a difficult customer. My group's scenario was to deal with a customer that was huffing and puffing about sitting next to a heavy customer sitting next to him on the plane. How would we deal with this? We were given a few minutes to decide as a small group, then shared our answer and listened to the other group's scenario. This was very difficult because the three of us were expected to answer at once and it was very hard not to step on anyone's toes as we were answering, so I did not get much of a chance to answer until I was addressed directly.
We were then lead back into the room with everyone else. Mostly this was now a waiting game as we waited for our individual interview. Mine was over three hours after my group interview. I could only sit and wait, speaking to others who were waiting as well as the representatives who were there to answer any questions.
When it was time for my individual interview, I was brought into another room that had THREE other individual interviews going on. It seemed random which two interviewers I was seated with. I did my interview in one corner while three other did theirs in the other corners of the room. They asked me typical one on one interview questions and ended with "What's your favorite book?" as if pretending this was all one friendly conversation.
After I was done with my interview, I went back to the room to wait. It took an hour to hear back and by now I had been here for seven hours. My name was called and I was asked to retrieve my things I had brought with me. I was pulled outside and told thank you for interviewing but we will not be hiring you. Overall it was very underwhelming after spending seven hours in a hotel conference room, most of it sitting around and waiting. I was left to my own devices from that point to find my way back to my hotel and to the airport. I was told it would be an "all day" event that ended at 6 but I was out of there by 4. I was upset about this because I missed a flight at 6, not thinking I would be able to make it, and instead sat around Seattle Airport until midnight waiting for my flight.