The interview process took a very long time and involved a lot of different people. The initial interview cycle moved quickly--first a phone screening, then a timed writing assessment, a phone interview (30 min behavioral/30 min case), and finally an in-person interview in DC with two team members (both a combination of behavioral and case). The night before my in-person interview, the HR person I'd dealt with initially (but not the person I had worked with to schedule the interview) wrote to tell me they were no longer hiring for the specific role for which I had originally applied, but that I'd be interviewing for a general Consultant position the following day. This threw me a bit, as I'd prepared answers and questions related to the initial position (which was fairly specific within a new-ish team at EAB).
The behavioral interviews went well, but the cases were trickier for me, coming from a research/policy background. I didn't feel like I performed exceptionally well on the cases, or that I was able to get a sense of what it would be like to work there based solely on the two 30 minute conversations I had. There was no tour, just a nearly empty white marble waiting area and a small conference room. No HR people came to greet me. I dealt exclusively with a receptionist and the two interviewers. These are not complaints, necessarily, but it definitely did not make me feel like anyone was excited about my candidacy, or interested in "selling" how great it was to work at EAB. It felt very corporate--like they probably had 50 other people sitting elsewhere in the bldg. going through the same motions. EAB is a larger organization than I've worked for recently, so this may be really standard. (Although I have interviewed at other big consulting firms in DC in the last 6 mos and not felt quite the same way...)
Two interviewers were senior members of teams on which I could potentially have been placed (again, at this point I didn't know which specific teams I was being considered for...). One of the interviewers gave me the same case that I'd done on my phone interview. I felt this gave me an unfair advantage (and I worried it was a test!), so I let her know, and then immediately regretted it because the 2nd case she gave me was much more complicated. Anyhow, I felt the first case went decently, but this one not as much--again, neither felt great, but they were not a total flop either, and the interviewers seemed positive.
A few weeks later, HR wrote to say they wanted me to interview for a third position, but that I was no longer being considered for either the initial position I'd applied for, or the one for which I'd interviewed in person. I appreciated that EAB's HR was frank with me about why I was not a good fit for the role for which I'd interviewed.
Overall, I found the HR people to be responsive and enthusiastic. However, they seemed to always be passing me off to someone else "on the team" and I never knew to whom I should be addressing follow ups--especially when a week or more went by without hearing from someone. There were also a lot of typos and errors with dates over the course of the 10 weeks or so corresponded with EAB HR's team over email (from multiple people). Individually, none of the errors was egregious, but eventually there were enough tiny mistakes for me to feel like it was a sloppy process (including the repeat case incident).
In the end, I took a job elsewhere and withdrew myself from consideration (I don't think I was a good fit for the 3rd position, anyhow). I received a kind note from HR to conclude the process.
