I applied for the Analyst position via the Overdrive corporate web site, and about a week later, I was contacted to set up a phone interview. I was called on-time by the Overdrive recruiter on the day of the interview. There were four or five basic questions like "Why do you want to work for Overdrive?" and "What three words describe you best?" The process took about 30 minutes. At the end of the interview, I was asked to come to Overdrive's corporate headquarters for an in-person interview. We scheduled this for the following week. In the seven days between interviews, I received an e-mail from the Overdrive recruiter with the company's official application and some preparatory information. It mentioned the dress would be business professional (which I've always taken to mean "suit and tie") and focused most heavily on points involving sales experience and personal passions. There was a bit of a buzzword-y quality to some of the material, which seemed contrary to Overdrive's projected young/fun image. Overall, the prep info wasn't especially well-written, with some bullet points restating earlier points almost verbatim. Regardless, I took some time to think about each point and how my own experience or ideas might apply. On the day of my interview, I arrived early and was met shortly thereafter by the recruiter. He was wearing shorts and sandals, and while I understood Overdrive to have a rather casual dress code, it made me feel pretty overdressed in my "business professional" attire. He walked me to the interview room. The first of two 1-on-1 interviews was with a department manager. This took 45 minutes, and I only remember being asked a couple of broad questions during that time. She spent most of the interview speaking at length about Overdrive's priorities and upcoming initiatives, with some discussion of the Analyst position and how it related to other positions (such as the Specialist) in the department. It felt more like a formal introduction than an interview, but the discourse felt natural. The second 1-on-1 was with a part-time employee who serves as an advisor to the Analysts. She read her questions directly from a printed sheet, and they were mostly standard fare (a time when you went above and beyond, the role you inhabit in a team, an instance of detail-oriented work, something in which you take pride, and so on). There wasn't much follow-up or discussion, as she mostly went down the list and asked her printed questions in order. Remembering the multiple mentions of sales culture and passion in the prep info, I tried to work that type of energy into my responses, but I don't think that was what she wanted to see. Eventually, she leveled with me and mentioned that most of the people at Overdrive just work in a cubicle all day, and she stated there wouldn't be much for an Analyst to do but write lists of book titles all day long. At that point, I decided that Overdrive was probably not a good place for me to work, though I didn't mention that to the interviewer. We wrapped up the interview, and the recruiter came back to lead me out. Overall, I was disappointed to find out the position would be so limited in scope, and that the culture was so boxed-in. Clearly, there was little to no sales activity involved for an Analyst, and I don't think I could ever find any passion or energy in writing lists of books for eight hours a day. Why were these ideas so heavily pressed in the preparatory information when they really had nothing to do with the position? And why was I asked to dress in business professional clothing when the employees' attire barely skirts the low edge of business casual? Everyone I met during the process was polite and courteous, but none of them struck me as being especially excited about Overdrive. Now that I have a better idea of what the culture is like, I guess I don't blame them. The company's recruiting material advertises a group of "innovative, passionate masterminds" looking for "creative leaders," but I don't think I met any of those people.