****INSANE**** online "assessment" required. Regardless of how much "lipstick" is slopped on, this train don't fly. BNSF is acting in bad faith, and the assessment platform is supporting that. Very likely BNSF's "hiring process" amounts to additional exploitation of cheap, low-skilled H1-B indentured servant labor. Zero interaction with any human at BNSF. Received a generic e-mail asking for completion of an online assessment. 2 mystery "tasks" to complete in 2 hours via an online assessment service. I'm never going to be railroaded into a blind OA again. Just say NO. Turns out - the assessment platform's (free) custom leetcode-like algo & DS puzzles had nothing whatsoever to do with the actual assessment tasks. Just the 1st task could have been used as a typical "take home" assignment WITH normal access to reference materials on the Internet, a real IDE, no time restriction (beyond a number of days), etc. However, the "assessment" disallows use of reference materials of any kind. The assessment service tracks and logs all typing & mouse behavior, including highlighting, copying & pasting, loss of tab focus etc. - requiring the candidate to "use only what you know". I don't see how anyone could realistically complete this with no prior knowledge of the tasks. Task 1: finish building out a CRUD+ type of service with some provided partial template files - using a very outdated framework version!! plus some (common) libraries not even mentioned in the original job description... Task 2: finish a UI component system to display some collected user data - again using a very outdated UI framework. With BNSF's inhumane & inane approach to supposedly "valued" candidates, entry-level PTO and minimal health care benefits for employees; BNSF is clearly as abusive (and prehistoric) as numerous employees have described. Have to wonder why Berkshire owns multiple morally bankrupt companies, including Geico, Business Wire & BNSF... Apparently treating employees horribly can be still profitable -- for such shady, burn & churn companies -- in this degenerating age of rampant robber barons returned.

The process included a recruiter screen, timed take-home coding assessment, initial technical and behavioral interview, and a five-round final stage with two additional live coding rounds. The total candidate burden felt excessive and duplicative. During the final stage, one interviewer was significantly late and ultimately canceled. After completing the process, communication was a brief form rejection with no feedback, similar to the kind of rejection letters you receive before any interaction with a person. Request for feedback given the significant time investment by the candidate received no response.