You may not be able to stand out if you are a minority. Having a top-secret security clearance is always a big help when for applying any tech jobs these days.
I applied through university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at J.P. Morgan in Mar 2013
Interview
Got the news from this company from campus job fair. I sumbitted the resume and then have a 20 minutes talk with the inteviewer, he asked me some questions about my degree (I have a ECE degree, not CS) and my academic record, and finally, some questions about basic math and programming. Received the call from their HR department about two weeks later, then have a three round onsite interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why do you choose Chase band as your career's starting point? Do you know what we are doing? As a upon graduate student, this kind of questions really baffles me.