I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at State Street (Boston, MA) in Feb 2010
Interview
I had two interviews at State Street. An immediate family member is on the board of directors and told their assistant to put my resume in - AKA they didn't want anyone to know who my family member was. The first in person interview was with HR and it was very standard - why do you want to work here? The second interview was over five hours and I met with individuals and also a group to talk about the position. The second interview was definitely more about people talking about what they did and there was very little room for me to talk. I got a call back the next day saying they loved my interview skills, but went with the other candidate (they had narrowed it down to two of us) and had they known who my family member was, they would have hired me. C'est la vie. I also would have been working with older people which is fine, but I just think it depends on what department you're in.
One round interview. With about 12 people. This was because I was interviewing for multiple different teams. Stressful but an interesting conversation between multiple groups and functions. Got to see the teams in conversation with each other.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Do you prefer to communicate over the phone or in an email