I submitted my resume over the internet and was contacted via email for a phone screen within a few days. The phone screen was about an hour long and asked fairly detailed questions about my experience specific to the functions of the job, what policy topics I might have interest in, etc. We also discussed salary requirements. I was contacted immediate after the phone screen via email to set up an in-person interview for about two weeks later. The in-person interview was almost 6 hours long and I met with a total of 12 people, both in groups of 2-3 as well as with a few people individually. One panel was over the phone with staff from other Mathematica locations. Everyone had very closely reviewed my resume and cover letter, and some even checked out my current employer's research agenda. The whole day was fairly stress free. The most common question I was asked was if I had any questions for them. It was a primarily a lot of discussion about how Mathematica operates, how work is assigned, and what types of projects they pursue. The day after the interview I was contacted for permission to call my references, and the reference checks were all completed within a week. Between that date and the date an offer was made was two months. I emailed a few times in that period to request updates and was continually told that a decision had not yet been made, but that I was still a candidate. Although the interview process took a long time, I appreciated their thoroughness and responsiveness. If I understood the explanation correctly, they took on some new projects after my interview and wanted to make sure that they were filling the position with the right skills to meet the demands of these new projects. Thanksgiving also caused a bit of a delay. Until this point, I would say the process was not too bad. I held my breath for about two months waiting to hear back, but I could live with that. What ultimately made the experience a bad one was the discrepancy in the salary range I was told in the phone screen by the HR manager and the offer that they ultimately made me. In the phone screen, the HR manager not only told me the salary range that she expected I would fall into, but also told me the highest salary they pay for that particular position. The offer that I was made came in at $12K below the bottom of the range she indicated in the phone screen. I was told that this was to maintain consistency and fairness in the salary ranges of their current team as I do not have the same education qualifications of those who would be my coworkers, therefore it would be unfair to pay me more. While I appreciate the integrity and transparency of their salary decisions, had I known the actual salary range I wouldn't have bothered with the interview.