The application and hiring process was exactly as described by so many others already: an initial application (with an essay question of your choosing, in addition to cover letter, etc.) followed by a phone interview with someone who's already in the job for which you're applying, followed by lots and lots of tests, followed finally by a "dinner" and an interview in Madison, WI. Everything was very straightforward, professional, and friendly until my visit to Madison, when it got suddenly and universally creepy. I spent a whole day meeting people, and not one of them was unguarded or particularly interesting. Many of them were socially... disadvantaged. The art on the walls can only be described as Folk Art From Middle School. There is a token slide that everyone talks about and nobody seems to use. The cafeteria is filled with middle-American Engineering majors still wearing their college's t-shirts and cargo shorts. There is an image that this company works very hard to convey, and unfortunately for me, I think they found me to be too socially competent to truly fit into their Intergalactic Empire (for real). I thought I'd done a pretty good job of pretending not to be completely underwhelmed by their "okay let's just go get barbecue then" dinner the night before, and also of pretending to like the people I was meeting. They must have smelled the horror on me, though, because I didn't get an offer, and was treated very coldly by my recruiter in my final interview of the day.