I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA) in Apr 2009
Interview
Interview process was fairly insulting for a high level position. The process seemed geared to evaluating recent college graduates, not anyone with real world experience. Focused on evaluating hypothetical situations and thought problems instead of the tons of real experience I had. The people who do the interviewing are not those in the same group you would work with (I was told this was a Google policy), so no chance to evaluate personality fit with future coworkers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Estimate the annual gasoline expenses for Pizza Hut in San Francisco.
Very self-driven, first of multiple rounds, where I had to take the initiative to arrive at the problem, constraints, approach, solutions, tradeoffs and reasoning behind it in a matter of 30 minutes.
You would have to do a hiring assessment first, then a recruiter screening follows. First round interview with the hiring manager. Majorly product sense and product improvement. The questions were not direct though.
Overall a lot of steps to the interview process. Talked to different people and had opportunities to ask questions. Many different stages which made it a lengthy process overall. Wasn't too bad.