I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Northrop Grumman (San Diego, CA) in Apr 2015
Interview
It was an intro phone interview. Was told there will be more phone calls. The call was rather friendly. Looking forward speaking to them again. Found the conversation very rewarding.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Northrop Grumman (Chantilly, VA) in Mar 2013
Interview
The recruiter excitedly told me of three positions and I interviewed for two. Both went very well and the recruiter told me to expect at least one offer. I even answered follow-on questions from one of the interviewers where I'm sure I was free consulting advice. The teams definitely needed good engineers. Unfortunately it did not get that far.
When it came to getting an offer for either I was annoyed and disappointed. It is unprofessional and a bad sign when the recruiter stops responding after telling you that they were actively working on an offer. I contacted them a few times asking them for an update because I was considering other offers.
Once I informed them of my acceptance of another offer, only then did the recruiter respond to explicitly reject me in favor of another candidate. That's unprofessional. I got no credible answer regarding why I was left in limbo and rejected after withdrawing. I stalled on the other offer based on the recruiter's information and NGC did not deserve the consideration. I was probably too expensive for them, but not for my new employer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The questions asked varied greatly based on the team/group. For both positions, the interviewers were below my level of expertise. The interview was primarily to determine if I can communicate my expertise and be professional enough to interact with the customer.