The process took 4 days. I interviewed at Putnam Investments (Boston, MA) in Oct 2010
Interview
For this position, you basically should have some programming and finance exprience. Otherwise, they don't really open to any kind of smart and analytically strong people.
I applied through university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Putnam Investments in Nov 2014
Interview
After submitting my resume at a career fair, I was contacted for an on-campus interview within a week. This turned into a skype interview due to convenience. This first interview was purely a fit interview, talking about company culture, asking about my experiences and skills. The interviewer indicated that I would probably be moving on to the next round, which was confirmed by an email from Putnam within a week. I was invited to Boston for 4 interviews over the course of 3 hours. All 4 were fit interviews. One interviewer was an HR honcho, the other three were coders. One was really quiet, one was a very friendly woman, and the last was a no-nonsense, get-it-done kind of friendly. This last interviewer asked a couple of technical questions, but they weren't particularly difficult. See below. About three weeks later, I received my final answer.