I applied online. The process took 7 months. I interviewed at SEC (Washington, DC) in Jan 2011
Interview
The hiring process took an extremely long period of time, similarly to all government hiring. Start to finish the process took over seven months. Despite moving very slowly it was a positive process and the questions were fair and tough.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There were no business cases or unexpected questions. The questions were expected about the SEC and lots of technical questions. There is a high expectation that applicants be very conversant in their area of expertise which is more than fair.
I applied online. The process took 4 months. I interviewed at SEC (Washington, DC) in Feb 2013
Interview
It was not a traditional face to face interview. Of course it is the federal government and I had applied for this job in November, 2012. I didn't get called until February, 2013. The hiring manager called me and said she recevied over a 1,000 applications and didn't have time to interview everyone. She said I had the skills she was seeking and asked for references. There were no questions about my background, why I wanted to work at the SEC or anything. Seeing that I had just went through 5 year periodic investigation at my previous employer; it was a breeze coming on board at the SEC.