Phone screen with the recruiter, followed by technical phone screen with director of research. (I was not favorably impressed with her. She has a PhD in computer but surprisingly had less expertise in finance and statistics. There were also English language issues). The next step was to perform a data analysis exercise with a 24 hour time limit. It was a poorly designed exercise. Whoever wrote it up didn't understand the problem domain very well and was even less able to communicate the problem to be addressed. It was so poorly defined that I suspected it would be a waste of time, but was sufficiently interested in the company that I completed the project anyway. Several days later I got a terse note from the recruiter that they would not move forward, no feedback on my answer to their exercise. The company offers an interesting service and has several good people on the team. But I'd be concerned about their marketing strategy and ability to remain competitive in the marketplace.

1. Contacted by the recruiter. 2. Simple phone screen with the head, description of research, and the head of research talked about the company a lot. 3. Remote one-on-one technical interview with four people. 4. Last phone screen, interest confirmation.