I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in Jan 2010
Interview
A lot of specific technical questions to see if you know what you are doing from others in the position. Hiring manager more concerned with past experience and other "soft" skills. Most people have good interviewing skills although an I/C asked me for my salary requirements, which I though was inappropriate. (I stated that it was best left at the time I was made a job offer, but everything is negotiable.)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What kind of salary are you looking for? It would have been okay from management, but I got it from an I/C which I really didn't like.
Lot of questions on SCRUM/Agile, willingness to work over time etc.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in May 2013
Interview
Fairly quick (three weeks). They called, asked a few questions, and hung up. They called again a week later and asked more questions. Finally, the manager called. Then the HR called a few weeks later again and asked if I could start on Monday. The job description was minimal.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Cisco
Interview
It was a very simple process. I met and talked with 7 people in 2 divisions and covered everything from previous experience to university studies, etc. The interviewer called me back within 2 hours of leaving the building and let me know I had an offer. That was several years ago, though, and the company was behaving more like a startup than a big company. Nowadays, the interview process is much slower and it takes much longer to extend offers, etc.