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.