I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at PlayStation in Apr 2015
Interview
The interview process for this was really straightforward- a recruiter reached out to me, had a quick screen to tell me about the position, and to gauge if I was actually interested in Playstation, and from there put me through to the team. The interview with the team was super casual, and was more of an opportunity to learn about what the team does and ask me about what I'm interested in. I wasn't actually asked anything technical, despite it being a technical position.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Most questions were about the stuff on my resume- just trying to get a feel for whether I'd be a good culture fit, I guess.
I submitted my application online in February and didn't hear anything until early April. First, I was contacted by an HR person and had a phone interview with her. She mostly asked me general questions about PlayStation and my passion for gaming. This was really more of an information session about the program. At the end of the call, she told me she was going to set me up for two phone interviews with the managers at two different locations. I scheduled these pretty much immediately - they took place just two days after the initial phone call. They were both very laid-back and conversational. Every single person that I spoke to at the company was nice, welcoming, and seemed to really be interested in what I was saying. Most of the time of the interviews consisted of reviewing my resume and talking about different projects I had worked on and what I learned from them. There were a few more formal questions that you would expect from a UX Research position (i.e. walk me through what you see as the main stages of UX research), but nothing unexpected or too difficult. There were also some of the same general questions that the HR person had asked me about, for example, my passion for games. After the interviews, I heard back in about a week and was offered the position.
I think stressing any experience that you have with traditional scientific research is important, as well as just being very comfortable talking through your own work/projects in detail. And, of course, being relaxed and confident always helps!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Discussed my previous projects and was asked what I learned from them and why I took the steps that I did in completing them.