Long process. Applied online, had several phone screens, and I waited almost five months with radio silence from the "Director of First Impressions". The interview itself was very long and the job description kept changing. It started as Research Analyst they wanted only private investing experience or a genuine interest and willingness to learn, very entry level. Shortly thereafter, it became "Analyst Development Program" which would be a six months program to train new hires. Apparently, this is because they decided to hire several new analysts rather than just one, per the director of research.
The interview itself was VERY negative. A lot of people asking me why I think I would make it through the program, saying it would "not be easy and extremely challenging to complete". This was directly in contrast with the "I've only seen three people this past decade not pass due to their personal change of interests" from the Director of research. I essentially was grilled for four hours and a lot of emphases was on my favorite fund managers and how I screen large volumes of stocks.
After three weeks of radio silence, I got a no-reply email saying I was not selected "given the applicant pool", but they promised "keep me on the list should the right opportunity arise" whatever that means.
Two weeks later the CIO reached out to me and sent me an email thanking me for my email and the handwritten letter I'd sent over a month prior and apologized for "not being able to include me". He had the nerve to encourage me to sign up for their service so that I could "build a track record and learn something". This was outrageous considering I write paid content for SeekingAlpha and have a public track record that is controlled by a third-party (which I have no involvement in) through TipRanks, and my current rating is 100%. It's obvious he didn't care to get to know me at all or browse my experience. He read a cover letter from last summer where I essentially describe value investing (building a fundamental DCF model and buying stocks that move well below the model's fair value) and misinterpreted it as "market timing" and ran with that assumption.
The best part is I did some research on LinkedIn out of curiosity and they only hired one person for the research analyst role and she has seven years experience as a financial analyst including Morgan Stanely, a defense contractor, and another mid-sized firm. What a joke for an entry-level job at a stock market blog. That is literally more experience the senior analyst who was interviewing me who graduated four years ago and was just an intern there prior.