The process is made up of application, then an initial Skype interview followed by a more formal one. I didn't make it past the Skype interview stage. Incidentally, the connection was so poor that we switched to a phone interview instead. I much prefer face-to-face interviews and did not enjoy the phone interview. If you have a specific area of social research you're interested in, say education (as mine is), don't tell them this. It caught me out. Although I'm really interested in policy analysis as a whole, I thought having a 'specialty subject' would be an advantage. It was not. One gripe I had was that the salary for the first year is less than they advertise. I had spoken a representative via email and asked for confirmation of the salary. They said it's 24k but it's actually a few grand less, which I only found out at the end of the interview. Think I remember her saying it was something like 21.5-22k.