The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at RAPP (New York, NY) in Nov 2009
Interview
RAPP came to my college to recruit, they brought an alum as well as the VP of hiring services. Initially they asked us to come with a presentation prepared about a brand that we had worked on. After this presentation, they asked me some questions about the brands that I had done work with and some technical aspects of the job.
Post this, I had 2 phone interviews with senior management - one VP and another Director. The HR person was great at keeping me in the loop, however, as soon as these 2 interviews were over, she fell off the planet and refused to keep in touch with me. I had no idea what had happened, if the job was still on the plate or not. A month later I let it go.
The experience was largely a negative one for me, since all the interviews went well, however HR didnt keep me in the loop about their plans. Additionally, they didnt give me any idea about how long the process would be, the number and kind of people involved, or any steps in the selection process.
The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at RAPP (Irving, TX) in May 2010
Interview
I have to say that Rapp isn't geared towards online media. This was repeated during the interviews. I came across as someone who had many years experience working with other ad agencies and this is not what they 'really' wanted. They have their own ways of doing things at the Irving office. User-experience is not exactly a great career ladder at Rapp as was seen that the UX director who had initially phone screened had left the company before I even got a chance to interview.
The interview consisted of an account manager who had 'her own idea' as to how the user-experience architect should work on. Outdated processes, unrealistic expectations was pretty much status quo from everything she was talking about. That's the problem with ad agencies... lots of ego, little real world experience.
The Creative Director was cool and told me I'd be running into problems with the creative team if I hired on as an IA, as they rarely saw eye to eye with the UX team.
So if you really want a career where your going to have to fight for your existence every day in an ad agency more geared towards junk mail than website creative work, feel free to take the job. I wouldn't be happy there.