All negotiation is done on the front end and with the recruiter.

They are the gatekeeper.

Whatever you agree to there is set in stone. I actually turned down the recruiter on his first call to me.

It was hard to do, but two weeks later he called again with a much better offer.

Compensation is never discussed again.

The next step was a phone interview with one of the group's managers. It was a pretty straightforward discussion of past experiences.

The last step was a group interview with two managers and their director. This seemed like a formality at this point.

Dress pretty casually for in-person interviews: no tie, maybe a sport coat, and nice jeans.

Once I got to the hiring managers, it was just basic fact-checking on my resume. There were no trick questions or tests or anything.