Applied directly. First contact was made 3 months after application submission, which means HR sat on my application for a quarter of a year. HR called, couple of questions and then set up a call with manager to do first stage. First stage was run through of experience, why GlobalData etc. (I never asked why did they delay contact for three months and expect a candidate to still be interested let a alone available!) Progressed to second stage. Took a while to get sorted. Eventually sat a case study for four hours in their office. Read news, prepared research etc. Later presented results to team. and after was quizzed for a bit. They were quick to come back to me and make an offer. However during all the long delays and slow progress I had also been interviewing elsewhere and the other opportunities and offers that were made were more attractive. My advice to GlobalData is not to delay and take too long with the process. Candidates are not only applying to one place, but many. Being slow only results in not catching them.