More than 5 years' experiance required. Set up your EA on a real account , they will monitor it for 3 months ! At the same time you have to do some coding tests (Java, C++) If everything is good, they will have an interview with you. If they find that questions asked aren't predictive (ex: fact-based questions instead of problem-solving questions -- even ones that may be relevant!), the HC members typically discount that interviewer's feedback. And it wasn't at all uncommon to hear HC members say during their deliberations something like "I myself didn't actually understand the question the interviewer asked" if a question and/or the hints the interviewer gave didn't make sense -- and to discount those as well.