I assume this blog is not just about the strictly academic jobs (postdocs, fellows), but all the other jobs (engineers, administration, civil construction, ...)

I assume this blog is not just about the strictly academic jobs (postdocs, fellows), but all the other jobs (engineers, administration, civil construction, ...). If you apply for a fellowship (or even as a summer student), the process is roughly (from hearsay, I have no inside knowledge): A few hundred people apply via web form. This is whittled down by formal criteria (completeness, qualifications, publications) to a handful, or a few dozen maybe. Then they might do video interviews with various groups (sometimes they don't know where the new hire is going to work exactly - a fellow gets to choose his/her area of interest). Then there is probably a lot of internal discussion an politics. If you are already well-known, or one of the groups is interested in you, you have a great advantage at this step. Finally, they invite you in for an in-person interview. From what I've heard, if you get that far and don't screw up, your chances are pretty good.