I applied through an employee referral. The process took 8 weeks. I interviewed at Merck (Rahway, NJ) in Sept 2009
Interview
They contact you for availability - schedule a day to coime in. Met with 5 individuals 1:1. Often getting the same questions. The time between interview and offer is long often 6 weeks due to the slow process in interviewing candidates.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time when you pushed back on a supervisor's request.
• Why did you disagree with the request?
• What actions did you take to address this disagreement?
• What were the results?
First there was a 30 minute call with recruiter who reviewed my experience and outlined what to expect in next steps if selected to move forward.
Was scheduled to move forward which consisted of a 30 minute five person panel with the team. Questions included experience and situational/behavioral questions.
Giving a negative/thumbs down on the experience because there was a preferred internal candidate all along so it was a waste of time.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Take me back through your resume and describe your experience and how it applies to this role.
Hiring manager reached out and coordinated the full process. No contact with a recruiter / HR throughout. I thought that was interesting and created a stronger relationship. However, after the hiring manager arranged all the interviews including 2 panels, a 1-1 and a take-home presentation / analysis, I proceeded through all of them and then was ghosted. After so many hours of meetings and preparation, I was surprised there was no feedback, either positive or negative. I would have been fine with a rejection and a brief sentence or two of feedback considering the journey I've made and the fact that it was with a hiring manager, not HR / recruiting who I'm sure fields hundreds of such emails a day.
had 3 series of interviews with panels. 1 HR interview. the onboarding process was not great, it was very disorganized. Did not find HR to be helpful, very bureaucratic organization overall. good benefits but not enough health/dental.