I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Biogen (Cambridge, MA) in Jan 2020
Interview
Emailed about a position I applied for a month prior to see if I could come in for in-person 2 days later. No phone screen or anything prior. Candidate care team set it up and I went in for 2- 45min interviews with the hiring manager and a Director level employee. Half time was spent reviewing my experience, strengths/weaknesses, why Biogen, why this position, and some tell me about a time when, the other half was left for me to ask questions. I was told they want to move quick and hire quickly and was never given direction that there would be more interviews or what the process would be. HR was unresponsive and then emailed asking for availability to come back in for more interviews. I gave them 4-5 half days of availability and never heard back for a week other than they were targeting one of the dates. It was the day before and I hadn’t gotten any confirmation despite attempts to follow up. Finally they confirmed with what would have been less than 24h notice and when I got the schedule it was for the wrong date when I wasn’t even available. Once I actually got back in for interviews it was with a group of people that weren’t sure about the position and that I wouldn’t actually be working with. They all said they don’t have any power over who gets hired and mostly couldn’t answer any questions about the position. I followed up with all my interviewers and HR with thank yous. I asked HR about timing and next steps as I was also waiting to hear back about another position multiple times and never heard back.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about your background. Why Biogen? Why this role? Why do you think you’d be the best candidate? Strengths / weaknesses.. Tell me about a time when....
1 HR interview with HR. Then 4 interviews of 30min each with recruiting manager and team. Friendly but lengthy process. It took about 3 months between application and final decision
I applied online. I interviewed at Biogen in Sept 2022
Interview
Only HR interview, no other rounds. The interviewer was nice, however she understood little about the role. Her questions were very typical and did not share what they were looking for in the candidates.
4-5 interviews with the cross-functional team (medical, commercial, HEOR). The interviews largely entailed behavioral questions about past experiences except for a few discussions about patient finding. The process was generally well organized through the recruiter. There was little communication with the hiring manager outside of the interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you go about finding patients with this rare disease?