The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Merck in Jan 2010
Interview
Initial interview was on campus: 1 on 1 interview with an associate director. The interview mainly consisted of going over my resume followed by some personality questions (have I ever not gotten along with anyone, etc...) and ended with a technical question (about how to handle a bioreactor in a certain situation). The interviewer was very nice and made me feel at ease. She was never cut-throat, understanding when I fumbled over my words, and was very courteous throughout the process.
This got me to the second round. This was an all-day interview (from about 8-4) consisting of 6 one on one interviews going about 45min - 1 hr/interview. These were all personality and situational questions (conflict resolution, how you deal with uncooperative co-worker, etc...) The hardest part was enduring through the day, however, they did their best to make me feel comfortable. Free breakfast and lunch were provided.
People there are excited about the company. The building and offices are a bit old-fashioned, and the culture is not as young as other biotech companies, however, very friendly environment.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
It's the first night of a run, you are in charge of the plant. You have worked with supervisors, co-workers, etc, and have agreed upon a certain protocol to conduct the run. However, on the night of the run, someone who is below you in rank but has worked there for many more years than you have comes up to you and says that you are doing a certain process wrong and that you should change it (i.e. "You don't have to take A, filter to B, then go to C, you can just go from A to C. That's the way we've been doing it for years."). What do you do?
I applied through university. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Merck in Sept 2015
Interview
Talked with a recruiter at my school's career fair, and was offered an interview after the discussion. Interviewed on campus the following day. Two 30 minute interviews, didn't ask any behavioral questions. Just talked through my resume. Good experience overall. However, they said it would be a while before we heard back... Myself, and a friend of mine never heard back from them. It wasn't very professional.
I applied in-person. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Merck (Whitehouse Station, NJ) in Aug 2011
Interview
Hired out of a pool of interns. Interviews was conducted by 4 different people from across the company. 1 HR, 1 Higher Level Director and 2 Technical Leaders. Questions were getting repetitive but they were mostly behavioral.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Have you worked in a team where one of the members weren't pulling their weight? How did you handle it?
