I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Fluidic Analytics in Jan 2021
Interview
I applied through a recruiter who said they were having real difficulties finding candidates with the particular skills.
I quickly got a first round interview, which was with the Head of Software. This wasn't much of an interview in the traditional sense. Tt was a Zoom call during which he spent most of the time explaining the company, the software they develop and the scientific details of the theory behind their product.
He didn't ask any technical questions - in fact, I think the only questions I were asked were ones that could have been answered by a cursory glance of my CV! Very basic things like have I had any experience before doing X. There was very little time for me to ask any questions either - I felt like I had to interrupt him to find an opportunity to. He was very friendly, but I don't think he conducted a good interview as I can't imagine he managed to find out much about me and I certainly didn't manage to find out much about what it would be like to work there.
I was verbally assured a second round interview and that he'd sort it out with HR afterwards and get back to me through my recruiter. After not hearing anything for a week, I checked in with the recruiter who told me "they're usually quite slow because they're so busy". Another week passed and I checked in again. My recruiter still had no idea what was going on. A couple of days later he broke the news that they'd gone with another candidate.
I'm not sure what it was that made them break their promise, or why they kept me waiting so long, but it felt very unprofessional.
I applied online. I interviewed at Fluidic Analytics
Interview
No real process.
Disorganised communication & seemed to be driven more by interviewee.
Phone interview with a manager as they are obeying the government restrictions. Office was stated to be small anyway
Nothing with HR.
Unclear on what they were looking for
Failed to respond to follow up on repeated requests on possible further progression of application
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Standard fare on their part
Were open to questions but were unable to answer technical questions on products & principle application= sort of thing a customer would ask.
Seemed very metric driven. Less interest about market, key applications, target customer- how/who to sell to, why customer should see benefit etc.
Expectation seems to contact customer, wave info in face & add to pipeline
Influence on larger multinational companies that hiring staff had worked for was obvious- eg metrics & having a large structure in place. Liked flashy marketing
Little obvious experience of having worked in a start up or early stage life science environment.
Admission on a lot of staff turnover.
Oddly said unable to demo instruments on customer site (but other companies can!)
I applied through a staffing agency. I interviewed at Fluidic Analytics (Cambridge, England) in Mar 2019
Interview
I have applied for a role through an agency and was invited for a face-to-face interview. Interview took over 1.5 hours, it included a short tour of the place, 2 separate interviews - with a line manager and line manager's manager. One interview included short personality tests.
I have chased agency for the feedback, but haven't heard back from an agency or the organisation. After meeting in person and spending time on an interview, I expected to at least be informed that I was not successful.