I flew down to Basel for a series of interviews (5) on one day with immediate members of the department, with project management, with HR, and via telephone with the line manager (based in the US). A week later I had a telephone interview with the Head of Department (also based in the US.) The call with Head of Department was the only strange experience in the whole process as I wasn't expecting it, nobody communicated that there would be such call and I actually had no idea who she was. It was only thanks to a quick call search on LinkedIn that I was able to suss out her role. Over all though I had a really positive impression of the folks at Novartis: a very pleasant, capable and international team, who I can certainly imagine working together. The HR person was very good, professional and responded to the few queries and emails that I sent promptly. The administrative support who handled the reimbursement of costs and booking flights and hotels was awesome. Thank you again Claudia!