I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Pear Bio (London, England) in Jun 2023
Interview
Two rounds. First round a 15-30 mins phone interview, then a 2 h on-site interview ( around 5 mins lab tour + 2 h face-face interview with 3 people). In the 2 h face-face interview, I gave a 15 - 20 mins presentation about my previous relevant experience together with a mock project (topic was decided by them). I was given 3 days to prepare the topic... which I believe it probably could be longer for other applicants (there was availability issue with one of my interviewer, and I wanted to have the interview as soon as possible, so I didn't ask for alternative date), so I think there is no need to be panic when seeing this review.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked a lot technical questions, all of them were from both the 'essential' and 'desireable' qualities, make sure you check each single technical terms, and what the common assays used for what kinid of applications, how they are different ( not testing your knowledge in the experiment procedure, more like checking if you have any general idea and understand the underline principle). Overall, I think for the technical questions they were trying to understand where my limit was, so they asked a lot. They also asked situational questions (research ethical, data safety, lab safety, and how to deal with the shortage in samples and budget in your research). This part I feel like they were asking my answers to get an idea my personality and my work style in this situation which they needed to deal with daily (a biotech and start up) My suggestions are thinking about some common situation 1) how to deal with financial issue in a start-up in that position you applied 2)how to share a lab with others/ deal with chemical hazard/ multiple cell lines/ lacking of samples/multiple prohect/ availability of the hoods or machines 3) how to keep your data safe / company's property Final part was behaviour questions, like your weakness and strength, why this position/company, how your friends discribe you ect. what kind of working environment you like. Other questions like what business will you invest if you have a lot of money et. From the order of the questions asked, I think they are more curious on how good this candidate in technical skills, then they check if you are a good fit with their working environment. All interviewers are very nice, and they are quite straight-forward ( which I really like). Feels like a working environment you can discuss a problem without being accused/criticised. From the structure of this company ( you can check it from LinkedIn, the past experience & education backdround of the employees), I feel like their leaders know what they want, so they know exactly who they need and where to put them. That also means this company has high standard for candidate selection, and higher potential/ chance to survivial as a start-up, which is not easy. It's a shame I didn't get the job... I quite like them
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Pear Bio (London, England) in Mar 2023
Interview
Very bad online experience. One of the interviewers kept the camera off 90% of the time. When on, they kept walking around with a lot of noise in the background. The second one, was clearly tired or annoyed, and kept asking questions unrelated to the job ad. They also kept asking specific questions on the current job, which obviously I could not answer to for NDA contract.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Unrelated to job ad. Several about specific part of my current job (covered by NDA).
I applied online. The process took 3 days. I interviewed at Pear Bio (London, England) in Oct 2021
Interview
General/technical/team dependency and cultural fit.
Describe how a situation where you managed to solve a problem under pressure?
Are you comfortable working in a start-up company?
How do you manage to do multiple projects in a specific timeline?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Mostly technical questions in relation to the company product and my background