Three part online assessment consisting of numerical puzzles, pattern recognition and a case study. Tight time limits.
Image quality of graphs/figures in the assessment have a very poor resolution. There are also several typos in the case study questions which doesn't help.
If the image quality would be unacceptable in a client deliverable, then why is it being used in a candidate assessment?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
You are given a case study on a mAb treatment and asked some multiple choice questions.
Three rounds of interviews, 20 minute-meetings with a few employees, and a homework for the last round. I had to prepare a presentation on a topic given a week in advance. After all the time spent preparing, they only replied with a generic decline, no feedback on request.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
If there are two groups of different sizes in a trial, how will this impact the significance of the results?
I applied online. I interviewed at Scitaris (Berlin)
Interview
I had first contact with some employees at a career fair, which gave me already a first impression about the company. After I sent my CV, I got quite fast a response and was invited to do the online assessment. It looked like many other applicants did not pass this step.
The first stage of interview was a 20 minutes Teams call with one of the partners. The second stage was a virtual assessment day, including two Teams calls of around 40 minutes with the other partners or sometimes a senior colleague, and also a 15 minutes presentation.
In general, the process was organised and efficient, but the conversations felt quite one-sided. There was not so much time for candidates to ask questions or to really get to know the company better.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Online assessment: The platform was Testlify. It contained a mixture of typical aptitude tests, for example non-verbal reasoning (patterns to recognise), verbal reasoning (cause and effect relations), and some calculation questions (like to find the weekday of a date in year XX). The last part is especially heavy for people who did not yet have exposure with drug development or the actual terminology. For me it was a case study on an immunological sickness, with about 15 exhibit documents provided. The candidate must answer single- and multiple-choice questions in only 25 minutes, by putting together the informations from disease biology, target biology, actual treatment situation, preclinical animal data, clinical study design, PK/PD results in early trials, safety and efficacy numbers, and FDA guidelines. The exhibits are supposed to mirror the materials which a Consultant analyse in the daily business.
First round interview: Quite standard, more or less only „walk me through your CV and PhD.“
Assessment day interviews: Two calls of 40 minutes, with a mixture of motivation questions and also case study tasks. Some questions felt a bit arbitrary, sometimes with quick head calculation, and others asking for understanding of clinical development.
Assessment day presentation: The topic was given already some days before. The presentation and the interviews can come in any order. My task was if I agree or not with a recent FDA refusal decision, and I had to look very critical at the asset’s data. There were minimum 5 people in the call, but it did not result in any real discussion, which I found a bit strange.
After the assessment day, I got the offer quite fast.