I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at AstraZeneca (Cambridge, East of England, England) in Sep 2024
Interview
The initial application stage was fine. Practice questions were given for the behavioural and abililty assessment. Video assessment only had three questions, which were given in the explanation video, with an adequate amount of time to prepare. I emailed requesting more time due to my disability, and they responded very promptly and even gave me the courtesy of extending my deadline. However, after this, their communication was extremely sparse. I sent an email about a month after my interview enquiring about the personal feedback video as I discovered that others who had applied for other industry placements received feedback after the behavioural assessment and wanted to double check my application was received. Sent a follow-up email 3 days later as well as emailing the assessment company (which was futile as my email bounced back since it stated that "this inbox is full"?). I eventually got a reply back at 6pm stating that they had received my application but didn't send out feedback. However, this effort was wasted as I received a rejection email the following Monday. It was so generic that the email began with "good afternoon," despite receiving the email at 11am.
Others that have applied for various industrial placements have been ghosted entirely and been told that assessment centre dates have been pushed back because the hiring manager is still making decisions but was then rejected a day later. It feels like that was an excuse as to why they hadn't heard anything back, because if it were true, it wasn't communicated prior.
Overall, the actual interview process was standard; it's just the lack of communication from the acquisition team to candidates that is disappointing.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What made you apply to this program?
Highlight your strengths
Share an example of teamwork skills
I applied online. I interviewed at AstraZeneca in Nov 2025
Interview
Completed a series of questions assessing your behaviours and questions assessing ability. Then invited to assessment centre where completed an introduction exercise in group, a values and behaviours assessment on their core values and a technical interview on drug development process.
The process was entirely online, and the technical interview - which they said not to prepare for - felt pressurised and very difficult to understand questions without preparation. The values interview was less stressful but significantly shorter.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe and explain graphs relating to drug movement
Interview was in two stages, firstly a one on one technical interview, so it is importnat to be familiar with the basics of your subject area. This was followed by a team interview in which you had to work with other interviewees to complete tasks.