Novartis interview questions

I emailed an alum and was able to network into an interview. First was a phone screen interview. As long as you seem interested, you seem to pass the screening. After that, they flew me out to Holly Springs for my in person interview(s). The first was a meeting with my potential supervisor. He asked a lot of questions on what I would do if my coworkers weren't cutting their weight and questions about working with others. The second set of interviews was with the head of production and others. They asked a lot of questions about my ability to do the job. This seemed a little inappropriate given my high GPA and degree in the field, but ultimately they decided that I couldn't.

After an initial phone interview with the director of the postdoc program, I was invited for an on-site interview and presentation. During the on-site interview, I met with a 8 - 10 investigators and 2-4 current postdocs. It was not clear if all of the investigators were interested in taking a postdoc or if they were evaluating me. As it turns out, there was probably just two who were considering me. It took more than 6 weeks for them to get back to me. The final hurdle in the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship program is to be invited to write a proposal. The proposal writing phase of the application is slow. I completed the proposal in 2 - 3 weeks, but it took 4 months to get final clearance of the proposal and receive an actual offer. The procedure is slow and not efficient.