PPD Senior Scientist interview questions

After applying online, I was contacted by a senior recruiter to set up a phone interview. This process took about 20 minutes. The recruiter does not seem to know so much about the details of the position so she set up a brief phone interview with the hiring manager (30 mins phone conversation). The recruiter said the phone interview would be a behavioral based interview, but it did not turn out that way. The hiring manager just spent time explaining the details of the position and the group. They then invited me in for the behavioral based interview on site. The process took about 2.5 hours. I was interviewed by 4 people.

I was first contacted by an HR person. She was extremely nice and asked very general questions about my background, experience, and future goals. She was not very informative about the specifics of the position but said someone that could explain more to me would call and ask a few more questions. That person, who seemed like a lab technician, asked more technical questions just to see if I seemed to know what I was talking about. They offered to fly me out there, rent a car, and pay for hotel for the one day interview. I accepted. When I got to the hotel, there was a welcome package with maps of the town, a pen and some candy. A very nice suggestion. The interview was with two, very young group leaders. They asked very similar questions to the ones I had already been asked on the phone. Very standard questions, where do I see myself in 5 years, beast quality, worst quality, explain certain methods and protocols I am familiar with. The interview started at 9am and lasted until 2pm. I spoke with three different people. All the questions were basically the same with differences in the methods and techniques questions asked.