I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Illumina (San Diego, CA) in Apr 2015
Interview
There was a phone screening with a recruiter, a phone interview with a manager, 6 1/1 interviews, and then a group activity with the other candidates. The questions were a mix of behavioral, technical, and experience-based questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There were lots of technical questions regarding genetics and their technology.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Illumina (Cambridge, England) in Jan 2020
Interview
The feedback was completely unprofessional. I have never expected to receive such a feedback form a renowned company like Illumina!
The Commercial Department at Cambridge were looking for a Lead Generation Specialist for more than 30 days. They received more than 20 applications but were looking for more.
The first telephone interview was with the Talent Acquisition Manager. She was a professional lady, much experienced than the Line Manager in the second interview. She asked me very specific questions, one of it was about the Next-generation sequencing. The conversation was very positive, supposed to be for 30 minutes but it last for 43 minutes.
The second interview, which "supposed to be" a video call for 45 minutes via BlueJeans with the Line Manager; a polite young lady with an Indian accent. But surprisingly the webcam was turned off, so the whole interview was a voice chat and I was wondering why she didn’t call me on the phone?!
The lady was a bit hesitant about the role in general as she was thinking to add or change some of duties and responsibilities. During the conversation, I realised that I was older than her and probably than whole team. I know age doesn't matter, it's just about the right person in the right place - but it wasn't!
I asked her three direct questions; about the role and her expectations, but the answers were quite general (nothing specific) but I remember she said "You have too much experience than any one in my team…Your energy is a way higher than anybody in the team…Some people in my team are very shy and some are sensitive…and I’m looking for someone like you”.
Nine days later, I received this feedback from the Talent Acquisition Manager - I'm quoting:
"Unfortunately, due to some reprioritisation, the decision has been made to change the duties this person will need to do. This is now an entry level position for someone to input data into SFDC and work with the team to distribute the leads being generated, so I appreciate this might not be the position you want to do. If so then let me know but if we don't hear from you then I'll assume this new role is not of interest." - They changed the title and the whole job description in the advert!
Although I wasn't expecting such feedback, I answered with "yes" I'm ready to accept the offer. However, an automated rejection email received after 24 hours. Very disappointed and I hope future applicants will never fall into such drama.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Illumina (Cambridge, England)
Interview
Handed in CV. Then invited for a video interview with pre-recorded questions. After that I was invited for a face-to-face interview with someone from HR and the manager for the team I would be in.
Conversational interview which required me to do a short presentation at the start.