Bio-Rad Laboratories Project Manager Interview Questions
& Process

I've applied to PM roles since 2013 and usually get interviewed. The process involves talking to a recruiter, then the hiring manager, and finally a panel with people from HR to Director level. Despite going through this whole thing, I'm never offered the job because it always goes to an internal candidate. I've been told this directly by the hiring manager or recruiter. I currently work at a large biotech company that's twice the size of Bio-Rad, I've been promoted, and I'm in the top 5% for performance. It seems like my experience, knowledge of Bio-Rad, and multiple applications don't matter. My guess is they prefer not to hire external people who might bring in new ideas. The company culture seems to punish failure, so they avoid the 'risk' of training externals by just hiring internally. This way, hiring managers play it safe. I'd tell others to stay away from this company. They aren't even a top 10 player in their industry, their hiring and interview practices are weird, and the people interviewing you don't care about wasting your time.

So after I applied, the first thing was a call with a recruiter. Then, after I got back in touch, there was another call with the recruiter. After that, they sent me this questionnaire which had hiring manager type questions, and it covered both technical and behavioral stuff.

Pretty chill process once the interview is scheduled. I met with a bunch of different managers from departments that the role would interact with, which was cool to get different perspectives during the interview.