Kite Pharma Manufacturing Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

Had a recruiter call and then a panel interview with the team, which all went well and on time. But then, for like a whole month, the recruiter was totally silent, no real updates. I figured I didn't get the job because of that. But out of nowhere, after that month of silence, they offered it to me. The team itself is awesome, but the HR/hiring communication could really use some work.

The whole interview process took three stages, with each stage about 3-5 days after the previous one. First up was a phone screening with the recruiter. They wanted me to go over my resume. If they thought I was a good fit, they set up a 30-min chat with the hiring manager, which was the second stage. My chat with the hiring manager went well. We mostly talked about my past experience and dug deep to show how much I know. The third stage was a bunch of interviews all on the same day via zoom. I talked to the people on the team I'd be joining, the head of the department, and the hiring manager again. Talking with the team members mostly involved going through my resume again and discussing soft skills. The interviews with the department head and the hiring manager (for the second time) focused on their management style and questions to figure out what kind of role I play on a team.

I applied on their workday site but it was not seen for a few weeks. However, when I got in through a third-party recruiter, I received a call for an interview within 2 days. The HR team seems to think that H1B visa processing takes months, when in reality it only takes weeks. They should probably reeducate themselves on that. Additionally, they made some basic scheduling errors that could have resulted in me or the hiring team missing the interviews. While I didn't receive an offer, it could be due to various reasons like not being the right fit or the urgency of the position, but I hope this feedback is helpful for them in the future. They appear to have handled quite a few H1B transfers before, so this is an area they could reassess during their hiring process. All 4 interviews were completed within a week with the Hiring Manager, Director, and Technical teams. Everyone was very polite and welcoming, and they were highly skilled and technical people.