Natera Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process started off really well, with the recruiter being super clear and making it easy to schedule everything. It went through a recruiter screen, then a video call with the hiring manager, followed by an interview with a team member. The final step was a panel interview with the whole direct team. But then, after all that, I heard nothing for weeks. No feedback, no response to my follow-up email, not even a rejection. It took almost two weeks after I followed up to get a rejection email, and that was only after I contacted a team member directly because I was really interested and had other deadlines looming. It felt like a really long process with so many interviews, and then just silence, which was pretty disappointing.

The interview process had two main parts. First was a 20-minute call with a recruiter, and second was a 45-minute Zoom with the hiring manager. Since it was for a senior spot, I thought it would be more about behavior or projects. The first 15 minutes felt like chatting about personal stuff, like why I stayed at my first job for a long time or why I moved here. Then they gave a quick 5-minute rundown of what the team's product does. Even with my 12+ years of experience, they only asked about my current job, not my past roles which were more relevant. The rest of the time was spent on questions about my current job. With about 9 minutes left, the hiring manager asked me to share my screen and do a LeetCode-style coding problem. But the software didn't even let me run the code. The hiring manager even said that type of exercise wasn't ideal for senior folks, which made me wonder why they used it. They offered to continue the Zoom after the scheduled time, but I couldn't stay. Because of the coding exercise, I ran out of time to ask about the role itself. Two days later, I got a generic rejection email that didn't even have a specific sender.

This was an all-online interview process. I initially spoke with HR, then the hiring manager, and after that, I had to speak with six other people. Some of them seemed engaged, but a few were clearly distracted, likely multitasking during the interview. I haven't worked in an academic setting before, and I suspect that might have been helpful for this role. Having six years of experience in IVD, I felt capable of handling the job duties, but they were looking for someone who could present findings more effectively. I attempted to ask some questions to one of the interviewers, but they repeatedly stated that all information was confidential, making it difficult to inquire about anything without breaching confidentiality. The interview schedule was also quite demanding; one interview per week for eight consecutive weeks. I personally prefer a more concentrated interview format over several full days to really get into the zone and limit the stressful periods to a shorter timeframe.

The interview process was quite organized. It kicked off with a recruiter's email, followed by a recruiter call. Then there was a call with the hiring manager, a technical interview covering Python and SQL, a cultural fit interview, and finally a leadership interview. Even though I didn't get an offer in the end, the whole interview experience was very smooth and happened in a timely manner.