Promega Interview Questions
& Process

There were two rounds for this interview process, and each one lasted about 30-45 minutes. Both interviews were conducted by managers for the position. The interviewers were really nice, and everything was scheduled very quickly. I found out about the decision two days after the final interview round.

The interview process was completely disorganized and unprofessional. The job was posted by a recruiter who couldn't provide a salary range. I was told my desired range was above the position's range, but they still wanted to move me forward. The recruiter mentioned HR might be open to my range. HR sent an application 24 hours later, which had a mandatory field for salary expectations. I filled it out and heard nothing for two weeks. I followed up with the recruiter, but got no response. HR finally reached out for a phone screen and scheduled a call with the wrong phone number for me. I tried calling her, and she had phone problems on her end, which plagued the first 10 minutes of the call. I was asked to provide my background and spoke for 2-3 minutes before realizing HR heard none of it due to more phone issues. HR asked for my salary range, and I mentioned I'd already provided it twice. She then said my range was outside the scope for this position and would be more for a senior role, and she'd need to check. I noted the job posting mentioned Manager or Sr Manager. HR asked for my work examples/portfolio, and I told her the recruiter had it, but HR didn't have this information. It was completely disorganized and gave me a bad impression of the company, coming off as unprofessional. No overview of Promega was given, just a robotic list of questions. I withdrew my application after this experience.

I got an HR contact about a week after applying. About a week after that, HR and I talked for 30 mins about my qualifications. They then invited me to interview with a team of 4 people from the department. Scheduling this took a while, over 2.5 weeks. The interview itself was 45 mins and had two parts: first, I talked about myself and my experience, and second, there was a role-playing part where interviewers acted out scenarios as callers with scientific questions. I really wish I'd known about the role-playing part beforehand, I wasn't ready for it. HR should have given me a heads-up. This interview was almost 5 weeks after I applied. The next morning, HR sent a rejection email saying they were 'pursuing candidates with more qualifications.' I didn't get much specific feedback.

The interview process started fast but then slowed down because of the holidays. It seemed to be going well until they switched the job I applied for to a different role without telling me. When I asked about it, they said they gave the job to someone already working there. I took this lack of communication as a clue about how the department might work. Like others said, I also got the impression there wouldn't be many chances to move up. In the end, I pulled my application. Everyone seemed nice though.