Rubius Therapeutics Interview Questions
& Process

They told me I was underqualified before the interview started, which caught me off guard since I thought interviews were for candidates they were considering. I did appreciate the honesty though, and they did talk about future opportunities for me in a different position. It was pretty basic.

The process felt confusing at first. I had an initial phone screen with HR, who said my info would go to the hiring manager for a next step phone screen. Instead, I got an email for an onsite interview. The onsite itself was organized and the people were nice, but some interviews lacked clear goals, suggesting potential interview training needs. A hiring manager phone screen would have been more efficient. The organizational structure described – a contractor reporting to a staff member who reports to me, and I report to the hiring manager – sounded too bureaucratic and inefficient for me, coming from a matrix management background. It felt like a big pharma setup in a startup environment. Only one interviewer asked anything technically relevant; the others focused on being under-resourced and needing all hands on deck. The reporting structure and perceived inefficiency led me to decide it wasn't a good fit, though others might prefer it. This led to a background check.

Started with a recruiter call where they asked some basic technical questions. After that, I had a call with the manager, and then a call with the team. It wasn't super technical, mostly questions about my interests. It was a bit odd though, the manager would ask if I was interested in something or a role, and then say it wasn't part of the job. The team chat was also pretty basic. After all that, I never heard back from them.

I made it to the second round of phone screenings. The first phone interview was a non-technical chat with HR that lasted about 15 minutes. Then, I had a 30-minute second interview with the head of the department where the job is located.