Salk Institute Interview Questions
& Process

There were three rounds of interviews. First, HR culture & fit interview, where they asked about my lowest acceptable pay. Then, a Director interview with senior leadership (panel of 3). I got a case study 3 days prior with about 30 questions, and the 2-hour interview covered my experience and the case study. Finally, an in-person interview with 2 more managers, followed by a team lunch (2 hours). References were requested the same day after round 3 (5 references, min 3 former/current managers, 24-hour deadline). Two weeks later, HR said the position was filled.

The whole process from applying to getting interviewed took about 2-3 weeks. I applied online via the Salk website and got an interview request two weeks later for a phone interview with HR. A few days after that, I got another interview request with people from the lab I was applying to, this time via Zoom. There was a scheduling mix-up on Salk's side, which caused me to miss the interview and have it rescheduled, taking about a week to sort out.

I was emailed by Talent Acquisition and after a phone interview, I went through two virtual sessions, about an hour each. Since each virtual session had two interviews, I had a total of five interviews over the course of a month. They were all really nice, but I never heard back. I saw the job reposted a week later, so I figured I didn't get it. I also had to take an assessment test on data entry/typing, Excel, and proofreading, which I wasn't told about beforehand and never got results for. The job description didn't really match what they said the job was actually about; the part they listed as 40% of the job was described as the main focus during the interviews.

First, I had a phone interview with HR. Then, there was a panel interview with four people. They looked at my solutions and dilutions calculations and asked me to verbally state procedures for the process. We also talked about my understanding of sterile and aseptic techniques and the procedure for preparing cell culture media and pouring agar plates. It seemed like this job doesn't actually involve working in the labs where the media is prepared. I got offered the position over the phone two days after the interview.