Takeda Pharmaceuticals Interview Questions
& Process

I applied to Takeda in June 2023 and found their hiring process to be really smooth and well-organized. Here are the steps I went through: 1. Online Application: Applied directly through Takeda's website. 2. HR Interview: A chat of about 30-60 minutes with someone from Talent Acquisition. The interview covered learning about the company, its values, and standard HR questions. 3. Technical Interview: A deeper dive with the future team, focusing on a topic to prepare beforehand. The goal was to assess reasoning and logic, without requiring any technical development on the spot. The interview lasted about 2.5 hours, followed by general questions about the field.

After being considered for a couple of different roles at Takeda this year, I'm convinced their management is really questionable. Do the hiring managers even know what they're looking for in a candidate? Its as if they hold a checklist in front of them and if the candidate's experience and skills don't check every single box, then he/she is no longer viable. It seems to me they don't know and/or understand how to critically think about a candidate's skills and experience that are transferable and clearly relevant. It's as if they're myopic. Perhaps this is the case in my experience. Or does it just boil down to the chosen candidates were people the hiring manager knew. Either way...management at this company raises questions.

The interview process was pretty disorganized. I initially connected with a recruiter from an agency who then introduced me to the hiring manager. After some positive feedback, I was supposed to interview with their boss, but the administrative assistant emailed a couple of hours before to reschedule. Instead, I ended up interviewing with a different hiring manager. They gave positive feedback to my recruiter, and then we heard nothing for about 3 weeks. Eventually, HR contacted me and explained they'd skip the agency recruiter because I had applied to other roles. The process concluded with an on-site interview that included a 1-hour seminar and five 30-minute one-on-one interviews. The feedback I received was that I had 'good relevant skills, but they were looking for something else in the position,' which wasn't very specific.

HR reached out to me to give me the lowdown on the job and what they were looking for. After that, I went through two more technical interviews, which seemed to go pretty well, and the interviewer even suggested I move on to the final interview with the stakeholder. But then, poof, I was ghosted, no feedback, nothing. It really shows you how things work at Takeda and how much they care about potential hires, and honestly, how they probably treat their current employees too. Fingers crossed for anyone else dealing with them!