After HR, interview with hiring manager. If passed, panel with team. Asked behavioral questions as well as process experience questions. Examples using statistics are helpful. Questions regarding DOEs. Situational questions on how to handle conflict and prioritization of competing goals.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Illumina (San Diego, CA) in Mar 2022
Interview
HR: 30 min phone call
Hiring Manager: 30 min phone interview (technical + behavioral)
Stakeholder Interview (Panel): interview with 5 team members - 2.5 hours total
Everyone was very nice and on time. Unfortunately I was not offered the job since there was someone who had 2 years of experience (whereas I was fresh out of college).
I applied online. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Illumina (San Diego, CA) in Jan 2022
Interview
I first got an invite to do a 30 phone interview with the hiring manager. The interviewer told me a bit about themselves and the position. They let me talk about my background briefly as well. The majority of the interview focused on asking technical questions.
I was selected to continue the process, and the next step was a 30 minute phone interview with HR. This interview was mainly straightforward generic HR questions (salary range, why do you want to work for Illumina, etc).
The last portion of the process was a panel series of interviews. I interviewed with about 8 people over the course of 5 or 6 hours. Each person had a different technical specialty, but all asked me technical questions.
Illumina's technical questions are very "Google-esque" in that they want insight into you think. You have to get creative to answer some in a way that reflects your background knowledge
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
If you were working on next generation chemistry…. What tests might you run to ensure a robust process and robust formulation?
Tell me about some of the degradation mechanisms of a formulation?
If you run an experiment and two results are the same, how do you distinguish if the data/results are unique? Where do you go from there?
Have you ever generated a process flow diagram or parameter diagram to design an experiment or characterize a subset?
What are 3 things that you’re not?
How would you design a process to not have quality control?
How would you prove that two systems are equivalent to each other?
Say hypothetically you start an ice cream business and set up your own ice cream shop. How would you know that the ice cream that you’re making is good?
What methods are there to purify small molecules?
Explain the "mean" to a 5 year old
