What to Expect During the Interview Process

One of the most common questions I get when working with physician clients during their career transition is about the process of interviewing. A few of those questions include:

“How long before I hear back?”

“Should I expect to do a presentation?”

“Who will I be meeting with?”

“What time interval should I wait before following up?”

Unfortunately (OR fortunately!), every company and every hiring manager are different – so you are likely to encounter many variations if you interview at multiple companies!

Here is an outline of what you may experience and the objective of each:

1 – Phone interview 

• This may be with Human Resources (also called Talent Acquisition) 
• Could also be with the Hiring Manager (the person that the role reports to)
• The objective of phone interviews is to screen candidates to decide if they should move through the interview process.  Interviewing takes a lot of time by multiple team members so we want to make sure we are only putting candidates into the “formal” interview process if they are a real possibility for hiring. 
• When I phone screen a candidate I am looking for capability and cultural fit as two things I can quickly assess.
• Usual time: 30 min – 1 hour

2 – “Formal Interviews” 

• Interviewing with multiple team members (~3-6 people although this can vary widely)
• Members of an interview team might include the hiring manager’s manager, other employees that would be at the same level as the role you are interviewing for, and “cross-functional” team players that would have to work closely with this role. 
• This is where you should prepare for specific interview questions (covered in other blogs).  
• This is where a presentation may be asked for… I’ve covered this is another blog!
• Some objectives of these interviews are to vet technical capabilities, understand a candidate’s work ethic and cultural fit with the team and company.
• Usual time: 30 min – 1 hour (with each interviewer)

3 – Occasionally you may be asked to do a follow-up interview. I’ve typically used this if I am trying to decide between two candidates or if there is major discordance between my interview panel’s feedback.  This may also be used if the hiring manager needs to have a more senior person at the company doing a final vetting before an offer can be extended.

The time between the steps above can be highly varied.

Know that interviewing is only one of the many tasks that hiring managers are trying to accomplish.  Schedules can be difficult to organize and accommodate depending on the other responsibilities of the people being asked to be on the interview team. So don’t get discouraged if the process is not moving as fast as you’ve experienced in residency, fellowship or for a clinical/academic position!

Regarding the time interval between following up – generally, about 1 week is appropriate (of course, send your thank you note/email before this – I’m referring to a follow-up by you post the thank you note).  If you haven’t heard back from an interview it is completely fine to reach out, share your interest and enthusiasm for the role with something specific and ask if there is anything further you can provide.  Then ask for an anticipated timeframe for decision making.  

Remember that this is only a potential approach to interviewing and every company will have slight nuances.  Be polite in your correspondence and remember that a healthy dose of patience is required throughout the process!

Ready to make a career transition to pharma/biotech… want to explore a way to use your medical training and knowledge in a fulfilling way without nights and weekends call or charting. Watch this webinar on Getting Past the Three Major Hurdles to a Career in the Pharma Industry HERE .