PPD is now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. On December 8, 2021, Thermo Fisher Scientific completed the acquisition of PPD. For up-to-date information, please see the Thermo Fisher Scientific profile.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at PPD (Madison, WI) in Jan 2015
Interview
Interview process is very structured and questions are broad. All questions are from a targeted selection handbook that they cannot deviate from very much. I met with 3 different people of various levels and they each asked me 3 questions from the handbook and took notes. Some of the questions overlapped.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a time when you did not meet a customers expectations.
Very friendly fairly easy. Very helpful when moving offered me a list of apartments to look into. Thorough interview with different parts of the team I was to be working with at the time
Panel interview with three people then the director. Only one person at a time. One interview was technical questions, others were typical interview questions. Started with a “tell me more about…” from your resume.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What’s the difference between gram negative and gram positive bacteria?
I applied online. I interviewed at PPD (Richmond, VA)
Interview
Was not very well put together. The interviewers were essentially falling asleep as soon as they came in. It was not a good experience overall. The interview process is long, with interviewers who don’t engage with the interviewee.
Associate Scientist applicants have rated the interview process at PPD with 2.7 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 70% positive. To compare, the company-average is 70.6% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Associate Scientist roles take an average of 20 days to get hired, when considering 33 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at PPD overall takes an average of 22 days.
Common stages of the interview process at PPD as a Associate Scientist according to 33 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 25%
One on one interview: 17%
Drug test: 16%
Background check: 16%
Group panel interview: 15%
Personality test: 6%
Skills test: 3%
Presentation: 2%
IQ intelligence test: 1%
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