It took 45 days post interview for a hiring decision. Rejection email was impersonal and cold. Hiring manager was rude and short during interview. Overall, a bad interview experience I would say.

I’ve been passed over three times for QA jobs yet I seem to get all other QA roles I’ve applied for, and have been offered highly competitive salaries with bonus options. At Merck, there is a video call interview with anywhere from 3-5 senior level personel. Some managers do not share video but require the candidate to do so. Candidate has 20-30mins to “impress” each interviewer. Despite best efforts, a wide breath of experience at top companies across multiple sectors, I’ve still not landed a permanent job at any of the PA or NJ locations. I am a former contractor and came with excellent recommendations from long-standing directors and upper managers within the company and still, they seem to be looking for a unicorn. Interviewers cost the company more hassle in the long run by going through upwards of 100 resumes and countless interviews in search of themselves in someone else, instead of seeing the value in what a candidate can offer. I suggest taking the ego and authoritativeness out of the process and focus on placing good people with compelling track records, and not what they can sum up in 20mins of themselves. You, management, are what’s wrong with the workplace. This is why so many people have chosen to not even return to the pre-covid style of working for employers, because of unrealistic standards (reminds me of Ivy League legacies and the MCAT for determining how good of a physician one would be).