I interviewed for a position in the Market Analysis and Strategy Group. External candidates beware--it's an extremely long process, and you are often competing against internal candidates. I was ultimately told multiple internal candidates had applied, and I couldn't compete as they already knew the job.
It starts with a call from an external agency doing phone screens, then the next call is with another external person (former employee). The third call (presumably before the in-person) is with someone from the Genentech team you're interviewing for. My first two calls went very well.
For the third call (scheduled 5 weeks after my first call) , the interviewer was late, and immediately seemed disinterested. She cut off my response to the first question to say I was competing against internal candidates and there was essentially no chance they'd hire externally. I appreciated the interviewer's honestly and directness, but of course, I wish I hadn't invested so much time into a dead end. I understand the need to promote internally, however, it seems there is little proper communication between Genentech and their external hiring agencies. It also was a quite a long process to just let me know I was wasting my time from the start.
I'm not sure what can be done to improve this, as it's likely the company has to check off a box to comply with regulations that internal candidates compete with external ones. However, external candidates need to know what they're going into.