Gilead Sciences interview questions

The entire interview was a two-part process, involving an initial phone interview, followed by an on-site interview that lasted the entire day. The phone interview was with a hiring manager who had a PhD, and was therefore very technical. Basic questions about my background and why I wanted to join Gilead, followed by almost 30 minutes of drilling and very detail-oriented questions about some previous projects I was involved with. The interviewer was very polite and friendly, and the drilling was really intended to gauge the depth of one's knowledge more than anything else. Someone made a comment on Glassdoor that the on-site interview can be quite "insensitive" -- indeed the schedule was pretty rough. The day started with a 30 minute presentation about my past projects, followed by 11 1-on-1 interviews with scientists from different levels of the department which lasted 30 minutes each. It was definitely a very exhausting day and a grueling experience, but time flies when you're in the moment and you don't even notice it. The 1-on-1 interviews were pretty much a carbon copy of the phone interview, in that they were highly technical in nature and consisted once again of very detail-oriented questions. Everybody adopted a very relaxed and friendly approach, so it really felt more like an intellectual discussion with a colleague than an actual interview. Also got to have lunch and dinner with some more junior colleagues, which was quite nice. The overall impression I got was that the interview process was really meant to answer two main questions: 1) Will this person be able to fit into the company culture, get along with colleagues and be a productive team member? and 2) Does this person possess the mental agility and technical background needed to succeed in this position? On the whole, my experience was quite positive despite the very intense schedule; everyone maintained a high level of professionalism yet also tried to engage you on a personal level, which was something I found to be quite warming and unique.