Illumina interview questions

One-hour job talk on my research, plus four one-on-one meetings. And also dive into the current state of the art in DNA sequence-to-function modeling and related approaches, focusing on key methods, benchmarks, and open challenges.

The process started with a short call from a recruiter, mainly to schedule a 30-minute introductory interview with the R&D lead in Israel. There were no screening questions at this stage. The interview itself was with an Associate Director and took place over Microsoft Teams. From the beginning, the tone felt uncomfortable. There was no introduction on her side, and the conversation immediately shifted into a long and very detailed explanation of the full genomic testing flow, from sequencing to the stage their team is responsible for. While the domain itself is very interesting, it felt misaligned with the purpose of an introductory “get to know each other” interview. The interviewer spoke almost continuously, leaving very little space for dialogue, and it was unclear why such depth was needed at this stage. At one point, she mentioned (in a dismissive way) that she had reviewed my CV an hour earlier and therefore already knew what I had done, and was only interested in what I was looking for. I found this approach uncomfortable — reviewing a CV does not replace getting to know the person behind it, especially in an initial interview. Toward the end, when I finally had a chance to talk about myself, it felt rushed, as if the interviewer was already focused on ending the meeting rather than listening. It’s important to say that I was very impressed by the company, its mission, and the impact of the work they are doing. The product and domain are genuinely meaningful and interesting. However, the interview itself did not feel professional, welcoming, or well-structured, which is especially important given how stressful interviews can already be for candidates. Overall, the company seems impressive, but the interview experience did not reflect that in a positive way.