This is regarding the Novartis recruitment for the supply chain function for Hyderabad, India location. Interview were held in Bangalore, India.
Interview timeline:
- Telephone call from the recruiter.
I was briefed on the role and responsibilities and were given a fair picture of the role. Based on which the role seemed good enough to go for.
- Email communication (after a fortnight).
The email contained the Job Description. The JD was not in line with what I was told over the telephone conversation. The JD was that of a very beginner level reporting role for the SCM function.
I called the recruiter to clarify, I was told that the JD in the email is a rather generic one and that the interview would be based upon the actual experience and the position would be decided accordingly as well. Fair enough!
- Interview in Bangalore.
It was a case study exam (written) on business statistics. Questions were on time series analysis (Least square).
Remaining rounds were panel discussion as you clear each round.
1- technical round on basic statistics
2- technical round on functional
3- hr discussion
Now here's the point.
I was always apprehensive about the exact role and the position. Because the clarity was completely missing.
The panelists were literally confused about the way they dealt with each candidate, all of whom were with greatly varying experiences.
Most people called in for the interview were not even distantly associated with the profile.
It was a sad state of affairs to see around 40 people having spent so much money, time and effort to attend an interview that they certainly don't qualify for in the first place.
If you have only heard that recruiters are a confused lot then you should attend a Novartis interview to actually experience this.
The panelists were sadly not even able to articulate a question properly!
The overall experience was extremely frustrating for all the candidates as it was a sheer waste of time and effort.