I applied for the position from a posting online. I received an offer for a phone interview about ten days after I submitted my application and had the phone interview about a week after that. The phone interview was with two different Merck employees and was very low-key. They basically wanted to talk about the project and they invited me for an interview the following month. It was a one day interview -- I was in Boston for less than 24 hours. Communication with the administrative assistant before (and during) the interview was poor. My emails asking for a copy of my schedule went unanswered, and I didn't receive my schedule until I was already en route to Boston. When I arrived at Merck on the day of my interview, I was informed that my schedule had been changed but I never received a new copy of the schedule. Various things went wrong throughout the day as they had been poorly planned. The actual interview was fairly strenuous. I had eight different one-on-one interviews scheduled right in a row and gave an hour-long talk to the department. I was even grilled during lunch. Everyone was relatively nice, but some of the interviewers wanted to play hard ball. My last interview ran until mid-afternoon, and I was immediately put into a cab after it was over and taken to the airport.

When I applied I had emailed the hiring manager too. I applied around November, and heard back from hiring manager in January. It went well. Recruiter called me 2 weeks after that. And I immediately had to fill out the candidate questionare after that. A week later, someone contacted me to plan the on site interviews. It was actually 4 weeks from then because of other scientist's availability. Onsite interview started with my research seminar. They asked a lot of questions, some a little difficult. But they were all very intelligent questions. Executive director and director of the department was present for the meeting. Then I had one on one meeting with senior scientists, principal scientists and the directors. Lunch with lab members and back to more one on one meetings. I enjoyed talking to them. They asked about some behavioral questions but mostly about my experiences and future plans. What are the skills I want to develop etc. at the end of the interview, the hiring manager asked me to send recommendations. And my advisor got a request a week later. And another week until I was selected (mostly because I followed up a lot because I received a competing offer).