After submitting an application both online AND through a social contact who worked at BD I received a call from HR. I passed the HR telephone screening and was invited to an on campus interview at the Franklin Lakes, NJ set up by HR. I received a follow up e-mail from the dept. secretary with hiring manger and dept. manager copied. [ At last I had someone's name other than HR. ] I live within a 30 minutes commute, so I arrived 10 min early for a 9 a.m. interview and filled out paperwork in their lobby. [ I requested paperwork in advance, but HR wouldn't send it in advance. ] Completed paperwork balancing clip board on an arm chair. HR was 40+ minutes late (don't know details, but he's no longer with BD) and I was left sitting with the receptionist, watching employees arrive. I would have liked to use this time to soak up some corporate atmosphere, but the reception area was stark with no view or reading material - just reception and security. After a 45+ minute additional wait, HR finally greeted me with a perfunctory apology and I was escorted to a 1:1 HR re-screening / behavioral interview. HR kept interrupting my answers (stress test?) and came across as arrogant jerk with poor people skills. Interview schedule adhered fairly closely to 30 minute tag-team interviews. Next in line was hiring manager (very warm personality), then a senior staffer (also nice, but not very good at interviewing, so I led conversation), then two separate panel interviews (3 inter-dept peers and 3 other potential co-workers). Somewhere during this I had to ask for a water break. Tag-team interviews with no one asking if there was anything they could get me - like a sip of water - after answering questions for 120 minutes ... [ Since then, I've started to bring a small bottle of water with me on interviews. ] Finally, last interview was dept manager. He and HR were the only folks that provided me with a business card - and, yes, I asked every person for their card. [ Having their card with name spelling and titles would facilitate sending a thank you note. ] To get names I followed up with e-mail to dept. sect'y. that afternoon. Dept. sect'y walked me to the door and that was it. No commitment to time frame or next step in process. Over the course of the all-morning tag-team interview I had asked HR, the hiring manger, and the dept manager about time frame and next step. They were all elusive and non-committal. Didn't want to be too pushy, so I dropped it with the intent on following up by telephone or e-mail within a few days. I send soft and hard copy thank you notes/letters to all and did follow up - on different days - with HR, dept. manager, and hiring manager. I was eventually advised by e-mail that they went with another candidate. Only later, through my social contact who worked at BD, did I find out that I was on their short list - #2 in fact - however, they went with the relative of a long-time employee. My contact said BD is quirky that way, they tend to be a bit homophobic. [ P.S. Guess how my contact get his job ? Yep, his dad recommended him. ] I'm curious to know how outsiders WITHOUT an inside contact have fared getting into BD.