The CEO first had me stop by for, in his words, "an informal interview" prior to a more extensive one. When I arrived he spent the first ten or twenty minutes explaining to me that I was not ready to be an independent researcher, how my academic background meant I couldn't handle the high pressure of working in industry and he would not be hiring me for the position I applied for. Then, he hinted he might hire me for a temporary postdoc position to evaluate me and asked me to prepare a presentation. He then spent an additional twenty or so minutes going on about how to get ahead in the biological sciences and life in general. After that experience I was a bit reluctant to pursue the job, but prepared a short presentation on my prior research anyhow. Next week I arrived, met and interviewed some of the staff and gave my presentation. The employees were actually quite friendly and asked interesting, helpful questions during my talk. The CEO commented that my talk was surprisingly 'short' (he hadn't told me how long a talk he expected; I had purposely kept it brief so we'd have time for the interviews) and told me he might consider taking me on if I drafted a research proposal and sent it to him. He wasn't clear on whether he wanted me to do so right away or was still deciding whether or not to give me a chance. After the second interview I wanted nothing more to do with this company. I agree with the other reviewers that the major problem here is the CEO himself. The firm and employees seemed decent enough but, forgive the overly dramatic turn of phrase, I sensed fear in the air. I got the impression the CEO pushes the employees very, very hard and may have unreasonable expectations. He has a chip on his shoulder regarding those with a strong academic background as well. Be wary.

Met with HR first, then VP. The basic interview with HR was fine (although they did ask some illegal interview questions). The VP interview was awful, pretty much from the start. Obviously not a people person, nor a conversationalist, even in science. Does not understand science out of his field; even after explaining my past research, I was asked random questions not pertaining to the position or, quite frankly, my background. Seemed aghast and perturbed that I asked questions about the company's past or future. The answer to that question alone was 20 minutes of pointless tangents, and diatribes against the academic community. Didn't really answer my question and made me uncomfortable.