This is the first interview review I have ever done because it was truly that bad. The interview was partially bad because they used a contractor to recruit and it's partially the the contractor's fault for setting me up to essentially fail because everything they told me to focus on was NOT what the main interviewers wanted to hear. It was a group interview of 4 people on a Zoom call, mainly from the project management team. First off, it was meant to be an hour long interview and they came on saying they'll have to cut it short to 30 minutes since they had other meetings to go to. That's poor time management and quite frankly, rude. The first question they asked me was why I job hopped around so much, since the typical NIH employee works there for 10-25+ years. That's when it all went downhill. That is the worst interview question I have ever been asked in my life. At that point, I had only graduated college 5 years ago and only had two corporate jobs (which included the one I was currently in). I was also in tech...you don't find anyone staying at a tech company for 10+ years. To be fair, I understand government and tech are very different, but all of these people at NIH looked miserable. The interview went downhill from there and they essentially just wanted someone to get the job done, which is fine, but I want to grow and thrive at my job, not just sit there at a desk and not be be valued. Needless to say it was not a good fit but I would also never recommend to work at NIH unless you truly believe and is passionate about the work that you do. I don't think you would ever be appreciated as an employee here, especially on the project management team.

I got a foot in the door through a staffing agency. I surely was a great place to have visited. Directors were nice highly educated but yet very humble and seemed easy to work with