Interviewed Dec 2009 (took 4 weeks)

I had a phone interview which lasted about 20 minutes, the company paid for me to be flown to the site I would report to for a face to face interview. I interviewed with three people throughout the day and went to lunch with a fourth person; there was a writing assignment and three questions for that assignment. This position requires up to 80% travel and the other time would be spent at a home base, Relocation is not required since the travel is 80%. The salary range for the position was 50k to 75k, in the process of setting up the interview time I was told the salary range and was asked if the range was ok with me, I dislike when companies do this and I view it as highly unprofessional, I was told that the salary would not be in the high range the salary would not be 75k and would not be 70k so I am not sure what they would have offered. The interview went well the questions were typical such as what are your strengths and weaknesses, in a previous position what could you have done differently and how do you interact with people. The position is a new position which they are hiring 4 people for to cover the US. There was a committee that met about the position and collectively decided on whom to hire. I am shocked that I was not selected for the position because of my skills, experience and my interview went well, and I really believe that my background in pharmacy and regulatory affairs in various pharmaceutical areas would have been beneficial since I know what to look for when auditing a pharmacy, also my education. The manager for the position was straight forward and really expressed that the position required a lot of travel which I was fine with and was looking forward to traveling. The person in this position will be auditing Cardinal Health pharmacy processes for inpatient and outpatient; they were specifically looking for a Cert. Pharmacy Tech that had a background not only in the pharmacy but also in regulatory affairs which in many cases is very hard to find. As with most big companies Cardinal Health has proven on many occasions to be a company that plays a numbers game and if they can go with a less qualified person for a less amount of money they will. During the interview I was given the opportunity to speak with HR about benefits which I did not ask for and I did not expect since this is not something I would never bring up during an interview, I was given a 2010 packet on all their benefits and the HR recruiter sat down with me and went over everything in detail which normally does not happen. The benefits are ok, Cigna is the insurance company and the plans are ok there are three health plans to choose from. The retirement is pretty good 5% total first 3% contributed will be matched 100%, then 2% matched at .50 cents you would be fully vested from start date of employment benefits start the day of employment. The tuition reimbursement is $5250 for the year. If you do not smoke you will pay a less amount for health benefits, the cheapest plan is $40. Since I had to travel to Texas for this interview the process was smooth, the hotel was Stay Bridge Suites which was nice. My flight, car and hotel was set up before I traveled and that process was smooth, I did pay for my food and I did not bother turning in receipts for reimbursement however they would have reimbursed me if I turned in my receipts. I was told they had a lot of candidate to interview and the committee looked at everything from skills, education, experience, strengths and weaknesses. I did not meet the separate committee that had input on the candidate selection. Although I was told the 4 positions was filled and I was not chosen the positions for the Sr. Specialist Regulatory Management was re-posted December 23rd. not sure why they did this if they supposedly found the people they were looking for. I do believe the salary for this position was low, if you conduct a salary search you will see the salary at least 70k to 80k. The department appeared to be happy they were brining in people to do this auditing but since the position is so new the processes will have to be worked out, the person in this position will have to be patient because they may be bounced around for a while until things are worked out. My experience is neutral not because I did not get the position but because I don't think the questions really gave a sense of the person they would be working with. The questions were generic and more time should have been given for the writing piece.