IMS Health Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – Consisted of face to face interviews with 3 Engagement Managers (same level I was interviewing for). Then had to prepare a presentation based on a case study (you get 45 minutes to prepare it). Presented this to the 3 people I interviewed with as well as a Senior Principal level.

Interview Details – Three rounds, first two where phone interviews one with HR and the next was with Engagement Manager which did at the end a small business case. (4P)
Once I past that round I was invited to a third round in company headquarters in NY for a full day , where I had three case interviews and one behavioral interview.

Interview Details – Interviewed with 3 upper level managers - only 1 interview

Interview Details – I had two phone screens, then a face to face with the 3 partners.

Interview Details – Went through 2 Rounds of interviews: 1st- with middle mgr and sr mgr. and the 2nd- was an all day round robbin with 5 different employees representing different departments.

Negotiation Details – they came in much higher than expected. no negotiation.

Interview Details – First interview was conducted via telephone with HR. The second interview was in the office with two Data Integrity managers. Questions were all situational/behavioral or resume generated and were very straight forward- nothing too challenging. One of the managers spoke a great deal once we got to the interviewee question section, leaving little room for me to speak. Heard back from HR that I received an offer soon afterward.

Interview Details – IMS Consulting Group is the leader in the pharma consulting industry. Their work is truly amazing and their global reach attracts the biggest clients around the world. It was a 2:1 interview on fit questions only. So candidates really have to see for themselves why they are interested in pharmaceutical and healthcare consulting, because that is all IMS does unlike other strategy consulting firms.

Interview Details – Interview resulted in a long term contract position through a contract company. Current employee referred me to contract company recruiter who set up interview with manager. 30 minute one on one with
Mgr. Offered position the next day.

Negotiation Details – I'm not much of a negotiator. I was given a range prior to the interview and I asked for lower end of range (Pre interview) due to a lack of a lot of specific job experience on my part. I was trying to move up on the tech skill ladder so I priced myself competetively. I requested a raise through the contract company after a year on the job and was granted it.

Interview Details – My interview experience with IMS Health was one of the worst ever and I would caution future interviewees to be wary of the interviewing etiquette of this company. There were two interviewers present during my interviewer, and the behavior of one of them (a principal in the company) was nothing short of demeaning. The whole process made me feel devalued and humiliated.

First, he told me that picking my application was a "mistake." Throughout the interview, he would cut me off several times without giving me the chance to fully explain myself. He did this a few times. For example, in response to his question about my strengths, I said, "I value hard work." But he cut me off again and remarked condescendingly, "So do I." When he asked me where I could see myself in a few years' time, I replied, "I think my future career plans can take a variety of forms..." Again, he patronizingly cut me off and insisted he only wanted to hear about one "specific" thing. At this point, it became obvious to me that he was deliberately pushing me into a corner. Later, while I was working on the case study, he got up from his seat, walked around the room and made small talk with his colleague, as if oblivious to my presence.

After considering my nonprofit background (my resume is heavily skewed towards the nonprofit sector) and my professed interest in public service as well as working in the nonprofit sector in the future, the interviewer told me, "We are not going to be helping people here (in our company)." A distasteful remark in the context of everything else.

The interviewer also had inferiority complex issues. At one point during the conversation, I explained I was interested in consulting because as a recent college graduate, I wanted to learn a set of extremely useful skills from a group of smart, intelligent and driven people in the field of consulting. The interviewer, for some reason, took my comment as a personal affront. In response, he *pointed* at his colleague (who graduated from an Ivy League school). For some reason, he thought that my reference to "smart, intelligent and driven people" was tainted with elitist connotations and also somehow precluded him (I believe he graduated from some lower tier college). That was absolutely not my intention, and how he came to that conclusion was simply beyond me.

The interviewers were half an hour behind schedule and my interview was truncated to 20 minutes. They simply assumed they could change their schedules without giving the interviewee any notice.

Their unprofessional behavior was a total embarrassment to IMS Health and reflected negatively on the firm as a whole. When I contacted their HR, all the HR manager told me was that the interview process was "competitive" and that "IMS Consulting is a top tier consulting firm" and the interview was supposed to "assess interest and fit." She went on, "In any interview situation, we recognize that the candidate is also using that time to assess whether or not they are interested in the organization." In any case, she might even be right. If my interview experience is any accurate indication of the IMS Health culture as she proclaims, then I am glad to have seen a preview of it during the interview and to avoid the company altogether. The interviewer should be ashamed of himself for bringing down the company's reputation with his lack of professionalism.

Needless to say, I withdrew my application after the interview.