I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Ab Initio (Weybridge, England) in Mar 2016
Interview
Got contacted by a recruiter who found my CV on an online database.
Telephone interview was arranged through the recruiter for a time-point 2 weeks later.
A face-to-face interview was arranged for 1 week later than the telephone interview since I had to travel from another country to the company's location.
I personally arranged my air-travel from overseas and the company arranged the transfer from the airport (pickup) and the 1-day stay at a nearby hotel.
Overall:
Very professional behavior and friendly communication. No tension in any of the interview questions. Compared to company interviews in general, this one was overall above average standards. Interviewed by 5 people in total over the course of 1 day (morning to afternoon).
Mentioning of minor issues for extra details:
The interviewers are numbered 1 to 5. #1, #2 and #3 conducted one-on-one interviews, #4 and #5 two-on-one for the the last interview.
1. Flawless communication from a politeness point-of-view. After the interviewer gave me an overview of the software, he started getting into exhausting details which I found unnecessary to try and grasp from day -1 (minus means interview). My overall impression was that the software was understandable and eventually highly possible to adapt to it and this was what I needed to know personally at that point. Going into click this-click that details was perhaps too much and I lost focus after some point, even though I did my best to remain focused.
- Lunch break and very polite behavior from interviewer #1.
2. Second interviewer was also polite and without any tension. Minor issue was that the behavior was a little bit on the autistic side. #2 brought a wristwatch to the room during the interview and left it on the table. I found it unnecessary since someone should be able to manage time by using common sense for the complexity of an interview. A few minutes more or less does not mean a great deal for a one-time interview with someone, and the left impression from this was on the down-side. #2 spent most of the time on an algorithm part. He provided good guidance to the answer that he was looking for. I felt a little bit uncomfortable since not only in that but also in any company, you are usually asked to provide an existing solution which you can easily understand, but which you cannot come up with in the particular moment, since you need some time to adjust first.
3. Also professional, polite and tension-free. Minor issue is that he was becoming too insisting on some technically deep issues about my previous research, for which (fully understandably) #3 was not able to get the full picture from oral communication alone.
4 and 5. The last two interviewers were also relaxed. Minor issues was that they seemed unprepared in terms of questions. They brought a copy of my CV with them and were constantly thinking what should I ask next. I noticed this early so I ended up doing most of the talking about my research, with them simply staring. Another minor issue was that the older-looking interviewer of the two was a bit on the defensive side. When I asked them both in the end about their personal professional experiences, one answered in more detail while the older-looking answered with a simple sentence as if I was not supposed to ask him.
Apart from the minor issues overall it was an above-average professional experience and the company left a good impression on me.
I give it a positive experience.
Was not invited to the second full-day interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A typical question about my hobbies was asked by #4 and #5.
I applied through other source. I interviewed at Ab Initio (Guildford, England) in Apr 2025
Interview
They spent an overall of 12 hours hours getting to know the applicants before hiring them. Applicants are often flown to the US on the company's expense to carry out interviews in person.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 5 days. I interviewed at Ab Initio (Lexington, MA)
Interview
I had two short recruiter calls, one hour-long screening interview, and three longer interview days. The last two interview days were in-person. The interviews were generally fairly easy and vague but it seemed to depend heavily on who you were assigned to talk to. I talked to someone on the last day who seemed unhappy to be talking to me; we had a hard time communicating and that interview didn't go well for either of us.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Ab Initio in Sep 2022
Interview
I interviewed in Fall 2022. I spoke with a recruiter and had a phone screen. After two full days of 1-on-1 interviews, I did not get invited to their in-person screening. Each day of interviews had me speak to 4 people. Two interviews were used to do a technical screen where I was asked to explain how I would solve problems. They are looking for cultural fits more than anything else. Strange interview process, quite arbitrary. They trust their people and their opinions to a fault. If you fit in, it looks nearly euphoric, but you need to drink the Kool-Aid.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Q: What is a situation when you've had to collaborate and it didn't quite work how you wanted it to?
Internal Consultant applicants have rated the interview process at Ab Initio with 3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 89% positive. To compare, the company-average is 47.6% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Internal Consultant roles take an average of 17 days to get hired, when considering 10 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Ab Initio overall takes an average of 24 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Ab Initio as a Internal Consultant according to 10 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 43%
One on one interview: 29%
Group panel interview: 14%
Presentation: 5%
Skills test: 5%
IQ intelligence test: 5%
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