After the math assessment and phone screening with the recruiter, I had an interview with the general manager of the HAO team. Upon the first few minutes of the phone interview, the interviewer abruptly stopped me to ask whether I had a conversation with anyone from the team because most other candidates who are "serious" about this role do so before the interview. He highly encouraged me to take someone from his team out to lunch before continuing ending the phone conversation. He reassured me that once I had done so, I could speak to him again about the role. Feeling baffled, I contacted several of his team through LinkedIn. Only one person kindly responded and accepted my invitation to lunch. I took some time off during a weekday to travel to the company and buy the employee lunch. I got home and contacted the recruiter and general manager through email, only to never hear back from them again. I am very disgusted with IQVIA's overall interview process. I ended up taking a full day off to treat someone from his team to lunch because he had somehow phrased this to be a mandatory part of the process. If they had no plans of hiring me, they should have stated this very clearly from the beginning, instead of wasting my time/money as well as their employee's.