Researcher applicants have rated the interview process at RAND with 3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 71% positive. To compare, the company-average is 67.7% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Researcher roles take an average of 31 days to get hired, when considering 7 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at RAND overall takes an average of 50 days.
Common stages of the interview process at RAND as a Researcher according to 7 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 31%
One on one interview: 23%
Presentation: 15%
Group panel interview: 15%
Background check: 15%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied online. The process took 4 months. I interviewed at RAND in Mar 2015
Interview
Applied on website with no response, then was contacted almost a year later when I wasn't really looking anymore, but I went ahead with it. Phone call with a director, followed by an onsite day. Typical research interview, centered on a 60-90 minute seminar talk, and several 1-on-1s but no test-like questions. Everyone was very friendly and had good questions and comments during my talk, although most of them were in the other offices and only called in remotely. They asked for two more phone calls after the interview, the second over a month later. Eventually got an offer but not competitive with my existing job, and the work seemed too focused on defense policy reports instead of academic-style research. They move extremely slowly and are fairly rigid on your placement and salary (essentially going by "PhD in field X with Y years of experience," where X can matter a lot). I declined in the end, but the people were understanding and I still enjoyed meeting them and learning about the place.
Waited a long time from first applying to hearing anything. Multiple rounds with many interviewers. There didn’t seem to be any standard protocols used across different interviewees. All virtual with no in-person option offered.
Given all I learned, RAND seems like a great place to work with very smart people doing interesting research to impact policy. My experiences - all of which were extremely positive - are based on an initial phone interview and an in-person interview to one of their offices. Had I gotten an offer, I definitely would have taken it!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked a lot of questions about my current and future research interests, methodological training, and experience with various statistical techniques and software packages.
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at RAND in Mar 2017
Interview
I had a preliminary phone interview with a researcher first (about 30 min). I was then invited to a full day of interviews with other researchers, plus a job talk. Overall, the experience was fairly straightforward. It's interesting to meet and talk with other researchers. The interviews themselves were a mix of phone and face to face. Similarly, attendance at the job talk is both phone and face to face.