Preparing for an interview

Before your interview, you should review the skills and experience you can bring to the job and consider how they might set you apart from other candidates. Can you give specific examples of how and where you acquired your skills and experience? Did any particular experience drive your development? Sometimes personal defeats can generate new ideas or be a source of motivation.

You should also be prepared for conventional questions as many of our recruiting staff and departments in Germany like to ask such questions:

Why are you interested in working for us?
What do you aim to achieve through this job?
What do you know about our company?
Why do you believe you are the right person for this job?
What are your key strengths?
Where do you see scope for personal development?
What are your career aspirations?
What is your biggest success to date?

If you do not have any experience of interviews, maybe you could have a trial run with friends or relatives. That might show whether you make a sincere and convincing impression, or whether you need to fine-tune your arguments.

Consider questions you would like to ask

There are doubtless things you would like to ask us. We suggest you make a note of your questions about Bayer, the job and the team so you don’t forget anything. You are welcome to take up information you have obtained from recent media reports or our website. That shows that you are familiar with Bayer and our products and that you are interested in working for us.

Punctuality is important

Good preparation also means ensuring you know how to get to the interview and how long the journey will take. At Bayer, interviews are often conducted in buildings inside a chemical park that you can only access via a shuttle bus service from our Visitor Reception Center. You should therefore plan plenty of time for your journey so you are relaxed for the interview.

A tip from Recruiting

Have you got a brief presentation of your research, a special project, a video or anything else that could be of interest at your interview? If so, bring it along on a USB stock or laptop. It could generate an interesting discussion.