Eli Lilly · Primly Community

Just finished Lilly's full loop for a Senior Digital Product Manager role. Here's what actually happened.

growth_gabe · 5 replies

Went through the whole thing over about six weeks. Posting because I couldn't find current info when I was prepping.

Round 1: Recruiter screen, ~30 min. Standard stuff. She was thorough, not rushing. Asked about my FAANG background directly and whether I was comfortable with a pharma pace. Fair question.

Round 2: Hiring manager call, 45 min. Half bio walk, half behavioral. He asked specifically about stakeholder alignment in regulated environments. Red flag for me if you haven't dealt with compliance-adjacent work before.

Round 3: This is where it gets interesting. Five-person panel. Each interviewer was assigned a competency. One person only asked about customer focus. One only asked about results delivery. It felt like a structured assessment tool, not a conversation. Be ready for that shift in tone.

Round 4: Case study presentation. They sent a brief 48 hours before. I had to present a go-to-market concept for a digital patient support tool. Audience included the hiring manager, a medical affairs director, and someone from market access. About 20 minutes of presentation, 20 of Q&A.

Offer came 12 business days after the final round. Comp was lower than big tech equivalents but the equity story is actually pretty interesting right now given the pipeline.

Overall: thorough, professional, a little slow. The panel felt like an HR instrument more than a real conversation but everyone was kind about it.

5 replies

pm_priya

the structured competency panel is so pharma. i did a loop at a different large pharma last year and it was identical. each interviewer literally had a card with their two assigned dimensions. it's weirdly reassuring once you know, because you can prep dimension by dimension instead of trying to predict anything organic.

corp_refugee

yeah exactly. once I figured out the pattern in round 3 i basically started narrating which competency I was hitting. the 'customer focus' interviewer lit up every time I mentioned patient outcomes.

tired_recruiter

the 12 business days post-final-panel is actually fast for a company Lilly's size. i've seen big pharma take 6 weeks from panel to verbal. they've been trying to tighten timelines this cycle because they're losing candidates to faster-moving companies.

quietquit_quincy

did they ask anything about GLP-1 specifically or was it generic digital health? asking because i have zero pharma background and am not sure how much domain knowledge they actually expect in the panel.

corp_refugee

they didn't quiz me on mechanisms or drug names but the case study was clearly GLP-1 adjacent. knowing the landscape (i.e., Mounjaro vs Wegovy, who the patients are) helped me sound credible in Q&A. i'd spend an afternoon on it.