A Fantastical Journey: My IQVIA SAS Programmer Interview and Offer Experience

Introduction

When I posted this article, I had only just received IQVIA’s offer letter. The interview process had been long enough that I was already beginning to forget it.

So, while I could still remember, I wanted to organize and share the experience for people who are interested in IQVIA or the contract research organization (CRO) industry.

Why call it a “fantastical journey”?

Because every stage was unexpectedly interesting and challenging—far beyond anything I could control, XD. It was not only the interview content; that was also the feeling I got from the interviewers.

But I need to say this first: everyone’s process is different, and it will vary with the position they apply for.

I had only applied to IQVIA in the CRO industry, so I had no experience with other companies to compare against. I was not even sure that every CRO, or every multinational company, interviewed in the same way.

My experience was limited to IQVIA’s Global team and may only apply to the SAS programmer position.

I had not officially started work yet, either, so much of what I knew about the industry and the company came from my observations during this period and was far from comprehensive.

Consider that my advance disclaimer.

Why I Applied to IQVIA and First Looked at a Career There

I have to be honest: before I decided to apply, I knew absolutely nothing about IQVIA, CROs, or, more broadly, the clinical-trials industry.

I graduated in public health, but my undergraduate work focused mainly on basic sciences. In graduate school I worked in environmental and occupational health; even when I moved into law, my focus was occupational safety and health law and labor law.

In other words, my education had almost completely avoided courses and training related to clinical trials.

If you would like to know more about my background, you can visit this site’s ABOUT page.

My introduction portal

So how did someone who had avoided clinical trials end up joining a CRO?

I had a mysterious friend at IQVIA. Let’s call her D.

She can be intensely serious about work and intensely chaotic at the same time.

D and I were friends from law school, although we were not close while we were studying. I skipped class a lot, and even when I went I was usually reading my own books rather than listening, so I honestly had no idea who had shown up and who had not.

Near graduation, we became the kind of friends who occasionally ate together and complained wildly together.

Later I learned that she did not attend class very often either. Not my bad, hehe.

Before applying to IQVIA, I was trying various entrepreneurial projects while also preparing for Taiwan’s national examinations.

While studying for those exams, I was also realizing that I did not want to work in law in the future.

The national exam became a shield I could use when I did not feel like explaining what I was doing: “I’m preparing for the national exam.”

You could say I had half given up on it.

D was one of the few people to whom I wanted to explain what I was actually doing, so one night after the first stage of the bar exam we finally met for dinner.

During our chat, D told me about her work. I learned that clinical trials are not as narrow as running experiments and analyzing data; they can even involve the commercial side after a drug goes to market.

That kind of industry needs people with multiple backgrounds and depends heavily on collaboration across fields.

It sounded impossibly interesting.

D also told me that the CRO industry needed capable SAS programmers and biostatisticians.

I had spent much of my life building statistical-analysis skills—enough to take the CASA certification—so the conversation made me very interested in the field.

SAS, statistical analysis, interdisciplinary work: just hearing about it made me think I would like it.

“Is it really okay if I know absolutely nothing about clinical trials?” I asked.

“Yes. Come on over!” D said.

“Send me the 104 page!” I said as dinner ended. That began the long chain of interviews that ended with an offer that felt almost fated.

The Process Before the Interviews

The position D sent me was listed on 104.

After applying there, I also sent both Chinese and English résumés to D and asked for a referral.

You really need an English résumé. If you do not write one early, you are the person who suffers later; you will see why.

After submitting the résumé, I had to find the corresponding position on IQVIA’s official Careers page.

Huh? It looked different from when I applied. Websites update so quickly!

Each position page has an Apply Now button. After clicking it, you are asked to create an account for the later process.

BTW, although I had not joined the company yet, I noticed that the smiley face at the lower right seemed to be standard for almost everyone at IQVIA. I saw it everywhere—and even on my offer letter recently, XDDDD.

Another amusing thing: the account-password rules had so many requirements—uppercase letters, underscores, and more—that I asked the site to send me password-reset emails at least three times during the process. I had to reset my password to get back in, XDDD.

Luckily, the system made password resets easy. Otherwise I might have been the first candidate unable to continue because I kept forgetting the password.

Many of the things the website asks for are already in a résumé.

So if your résumé is detailed, you can largely transcribe it into the website.

The whole site is in English, which is another reason I said you should have an English résumé ready.

It becomes a great deal of copy and paste, XD—but it still takes time. I had three positions I wanted to apply for and spent at least an hour and a half completing them.

Leave yourself a generous amount of time for this task.

The site also asks whether an IQVIA employee referred you, so of course I entered D’s name.

Once submitted, the system emailed me and the person referring me.

I had applied to three openings at the same time, so D’s inbox received quite a wave of messages.

The three roles were Epidemiology (Research Assoc 2), Assoc Consultant, and Associate Stats Programmer.

At this point you may ask: “Wait—where was the SAS programmer role?”

Well, that is one of the interesting parts of the story, XDDD. At the beginning, I had not applied for SAS programmer at all.

There was no SAS programmer opening. If there had been one, I would have applied as hard as I could.

So why did I end up there?

D told me that as my résumé moved around inside IQVIA, the SAS programmer team saw it. They then opened an SAS programmer vacancy, which started the later process.

You could say landing on the SAS programmer team was entirely an accident.

The First Interview and How I Prepared

Preparing Before the Interview

I knew almost nothing about clinical trials. I knew the broad work of a biostatistician, but not necessarily the SAS programmer role, so before interviewing I felt I needed to understand IQVIA, the CRO industry, and the position itself.

I completed the first application stage around the middle to end of September. IQVIA kindly waited until after mid-October to schedule the first interview because I was still preparing for the second stage of Taiwan’s judicial examinations.

Before that first interview, I had dinner with D. She told me, “You are still going to take the exam! Don’t skip it. Interview after it is over!”

I replied helplessly, “But I don’t want to take it anymore…” That was roughly how the conversation went.

After the first stage, I had already felt clearly that law was probably not the right direction for me. I was in the mode of going to the exam when the time came, without seriously preparing for it.

That meant I had nearly a month to prepare for the interview at a leisurely pace.

My first task was to learn what clinical trials actually were. I felt the fastest route was to start with regulation, including both domestic and international material, so I read Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare guidance and standards for good clinical practice.

Clinical-trial regulations

Then I had homework to do on IQVIA and on the SAS programmer role.

I researched IQVIA as though I were investigating a person: Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Instagram, online reports of IQVIA interviews, the rough work and pay of SAS programmers—anything I could find.

I left no searchable information alone. I wanted to understand the industry, IQVIA, and the role as thoroughly as the internet allowed, because I did not know what questions I would encounter. I could only do every bit of preparation I could and make sure I truly knew what I was getting into.

The key information actually came from D. One day she arrived at dinner with a huge amount of material about IQVIA and SAS programmers and gave me an intensive briefing.

There was so much information that I found myself thinking, “Wait, is it really okay to tell me this much?”

After that I had a clearer picture of the SAS programmer role and felt quite certain that it was something I would enjoy.

In graduate school I worked with environmental rather than clinical-trial data, but one person often had to handle everything from collection and preprocessing to final analysis.

D explained that industry work is usually divided among positions. An SAS programmer’s work includes data cleaning and helping ensure that data meet Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) standards.

It is not all programming. A great deal of time is spent communicating and collaborating with people in different roles, quickly judging whether requests can be done and how long they will take.

With increasingly varied forms of data presentation, finding ways to use SAS to help data meet CDISC standards is also an important direction.

It was clearly a role that involved facing many unknowns while racing against time.

I also asked about work arrangements and the likely later interview steps. I learned that the first interviewer would be my future line manager, the second stage might include an SAS test, and anything after that would depend on the arrangement.

Because the line managers were Scottish and the SAS programmer team had no Asian members, the first interview would be entirely in English.

An all-English interview.

An all-English interview.

A truly, completely all-English interview.

Ever since law school, I had barely touched English, never mind English conversation. An English interview was not even remotely part of my life.

I had briefly wanted to avoid the SAS programmer role and choose another position because of it. Looking back, I probably could not have escaped an English interview no matter where I hid, XDDD.

When I worried about English, D said, “Don’t worry. English really is not a problem. Do you need help reviewing conversation?”

I could not impose on my friend; I would handle it myself! That said, until interview day I was still mainly listening to Japanese and watching anime as background while working, without much improvement to my English listening or speaking.

You may ask what happened to my English listening and speaking. I think some things are engraved deeply into your soul; like SAS programming, language ability can be one of them.

The First Interview

Because my interviewers were overseas, this was entirely an online interview. IQVIA used Microsoft Teams. HR sent a proposed time, and if it did not work I could reply with several acceptable slots.

The first time offered felt rushed because it was the day before my second judicial exam, XDDDD. Even though I was not studying much, I still needed to sleep early enough to reach the exam venue on time, so I asked to delay the interview a week and gained more time to review.

Because of the time difference, the interview had to be in the evening, but IQVIA accommodated the candidate’s time and did not schedule it too late. Mine was 8:30–9:30 p.m., which was normally still working time for me anyway.

Once the time was confirmed, HR sent a formal email with the Teams meeting information. I only had to enter the meeting room at the scheduled time.

Time zones would also be part of future work, so anyone considering a Global team should include that in deciding on an offer. I do not sleep much and had worked mostly evenings in tutoring, so it was fine for me.

Since the camera would be on, I wore full makeup and a formal shirt with shorts. The lower half is invisible on video anyway—though it was also very hot weather.

While waiting, I reviewed the materials I had read and answers I had prepared: why IQVIA, why move from academia to industry, how someone who had not used SAS for more than six years still wanted an SAS programmer role, and concerns about changing fields too often.

I also prepared one-minute and three-minute English introductions, plus a Japanese introduction just in case, XDDDDDD. In retrospect, why was I preparing Japanese for a room full of Scottish interviewers? I was not this nervous for exams.

Right on time, two interviewers entered one after the other. One had video on and one did not, so I only saw one person during the whole interview.

My first thought was that the visible interviewer looked remarkably like the image of Jesus. What an impolite candidate. I did not say it aloud, but I did tell D afterward.

Let us call the Jesus-looking interviewer T and the quieter interviewer G. T did almost all of the talking; G scarcely spoke at all.

The interview developed in a way I did not expect: The Scottish accent frightened me completely. T was excited and spoke very quickly. After so long without English-listening practice, I could not understand the accent well and had to build the meaning of each question from individual words.

Fortunately, I had said at the beginning that I had not used English listening or speaking for a long time and was very nervous. When I asked, “Could you say that again?” neither interviewer seemed impatient; they happily repeated or rephrased it. That was genuinely thoughtful.

Almost none of the questions I had prepared were asked. There was no self-introduction, no question about moving to industry, no concern about my SAS skills. Much of the time the interviewer explained the difference between an SAS programmer and a biostatistician and emphasized that they were not the same.

“You have to be sure—these are really different,” was said at least three times. I kept confirming that I knew the difference and that I was applying specifically to be an SAS programmer. It began to feel like an oath.

“Why didn’t you apply for SAS programmer at the time?” T asked.

“Because you did not have an opening?” I had to explain again. “Oh, right! That is true,” T said, suddenly remembering.

An English interview was not as difficult as I had imagined. In a real conversation, answers simply come out. People may worry about grammar, but I felt that if the meaning gets across, it is okay to speak freely.

The interview became very much like casual conversation. When asked whether I would be okay with earning an SAS certification if the company required it, I said that after getting the offer I could do it within a year because I was very good at taking exams.

I added that I hoped the company could subsidize it, because SAS certifications are expensive and I had wanted one but was poor. I almost said “Please give me money” in English. T burst out laughing.

I was asked about my existing SAS skills, so I described my strengths in preprocessing and statistical analysis. I worried that saying so much about analysis would make them think I did not understand the difference between SAS programmers and biostatisticians, but I finished explaining what I could do.

We also chatted about D. We used her directly as a topic and icebreaker; thankfully, D is very interesting and apparently popular. She became the icebreaker across all my interviews. Lesson learned: a friendly atmosphere can begin with an internal connection.

Then, halfway through the interview, T disconnected. In the middle of a sentence, the screen froze and disappeared for a full five minutes—when the interview itself only lasted about twenty minutes.

G, who had been silent the whole time, finally spoke. He anxiously explained that the original interviewer had disconnected and asked me to wait. I could feel how sorry he was, so I laughed and said it was fine.

The meeting room became very, very quiet. T still had not returned. I looked at G’s window and thought, “So I am going to have to start the conversation.”

“May I drink some water?” I asked first, lifting my cup. “Oh, yes, please,” he said, still flustered—and then the conversation stopped again.

“It has been so long since I spoke English; I am really nervous,” I tried again. G reassured me that many people found their accent heavy and told me not to worry. Then we fell silent again.

After two conversational dead ends, I raised my hand and asked when the SAS test would be: that day or later. G carefully explained that it would be arranged separately. I suspect he had not expected a candidate to start chatting and ask so many strange questions.

Later D told me that G had been handling other cases that day and was very busy; he probably had not expected the disconnection or a candidate who would keep asking questions. Sorry for delaying everyone’s go-live progress, XDDD.

Just as I was about to ask a fourth question, T reconnected and said, “Hey, you two seem to be having a great conversation. What did I miss?” G explained my question about the SAS test. T then said the process would continue and the next step was the test.

When asked whether I had any more questions, I answered, “No! I have asked everything I wanted to.” The first interview ended very quickly.

None of the notes I had prepared turned out to be useful. D later said my résumé had been so complete—and conveyed enough of my character—that there was little need to explore those questions in the interview. The hours spent writing it had evidently been worthwhile. Maybe someday I will write about creating Chinese and English résumés.

The Second Interview: SAS Test and Preparation

Preparing Before the Interview

The second stage was definitely an SAS test. I knew that using a computer meant I could look things up, but I had no idea how a remote test would work, what would be tested, or what the question format would be.

I felt fairly confident about SAS. In my second undergraduate year I learned biostatistics in a messy way, doing whatever the teaching assistant told me and copying and pasting. By my third year and research project, though, I could practically type SAS code from memory.

In graduate school I merged data from regular monitoring stations, supersites, and health sources and ran regressions. I honestly felt there was not much I could not do.

I recommend The Little SAS Book to anyone who wants to improve quickly. When I told my research adviser, who was also my first thesis adviser, “I do not really know SAS,” he handed me his copy and said, “Read this and practice with it; you should learn it.” He was right. It is a wonderful entry point.

For more advanced SAS ability, I also recommended SAS 9.X Statistical Modeling and Analysis Procedures—though it seems to be out of print. It works both as learning material and as a useful reference.

Back to the point: how should I prepare for the test? First, get SAS Base software. I contacted Carry, a senior from my environmental-health days who was still at NTU, got a license file, and restored SAS Base on my computer.

After typing a few lines, I felt the muscle memory was still there. I remembered basic DATA and PROC steps, so I counted myself as mostly recovered.

Next, I made a Word note of code I might need so I would not have to search repeatedly under time pressure. Copy and paste is the fastest thing in the world.

Based on D’s description of the SAS programmer role, I guessed that complex statistical analysis could be mostly excluded; perhaps PROC MEANS, conditionals, TRANSPOSE, RENAME, and string functions would be more likely.

I had not worked with clinical-trial data, but I expected patient IDs, basic data, disease-related values, and a manageable number of records. Based on that, I organized my own SAS test notes for anyone who may find them useful.

My small notes for an SAS programmer test

While reading the test questions, I found that those notes covered the scope completely. Still, I cannot say every company tests this way, so I strongly recommend reading the two books above and using the notes only to build real coding ability.

Because this was an interview test, I needed not only to finish and be correct, but also to write well and show some technical skill. I planned strategies for unusual situations that would be both fast and elegant.

I even predicted that the interviewer might remote into my computer, so I changed the wallpaper to a rather suggestive Hololive Captain image—ready to let the Scottish interviewer experience an Asian point of pride. I thought I was perfectly prepared. I was, of course, far too innocent, XDDD.

The Second Interview

The second SAS test also used Teams. Once HR confirmed the time, they sent the candidate the Teams meeting information. It was scheduled for an hour and a half.

I expected it to go smoothly, but it was full of unexpected situations.

1. The internet lagged terribly.

The interviewer was T from the first round, this time without video. Just as I was ready to show what I could do, I realized that I would not be sharing my own computer; I would be remotely controlling his.

As he explained the test, I tried typing. One character took almost two seconds to appear. D later told me that Taiwan-to-overseas Teams connections can lag that badly even with a 100 MB connection; it was not something I could have prevented.

2. The test used SAS Enterprise Guide, not SAS Base.

The moment I saw the screen, I realized it was SAS Enterprise Guide. I had never used SAS EG in my life. I was about to fail in the second interview because of software I had never touched.

While I was developing a strategy, T explained that the questions were in a PDF on his desktop. I glanced at it: six major questions, each with four or five subquestions. So many questions! Yet the content was not especially difficult and was close to what I had predicted.

The questions were carefully designed: they showed what the SAS programmer role involved, tested a programmer’s ability, and helped the candidate adapt to the likely data and work. The data also looked like clinical-trial data, as I had guessed. At first glance, I thought I could write it all.

Then I remembered that every typed character and every switch between the PDF and SAS EG took about two seconds. The lag was awful.

I made a small effort to negotiate. “Could I have the data file? It is a little laggy,” I asked in English. “That is not possible,” came the firm answer.

“I do not know SAS EG, but I know SAS Base and have it here. Could I run the questions and send the results back?” I asked again. T hesitated and said IQVIA used SAS EG; if I could not test that way, then perhaps they would have to stop.

But I was not unable to write code—I only did not know this interface! I immediately said, “It is okay. I will learn SAS EG right now. But is its coding logic the same as SAS Base?”

“Exactly the same,” T said kindly, typing a few lines and running them so I could see. At least I found where to type code and, most importantly, where the Run button was.

When the test began, I tried importing data my usual way and found that it did not work. Oh my god, how was I supposed to take a test if I could not even import data?

I boldly asked, “Could you teach me how to import the data into SAS EG? I need the data in order to know how to write the code.” I thought I was going to fail, but I at least wanted to remember and finish the questions.

T patiently showed me. I learned that SAS EG required the data to be imported again each time it ran, which explained why running a later code block gave errors. In the hour and a half, I spent roughly thirty minutes getting used to SAS EG.

“I might as well learn SAS EG now. Even if I fail the interview, I do not lose,” I thought. Fortunately, the test happened during my usual working hours, when my brain was still active enough to learn quickly.

3. The environment relied heavily on macros.

Apparently to stop me from exploring the other computer, some setup had already used macros that imported CSV or other files once specific variables were entered. When PROC IMPORT failed despite the file name and path being correct, T told me to look at the earlier macro code.

In that urgent situation I had no time to study the macros and became stuck. T kindly changed the setup so I could use my original code and continue. I instantly thought he was so nice—and that I was so inadequate.

4. A British keyboard versus a U.S. keyboard.

Because I was controlling the other computer remotely, I was using a British rather than familiar U.S. keyboard. The letters were similar, but the locations of single and double quotation marks were obviously different.

I kept trying and failing to type a double quotation mark until T realized it might be the keyboard. Keyboard differences were not in my life-experience database, XD; with so little time and so many questions, my ability to improvise was very low.

T typed one double quotation mark for me, and I solved the rest by copying and pasting. In hindsight, I should have immediately Googled the British keyboard layout and found the key. That should have been anticipated; my bad.

5. The PDF would not let me copy certain text.

Some questions required finding data with specific, extremely long IDs. I wanted to copy them into SAS, but the PDF would not allow copy and paste—not even to my own computer. Switching between the PDF and SAS EG also lagged.

So I took out paper and a pen, copied the IDs by hand, checked them, and returned to SAS EG to type code. The IDs had many digits and zeros. When a result did not appear, I had to check whether I had omitted or added a zero rather than assuming the code was wrong.

6. Unfamiliar data formats.

I had never encountered clinical-trial data and did not expect so many variables. Finding the variables named in a question took a great deal of scrolling. Before writing code, I opened the properties to check labels and variable names and to see whether a long string of digits was text or numeric.

That affects variable handling and whether attributes need changing. I could only conclude that I needed to become faster at entering a new field of data.

Time was desperately short, and each Run took time. I wrote much of the code without running it and moved on to other questions, so I may not have exported every dataset to the specified folder as the questions asked.

The interviewer said little unless I asked a question, and the meeting was incredibly quiet. Since he noticed exactly when I could not type quotation marks, I wondered if he had been watching the screen the whole time. D later told me that T had actually been speaking throughout; perhaps the messages all fell into the Pacific Ocean.

Out of six major questions, I completed only four and was starting the fifth when time ended. After learning SAS EG, thinking through code, and troubleshooting everything, I was so tired that I could hardly hear what T was saying.

Because the questions were unfinished, I thought I had failed and messaged D that I was probably doomed. The next day, however, I heard that I had passed and that the interviewer was very satisfied with my performance and the number of questions I answered.

Was it the habit of asking without shame and refusing to give up? Or adaptability? D later said that an interview test is not a national exam where every question must be finished; showing who you are matters. I must have shown my learning ability and ability to respond in the moment.

Still, I think I could have completed everything within thirty minutes using familiar software. I passed the second interview, but it felt a little frustrating to need an hour and a half.

The Third Interview

The third interview was with IQVIA Taiwan’s General Manager. Let us call this interviewer V.

After the first two stages, I felt I understood the clinical-trials industry and the SAS programmer role quite well, so I did not prepare specially for this interview. During the interview period, though, I continued taking related courses and chatting with D, so I had added some knowledge after all.

By the final stage, I was still cautious and wanted to perform well until the last moment. This interview was in Chinese, the language in which I was most comfortable, so I naturally felt more confident.

It also felt like casual conversation. We first confirmed some educational and work background, and then the self-introduction I had prepared for so long finally had a use. My Japanese introduction went to waste, but at least my Chinese one got its moment, XD.

Several conversations remain especially memorable. “What do you do for fun?” V asked. Such sudden small talk?

“Oh, I like playing games, and I stream on Twitch too!” I said. I almost gave the channel name, but it is so long—so here is a little shameless product placement instead.

My Twitch channel

“Single-player or online games?” V asked. “I play both!” I was only one step away from giving the channel name and asking whether V wanted to watch, XDDD.

Later V asked whether I had any questions about IQVIA. “No, I do not really have anything to ask,” I said. V sounded surprised and asked why.

“Because questions about IQVIA, the CRO industry, or clinical trials are homework I should do before the interview, not questions I should bring to the interviewer, right?”

“Then it is my turn to ask,” V said, and asked about the differences between IQVIA and other companies and my understanding of the CRO industry. The material I had expected to use in the first interview finally became useful in the third. I cannot say my answers were standard answers, but I tried hard, XDDD.

Because I had no questions, V suddenly asked, “What do you think the purpose of today’s interview is?”

I answered, “Although I applied to the Global team, I suppose the Taiwan team still needs to know what kind of person I am—whether I am easy to get along with and easy to work with. I guess that is today’s purpose.” I felt that was probably close to the point, although perhaps I was just flattering myself.

Of course, D came up again during this interview. My eternal icebreaker, D: thank you once again.

Overall, I found the interview enjoyable and pressure-free. I passed it too.

What Happened Afterwards

After I learned I had passed, there was one small, amusing episode.

HR called and asked, “What do you think of this job?” I had only just woken up and my brain was not very awake. I did not realize the call might be asking about my expected salary and simply answered, “I think the boss is great!”

Sorry, HR. I was a not-yet-awake, slightly chaotic candidate who had not understood the situation.

Thankfully, the process went smoothly afterwards. HR first confirmed a possible onboarding date, then provided the offer letter and moved through the rest of the onboarding steps.

I had already decided that I wanted the offer, so I did not care very much whether the offer letter came first or the onboarding date was set first. I would not reject the offer just because the date was too soon; those things could be coordinated.

The package also felt very good and comfortable to me.

During another call, HR mentioned D again: “Then you can have a meal with your friend D when you onboard!” Even at offer confirmation, D appeared once more. Proof again that she is an excellent conversation topic.

“Of course. I will definitely make plans with her,” I said.

One more thing must be said: there will also be a background check, and its interface is entirely in English. This is another moment when a good English résumé is essential. With one, you can copy and paste; without one, you may need to write everything again from the beginning, which is exhausting.

Conclusion

I originally wanted to write this article because, while preparing for this company and the CRO industry, I searched online for ages and found very little information.

It was hard to find clear accounts of what the process might involve, what might happen during interviews, or even the SAS-programming background knowledge that could be used in the CRO industry.

Whenever I want to do something, I usually look first for people who have shared their earlier experience. Finding so little made me feel troubled: too many things became one-step-at-a-time, with no way to prepare in advance.

So I hope this article can give people who want to enter the CRO industry—especially those interested in SAS programmer roles—a direction for preparation.

IQVIA was not only my first clinical-trials job; it was my first industry job and, in a sense, my first full-time job. I had been a well-paid part-time tutoring worker, and entrepreneurship did not really count as ordinary industry work, so my social-work experience was basically zero.

Looking back, every interview felt like a happy conversation, and I could feel that the other side was sincerely trying to find a person who truly fit the position.

During the long interview period, I did everything I could to make up for missing industry knowledge, build the abilities and technical skills I might need, and learn about IQVIA and its people from many angles.

The second stage was a test and came with plenty of problems, but overseas interviewers will naturally encounter network problems and different software. I am glad that I met so many difficulties in the second round, because they let me fully use my ability to learn and respond in the moment.

If I had simply completed every test question smoothly, I would have been an ordinary programmer with no particular distinction. I did not answer everything, but I really tried my best, XD.

Across email and phone calls, I felt that this was a relatively lively company with a great atmosphere. There was still some time before my onboarding date, but I was already very much looking forward to the work.

Finally, I hope this article will be a useful reference for people who want to enter this field.