Best and worst pharma, biotech and CRO companies to interview for
This index shows which life science employers give candidates a good interview experience and which ones leave many applicants unhappy. It ranks 39 pharmaceutical, biotech and contract research organisations (CRO) on 43,568 interview reviews that candidates published on Glassdoor, with country views for 24 countries and kununu applicant reviews for Germany and Austria. It is updated every month.
Data collected on 13th November 2026. Next update planned for 11th December 2026. Compiled by Andreas Schulz, MoreThanCareer.de.
Key findings
Best interview experience
- Fortrea: 71.9% positive (89 reviews)
- PPD (Thermo Fisher): 71.3% positive (803 reviews)
- Syneos Health: 70.1% positive (692 reviews)
- Bayer: 68.8% positive (1,591 reviews)
- Charles River Laboratories: 68.8% positive (420 reviews)
Lowest share of positive experiences
- Astellas: 49.3% positive (229 reviews)
- Moderna: 50.3% positive (338 reviews)
- BioNTech: 55.4% positive (130 reviews)
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals: 55.8% positive (404 reviews)
- UCB: 55.9% positive (236 reviews)
- Average share of positive interview experiences: CROs 66.3%, big pharma 64%, biotech 58.8%.
- Highest difficulty rating: GSK at 3.06 out of 5.
- Slowest hiring process: UCB, 43 days on average. Fastest: Worldwide Clinical Trials, 17 days.
- Germany tells a different story for some employers. On kununu, 88.3% of applicant ratings for Merck & Co. (MSD) are positive, against 36.1% for Bayer and Merck KGaA.
Explore the ranking
Germany: what local candidates say
Applicant reviews on kununu
Source: applicant reviews on kununu, a widely used employer review site in German-speaking Europe. "Positive" means a rating of 3 stars or more out of 5. The kununu score is kununu's own current applicant score, which gives recent reviews more weight.
| Rank | Company | Type | Positive ratings | kununu applicant score (1-5) | Applicant reviews | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Merck & Co. (MSD) | Pharma | 88.3% | 4.4 | 197 | kununu |
| 2 | IQVIA | CRO | 80.7% | 4.6 | 218 | kununu |
| 3 | BioNTech | Biotech | 76.5% | 4.1 | 344 | kununu |
| 4 | Pfizer | Pharma | 68.7% | 4.0 | 99 | kununu |
| 5 | AbbVie | Pharma | 53.3% | 2.3 | 90 | kununu |
| 6 | Boehringer Ingelheim | Pharma | 44.7% | 3.4 | 161 | kununu |
| 7 | Roche | Pharma | 41.3% | 2.1 | 172 | kununu |
| 8 | Bayer * | Pharma | 36.1% | 1.9 | 119 | kununu |
| 9 | Merck KGaA | Pharma | 36.1% | 2.9 | 119 | kununu |
Austria: what local candidates say
Applicant reviews on kununu
Source: applicant reviews on kununu, a widely used employer review site in German-speaking Europe. "Positive" means a rating of 3 stars or more out of 5. The kununu score is kununu's own current applicant score, which gives recent reviews more weight.
| Rank | Company | Type | Positive ratings | kununu applicant score (1-5) | Applicant reviews | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boehringer Ingelheim | Pharma | 87.8% | 4.1 | 320 | kununu |
Switzerland
No company has enough interview reviews from Switzerland yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
United Kingdom
No company has enough interview reviews from the United Kingdom yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Ireland
No company has enough interview reviews from Ireland yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
France
No company has enough interview reviews from France yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Spain
No company has enough interview reviews from Spain yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Italy
No company has enough interview reviews from Italy yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Portugal
No company has enough interview reviews from Portugal yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Belgium
No company has enough interview reviews from Belgium yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Netherlands
No company has enough interview reviews from the Netherlands yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Luxembourg
No company has enough interview reviews from Luxembourg yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Denmark
No company has enough interview reviews from Denmark yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Sweden
No company has enough interview reviews from Sweden yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Norway
No company has enough interview reviews from Norway yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Poland
No company has enough interview reviews from Poland yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
United States
No company has enough interview reviews from the United States yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Canada
No company has enough interview reviews from Canada yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Saudi Arabia
No company has enough interview reviews from Saudi Arabia yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
United Arab Emirates
No company has enough interview reviews from the United Arab Emirates yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
India
No company has enough interview reviews from India yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Singapore
No company has enough interview reviews from Singapore yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Japan
No company has enough interview reviews from Japan yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Australia
No company has enough interview reviews from Australia yet to be ranked fairly. Until it does, the global ranking below is the best available guide. Country coverage grows with each monthly update.
Global ranking (all countries)
Source: Glassdoor interview reviews from candidates in all countries. "Positive experiences" is the share of candidates who rated their interview experience as positive. Difficulty runs from 1 (easy) to 5 (very difficult). Days to hire is the average length of the hiring process that candidates reported.
| Rank | Company | Type | Positive experiences | Difficulty (1-5) | Days to hire | Interview reviews | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortrea | CRO | 71.9% | 2.69 | 24 | 89 | Glassdoor |
| 2 | PPD (Thermo Fisher) | CRO | 71.3% | 2.85 | 22 | 803 | Glassdoor |
| 3 | Syneos Health * | CRO | 70.1% | 2.77 | 23 | 692 | Glassdoor |
| 4 | Bayer * | Pharma | 68.8% | 2.96 | 37 | 1,591 | Glassdoor |
| 5 | Charles River Laboratories | CRO | 68.8% | 2.76 | 27 | 420 | Glassdoor |
| 6 | Bristol Myers Squibb | Pharma | 68.5% | 2.90 | 30 | 1,170 | Glassdoor |
| 7 | Roche | Pharma | 68.2% | 2.97 | 36 | 2,017 | Glassdoor |
| 8 | GSK | Pharma | 68.1% | 3.06 | 41 | 3,076 | Glassdoor |
| 9 | ICON * | CRO | 68.1% | 2.77 | 27 | 1,017 | Glassdoor |
| 10 | Boehringer Ingelheim | Pharma | 67.9% | 2.95 | 35 | 874 | Glassdoor |
| 11 | Merck & Co. (MSD) | Pharma | 67.5% | 2.93 | 36 | 1,776 | Glassdoor |
| 12 | Eli Lilly | Pharma | 67.5% | 3.01 | 29 | 1,624 | Glassdoor |
| 13 | Pfizer | Pharma | 67.4% | 2.99 | 35 | 2,405 | Glassdoor |
| 14 | Novo Nordisk | Pharma | 67.2% | 2.97 | 31 | 1,205 | Glassdoor |
| 15 | Johnson & Johnson | Pharma | 65.9% | 2.88 | 32 | 4,763 | Glassdoor |
| 16 | Merck KGaA | Pharma | 65.7% | 2.85 | 35 | 502 | Glassdoor |
| 17 | PSI CRO | CRO | 65.2% | 2.91 | 21 | 69 | Glassdoor |
| 18 | Worldwide Clinical Trials | CRO | 64.9% | 2.82 | 17 | 112 | Glassdoor |
| 19 | Novartis | Pharma | 64.7% | 2.97 | 35 | 1,830 | Glassdoor |
| 20 | Biogen | Biotech | 64.5% | 2.89 | 32 | 520 | Glassdoor |
| 21 | Sanofi | Pharma | 64.4% | 2.88 | 37 | 2,172 | Glassdoor |
| 22 | AbbVie | Pharma | 64.1% | 2.92 | 33 | 1,181 | Glassdoor |
| 23 | Amgen | Biotech | 63.9% | 2.92 | 32 | 1,206 | Glassdoor |
| 24 | Parexel | CRO | 63.4% | 2.86 | 25 | 782 | Glassdoor |
| 25 | AstraZeneca | Pharma | 63% | 3.04 | 35 | 2,236 | Glassdoor |
| 26 | Takeda | Pharma | 62.8% | 2.91 | 34 | 900 | Glassdoor |
| 27 | IQVIA | CRO | 61.7% | 2.92 | 27 | 3,766 | Glassdoor |
| 28 | Regeneron | Biotech | 61.4% | 2.88 | 38 | 1,064 | Glassdoor |
| 29 | Teva | Pharma | 60.9% | 2.88 | 30 | 420 | Glassdoor |
| 30 | CSL | Biotech | 60.2% | 2.90 | 35 | 125 | Glassdoor |
| 31 | Sandoz | Pharma | 59% | 2.88 | 38 | 223 | Glassdoor |
| 32 | Gilead Sciences | Biotech | 58.9% | 3.00 | 36 | 647 | Glassdoor |
| 33 | Ipsen | Pharma | 58.1% | 2.89 | 40 | 167 | Glassdoor |
| 34 | Medpace | CRO | 57.2% | 2.72 | 26 | 787 | Glassdoor |
| 35 | UCB | Pharma | 55.9% | 2.85 | 43 | 236 | Glassdoor |
| 36 | Vertex Pharmaceuticals | Biotech | 55.8% | 2.88 | 30 | 404 | Glassdoor |
| 37 | BioNTech | Biotech | 55.4% | 2.82 | 37 | 130 | Glassdoor |
| 38 | Moderna | Biotech | 50.3% | 2.76 | 34 | 338 | Glassdoor |
| 39 | Astellas | Pharma | 49.3% | 2.85 | 34 | 229 | Glassdoor |
* Andreas Schulz worked as a recruiter at Bayer (9 years), ICON and Syneos Health. Their positions come from the same public data and the same rules as every other company.
Sources
- Glassdoor (glassdoor.com): candidate interview reviews, global. Figures are the share of positive interview experiences, the difficulty rating and the average hiring time that Glassdoor shows on each company's public interview page. Country figures are the share of positive and negative experiences and the number of interviews that Glassdoor shows when a company's interview page is filtered by country. Each row links to the page used.
- kununu (kununu.com): applicant reviews for German and Austrian company profiles. Figures are the distribution of applicant ratings and kununu's applicant score on each profile's public application page. Each row links to the page used.
MoreThanCareer.de has no commercial relationship with Glassdoor, Indeed or kununu. The underlying reviews belong to the people who wrote them and the platforms that host them. This page only reports aggregate figures, never review text.
Methodology
- Companies: 39 large pharmaceutical, biotech and contract research employers with a hiring presence in Europe and North America.
- Ranking rule: companies are ordered by the share of positive interview experiences. Ties are broken by the number of reviews.
- A company enters the global ranking with at least 10 Glassdoor interview reviews. If more than 100 companies qualify, the 100 with the most reviews are ranked.
- Small samples move more. A company with fewer than a few hundred reviews can rise or fall several places after a handful of new ones, so the review count sits next to every figure.
- PPD now trades under Thermo Fisher Scientific. Its Glassdoor interview profile was last updated in July 2025, so its figures may lag behind the current hiring process.
- Country rankings need at least 30 Glassdoor interview reviews from that country, or 50 kununu applicant reviews.
- Glassdoor figures cover a company's whole interview history across all roles and countries. Older reviews count as much as new ones, so recent changes show up slowly.
- Reviews are self-selected. People with very good or very bad experiences write them more often. Read the figures as a signal, not as a verdict on any individual recruiter or hiring manager.
- Johnson & Johnson's Glassdoor profile covers the whole group, MedTech included.
- "Best" and "worst" in the title mean the highest and lowest share of positive interview experiences in this data, nothing more.
Download and cite
You are welcome to cite, quote and chart these figures with a link back to this page. Download the CSV.
Suggested citation
Schulz, A. (2026). Best and worst pharma, biotech and CRO companies to interview for. MoreThanCareer.de, 13th November 2026 edition. https://morethancareer.de/best-worst-pharma-companies-to-interview-for.htmlJournalists and researchers: for the monthly figures before publication or for a comment, write to andreas.schulz@morethancareer.de.
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