EPO interview questions

I applied online. The first and the last interview I had were technical. I was not given any info in advance. I decided to write this review now after a while because, in the meantime, I have had a lot of experience with interviewing, including several top 10 world companies in various biotech industries. I realise now that the interview with EPO was the worst I have had so far and will probably remain like that. I am not gonna dwell on details apart from that the interviewers were very disrespectful on multiple levels. I will never apply again.

Application: 27th May Deadline: 3rd July Technical Interview: 19th July As stated before by other interviewers, the technical Interview is basically a confrontation of your "wit" when presented with patents that have been recently submitted and approved (2021) in Life Sciences, both text and pictures (without legend). NO TIME FOR PREPARATION IS GIVEN, like it used to be in the past years. Given the extremely broad field, mismatches in experience and knowledge must be frequent, as I experienced when questioned mainly about Chemistry formulation when my qualifications are centered in biological processes. The interviewers were very experienced/senior EPO Patent Examiners recruiting for their own teams specific needs. The experience was very intense and somewhat unpleasant, given that "it is normal to not know about everything", but in fact, you do need to know about last innovation patents, when you have never been in the IP before, although you might have done R&D your entire professional life. For those with a long Academia experience this might not be the best work environment/culture to kickstart your career, but rather more of the same. The threshold is set unrealistically high in the interview, thinking the job is a 5y contract with a 2y intensive in-house formation. Also, as mentioned before, there's vibes of a biased, toxic and tradicional "for the boys club" work environment ahead of any interview or report reading in Glassdoor. A particular video about " How it is to work at EPO as a Patent Examiner" by a young (27yo) female stating that "a woman here has the same work opportunities as the men" sounds like a HUGE red flag. I was interviewed by two senior white man from "rich countries"nationalities... So, zero diversity, it seems. I picked up some political flights with senior employees clearly not happy with 5y fixed-term contracts when they have decades of work for EPO. That must strain things quite bit...and make things harder for newcomers. Progression ladder is non-existent too. Language requirements: polyglot scientists are a must ?! When science is done in English???? The 3 only interesting and accepted languages are English, German and French. If you have those, you are fine. If you have only proficiency in one , although native/proficiency/B2 in other European languages, they will frown their nose to you. Innovation inside the work of a Patent Examiner: I struggle here with understanding if, for instance, they use top notch searching language sistema to aid during the process of archive search for already registered and Patent given innovations. Very defensive answer racional "that's what could take away our job"... I was a bit perplexed. Rejection email: 10th August