One candidate who interviewed for a Lilly internship describes an HR screen, a business-area interview and a final business case on supply chain operations. Here is how that process looked and how to prepare.
$70K
Avg. Base Comp
$85K
Avg. Total Comp
3 rounds
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
The evidence behind this guide is thin: a single candidate who interviewed for a PRA internship at Eli Lilly, not for a full-time Business Analyst seat. Read it as a view of how Lilly can assess analytical, business-minded candidates, not as a fixed format.
The candidate went through three rounds. The first was an HR screen about background, interest in the role and prior experience, which they described as standard. The second was with someone from the business area where the role sat. That interviewer dug into the CV and asked follow-up questions about a group discussion exercise the candidate had done earlier.
The third round was a business case built around Lilly's operations and supply chain. According to the candidate, the hard part was not the mechanics of solving it. It was knowing Lilly's history, business model and value chain well enough to propose something innovative instead of generic. They did not advance past this round, and said they would have mapped Lilly's operations and competitive position in more detail beforehand.
The practical takeaway is to prepare for the case as much as for the conversation. Be ready to explain your motivation and walk through your CV, then study how Lilly makes and delivers medicines, where its constraints sit, and how your recommendation would fit its market position.
Synthesized from 3 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Eli Lilly And Company process.
The process was pretty structured and felt very STAR-heavy from the start. I had a recruiter screen first, then a hiring manager interview, and after that two panel rounds. Each panel was mostly behavioral, with about four to six questions apiece and very little follow-up. The questions were the usual kind of situational prompts, like telling them about a time I learned a new technology or dealt with a difficult manager, so I made sure to answer in a clear situation-task-action-result format because that seemed to be what they were listening for.
What stood out most was how procedural the whole thing felt. The interviewers didn’t dig very deep into answers, and in my case a couple of them kept cutting me off, which made the panels feel cold and impersonal. There wasn’t much back-and-forth or attempt to get to know me beyond the prepared questions. The hiring manager round did include some context about the team and what to expect, and one of the situational questions was about how I would work in a very young team with minimal supervision, so they were definitely checking fit as much as experience.
I also saw a more technical side in another round of the process, where questions came up around SAP GRC implementation, Fiori Security, SU24 object maintenance, and even describing each step in MSMP workflow configuration. So depending on the team, the interview can lean more behavioral or more system-specific. In my case, the overall experience ended without an offer, and I left feeling like the process was more about matching their template than having a real conversation.
Prep tip from this candidate
Prepare concise STAR answers for common behavioral prompts and be ready to speak to working with minimal supervision. If your team is SAP-related, review SAP GRC implementation basics, Fiori Security, SU24 object maintenance, and MSMP workflow configuration steps.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Eli Lilly And Company
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Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
The first round was an HR screen. The candidate was asked about their background, why they were interested in the role and any prior experience in the field. They described it as a fairly standard conversation about motivation and fit for the company.
The second round was with someone from the business area where the candidate would have worked. It was more substantive than the screen. The interviewer went through the CV and asked follow-up questions about how the candidate had approached an earlier group discussion exercise.
The final round was a practical business case centered on Lilly's operations and supply chain. The candidate said it required understanding the company's history, business model and value chain to propose something innovative, and that a generic answer would not be enough. They did not move forward after this round.
