It was a 3-interview process: 1 with a coworker (in the future-to-be team) and 2 with a higher-up. I passed all of them, and then the process followed a negotiation over email.
Honestly the first interview with the technician of the team was okay: he was a pretty chill korean guy, very kind and well spoken. On the other hand, the ones with higher-up were the opposite: he was not fluent in english, barely could make himself understood; he did not seem to know much about the actual science/technologies at hand; he asked very personal questions with a malicious background (e.g. are you planning to get pregnant?); etc.
And the follow-up through email was even worse: they did not respect the clear salary expectations that I set during the first rounds of interview, by a big difference. After declining their first offer, and only then, they rose, without even meeting my declared expectations. I as a foreigner had to inform them of the advantages of the Dutch tax system depending on the salary brackets (i.e. 30% rule).
With all of that said, that was not the worst. That was when I was given the draft contract, where 3/10 pages very ambiguously described your rights as a worker, but 7/10 clearly specified your duties and penalties if not met. The contract was a complete mess: no collective working agreement supporting it; specified that employer could basically do anything they wanted, even modifying unilaterally your contract; forbid you to do lots of things (e.g. do any trade in your free-time); made it clear you couldn't work for any other company but theirs after for 2 years until your contract ended; and those are only a few I listed. I am convinced that MACROGEN contracts violate european workers' laws, which would render their contract wet paper upon any lawsuit.
And the funniest thing is that they were surprised when I highlighted all these issues in their contract and declined the offer. To put it short, the higher up claimed that "trust is more important than wording, especially when a new employee and employer start together. ". Outrageous. Stay away from it, everyone.
