Frequently Asked Questions

Please email the Talent Acquisition team at recruitment@costellomedical.com with any questions that are not addressed here.

Our recruitment process is designed to rigorously assess a variety of key skills necessary to deliver the role. It also provides you with a true flavour of what the role entails.

The first step is to submit a CV/resume and cover letter via the online application form found within each job advert. Your application will first be assessed by a member of the Talent Acquisition team.

The proceeding stages of the recruitment process are dependent on which role you have applied for and full details will be provided by the Talent Acquisition team to ensure you are fully informed about each stage of the process.

When applying for our Technical, Creative and Operations roles, you may be invited to complete a 15-minute telephone interview with a member of the Talent Acquisition team. During this call, you will explore your motivations for applying and the skills you can bring to the role.

For most roles, you will be sent an assessment exercise to complete at home. The assessment will be tailored to the role you have applied for to assess the necessary knowledge, understanding and skills.

Successful candidates will then be invited to an interview, either in our office or remotely, which will involve competency-based questions.

For our Scientific and Technical roles, you may be asked to give a short presentation ahead of your interview, which you can prepare for in advance. This will last for 10 minutes and will be presented to two members of the recruitment team.

The final stage of the recruitment process may involve a proofreading exercise which will last 45 minutes and assesses your attention to detail.

As an employer we are committed to promoting and protecting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues and to ensure a fair and equitable recruitment process. Please email recruitment@costellomedical.com if you require any reasonable adjustments to the selection process, including the assessment or interview. We prefer that any information about health or disability is disclosed separately from the application form to help us keep it confidential.

For more information and guidance on the reasonable adjustments we can offer, please visit our Reasonable Adjustments page. This outlines some of the adjustments we can make at your request. This list is not exhaustive so please do reach out to our friendly and helpful Talent Acquisition team if you require more information or other adjustments to the recruitment process.

Your application will be reviewed by several members of the team throughout the recruitment process, however, if you wish to address your cover letter to one individual, please choose Sophie Costello.

Overall, your cover letter should answer two questions: 1. why you would be suited to the role and 2. why you would like to join Costello Medical. We are looking for cover letters that are tailored to the role and our company. Therefore, you should include your relevant skills and experiences, linking them to the requirements of the role you have applied for. We are also eager to know your motivations for applying, your interests in joining Costello Medical and your passion for working in the healthcare sector. We recommend that they are no longer than one page.

Most of our permanent roles, and all of our internship roles, are entry-level and suitable for recent graduates or those joining from other industries. No prior experience is needed for either role. If you are looking for a permanent opportunity, we recommend that you apply for a permanent role, for example the Analyst/Medical Writer role. However, if you are unsure if this is a field you wish to commit to in the longer term, and are therefore looking to gain experience, you may wish to consider an internship instead, for example the Analyst/Medical Writer Internship role.

Our internship programmes provide a first-hand insight into life at a fast-growing company. Therefore, there are times when the responsibilities and typical workload of both permanent and internship team members overlap.

Due to the differing recruitment processes associated with each role, we can only consider one application from you at a time. Therefore, please decide which opportunity you would like to be considered for before submitting your application. Occasionally our Talent Acquisition team will suggest a different role would be more suitable for you than the one you have applied for.

The details for each role, as well as the online application forms, can be found on our career pages with further information about a typical day for our colleagues available here.

From time to time, we are able to welcome students for work experience weeks and applications are typically organised through schools we have partnered with. If you are interested to learn more, please contact the Talent Acquisition team via recruitment@costellomedical.com.

Please note that you will be unable to directly contribute to our client work, due to the confidential and sensitive nature of our projects. However, we will aim to involve you in our pro bono or research efforts to provide you with useful and insightful experiences.

We are looking to partner with universities and provide undergraduate placements to be based in our UK offices. If you are currently enrolled on a scientific degree programme and would like to conduct your ‘year in industry’ at Costello Medical, please contact the Talent Acquisition team via recruitment@costellomedical.com.

We do not currently offer a graduate scheme. However, our entry-level roles include many components similar to graduate schemes, including extensive training provision and rapid, tailored career development opportunities. You can find all our entry-level and internship opportunities on our career pages.

Yes, we can arrange online interviews. If your interview is remote, we will try to provide you with an opportunity to visit and tour our offices before your start date.

We welcome applications from international candidates and below are details of our ability to provide visa sponsorship. Please note that we are unable to provide advice about which visa type might be suitable for you. These questions should be directed to your university career advisors or explored on the relevant government website.

• UK: We can provide visa sponsorship for eligible candidates to work in our UK offices, assuming our vacancy meets the requirements for visa sponsorship. You will be asked to provide details of your right to work in the UK within your application, however this will have no impact on the processing of your application if the role is eligible for visa sponsorship.
• US: We are unfortunately unable to provide visa sponsorship to allow international candidates to work in our US office. However, we can consider those on a temporary visa, such as an OPT visa.
• Singapore: We can provide support with Employment Pass (EP) applications for some of our vacancies and further details are available on each of our job adverts. You will be asked to provide details of your right to work in Singapore within your application, however this will have no impact on the processing of your application if we are able to support EP applications for that role.
• China: We can consider sponsoring your visa applications to allow you to work in China. However, this is taken on a case by case basis.

Generally, most of our new recruits are based in our largest offices which are our Global Headquarters in Cambridge and our London office. Some of our vacancies are also available in our smaller Manchester and Bristol offices. Each job advert will state which office location the position is available within, so please do state your preference in your application form and we will aim to accommodate for this.

We are happy to offer advice for those relocating to join Costello Medical, including providing advice on finding accommodation.

On a case-by-case basis, it is also sometimes possible to relocate between our UK offices and colleagues are asked to submit a formal application to ensure all implications, such as project and client work, can be considered.

Our working from home policy allows you to work from home for up to 50% of your time, after you have passed probation. There is great flexibility around how you utilise this policy. For example, some colleagues choose to spend a few days in the office and a few days working from home in the same week. Other colleagues chose to spend one full week in the office followed by one full week working from home.

We try to ensure our working days are aligned as much as possible and generally observe standard business hours; this ensures maximum opportunities for collaboration. However, you can work flexibly and alter your start and finish times each day.

Please note that we are unable to offer any roles on a fully remote basis. Our office spaces play a large role in our company culture and we highly value the chance to work together in these collaborative spaces.

We look for an excellent attention to detail, strong written and verbal communication skills, a passion for providing outstanding customer service and an enthusiasm to improve patient outcomes globally. For our entry-level roles, a desire and passion to learn is essential. Please review our job adverts for the specific requirements associated with each role.

Training for colleagues begins from the first day of employment with a comprehensive three-week induction programme, which incorporates a range of e-learning, live, and recorded sessions delivered by colleagues from all areas of the business. Sessions include an introduction to our services and expertise, technical training relevant to our roles, line manager and team meetings, and a session on company culture. At the same time, new starters are assigned to projects and introduced to tasks with close supervision to support on-the-job training.

Training opportunities continue as you progress in your current role and beyond; our Onboarding and Training Team coordinate a programme that is tailored to the various roles at the company, and which covers topics from client communication to stress management and wellbeing.

Our Learning and Development platform further supports individuals’ training journey by facilitating the delivery of training programmes as well as enabling individuals to take greater autonomy over their learning journey through searching for and identifying training materials relevant to their own career goals and personal development needs.

We also offer funding for external training and professional qualifications relevant to our roles. Common examples include the University of York’s postgraduate qualifications in Health Economics for Health Professionals and Policymakers, or the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s postgraduate qualifications in Clinical Trials, Public Health and Epidemiology. However, these examples are non-exhaustive, and we welcome and encourage colleagues to discuss their ideas for external training courses.

To learn more about the personal and professional development opportunities we offer at Costello Medical, please click here to read about our colleague’s experiences of growing with the company

There are many opportunities for colleagues to progress their career at Costello Medical and we support professional development in all its guises.

We recognise the importance of regular feedback conversations and continuous performance management; for this reason, all colleagues meet with their line manager regularly, typically at least fortnightly, to discuss topics related to their ongoing development. To supplement these ongoing conversations, we also have structured performance reviews at least annually which provide a dedicated opportunity to discuss career development. Goals are also set throughout the entirety of a colleague’s career.

We believe that our internal promotion structure is unique in that there is no set quota for the number of positions available for the majority of roles; each individual is promoted once they have demonstrated the appropriate attributes and experience for the position, which ensures that our colleagues are not competing against their peers. Line managers can put forward their direct reports for a promotion at any point during the year.

Promotions are not the only way that colleagues can progress and colleagues are welcome to explore their interests in other service offerings, increasing their breadth of experience. We also have an Internal Opportunities Board which helps to match individuals to opportunities that they may be interested in, whether an opportunity to explore another division or another initiative. Individuals are welcome to start or contribute to internal initiatives, and either seek mentorship or become a mentor themselves. We are also delighted to support (and indeed actively encourage) individuals to pursue external training courses, secondments and insourcing.

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