Its values, its interview process and the questions it asks, in short episodes. Listen on a walk, then practice.
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The closer module synthesizes everything in the series. It answers the question every CVS Health interview eventually asks — "Why CVS Health?" — by walking through the competitive landscape: Walgreens (recently went private with Sycamore), UnitedHealth/Optum (a $400B giant with its own integrated model), Cigna/Express Scripts (now the #1 PBM by volume), Amazon Pharmacy (the disruptor). Then it pivots to a behavioral masterclass mapped to all six Heart At Work Behaviors, with one signature question per behavior and the kind of story that wins. This is the module candidates listen to the morning of their interview.
Before most CVS Health candidates ever get to a human interview, they face the HireVue video assessment, an SHL aptitude test, and/or a Virtual Job Tryout (VJT) situational judgment module. These are timed, automated, and high-stakes — fail them and you don't progress. This module breaks down exactly what each stage looks like, what the AI is grading, and the practical tactics for getting through to the live interview rounds.
CVS Health's technology organization has grown into a serious destination for software engineers, data scientists, and product managers — driven by the $20B technology modernization, the Health100 platform, and the Google Cloud partnership. The interview process is a 4-5 stage loop with multiple coding rounds, a system design heavy on HIPAA and scalability, and a behavioral panel anchored to the Heart At Work Behaviors. This module gives candidates the practical playbook for the technology-track interview.
Aetna case manager, Aetna RN, Caremark pharmacy benefits analyst, prior authorization specialist, claims, network management — these healthcare-specific roles at CVS Health have their own interview pattern. The process is heavily behavioral, the supervisors are typically the interviewers, and the questions are oriented around patient-centered decision-making, prior authorization workflows, juggling priorities, and working with difficult people. This module gives candidates the role-specific playbook for the Aetna and Caremark side of CVS Health.
In late 2023, retail pharmacies across the country saw an organic walkout that became known as "Pharmageddon." CVS pharmacies in Las Vegas, Rhode Island, and elsewhere have since unionized through The Pharmacy Guild / IAM Healthcare. In October 2024, California CVS workers ratified a new three-year UFCW contract after a three-day ULP strike. This module addresses the elephant in the room for any pharmacy candidate: the working conditions, the labor activity, the company's response, and how to talk about all of this honestly in an interview without being negative.
In 2024 CVS Health announced two new pricing models — CVS CostVantage (for the retail pharmacy as a "provider") and CVS Caremark TrueCost (for the PBM as a "payer") — that fundamentally rewire how prescription drugs get priced and reimbursed. As of January 2025, all commercial prescriptions at CVS Pharmacy are contracted through CostVantage. As of Q1 2025, 82% of Caremark's commercial members are benefiting from TrueCost features. This is the single biggest operational change CVS has made in years, and it's a goldmine for candidates interviewing in any pharmacy, PBM, finance, or business-side role.
In June 2025, CVS Health announced a $20 billion technology modernization plan. At its December 9, 2025 Investor Day, the company unveiled Health100 — an AI-native consumer engagement platform that connects CVS Pharmacy, CVS Caremark, Aetna, and the health care delivery businesses into a single digital interface. In March 2026, CVS announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to power Health100 with Gemini multimodal models. This module gives the candidate the full technology story, the leadership behind it (EVP and Chief Experience and Technology Officer Tilak Mandadi), and what it means for any technology, product, data, or business candidate interviewing in 2026.
David Joyner became CEO of CVS Health in October 2024 and Chairman in April 2025, taking over a company in the middle of an Aetna crisis that had wiped billions off the stock. By the end of 2025, Aetna's adjusted operating income improved by $2.6 billion year-over-year, the stock was up roughly 40%, and Joyner had become one of the most-watched CEOs in healthcare. This module unpacks who he is, why his Caremark roots matter, what his "back to fundamentals" leadership style means for candidates, and the specific 2025–2026 strategic moves that interview candidates need to be able to discuss intelligently.
Just like Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles or Walgreens' 4 Cs, CVS Health has six explicit "Heart At Work Behaviors" that drive every behavioral question, every onboarding session, and every internal recognition program. This module breaks down all six — Putting people first, Rising to the challenge, Joining forces, Create simplicity, Inspire trust, and Champion safety and quality — and helps the candidate prepare a story for each. Most candidates miss this entirely. Walking into the interview ready to map your stories to these behaviors is the single highest-leverage prep step you can do.
This opener gives candidates the foundational story of CVS Health: a 1963 corner drugstore in Lowell, Massachusetts that became the first US retailer to stop selling tobacco in 2014, acquired Aetna for ~$70 billion in 2018, and now operates a four-segment integrated health care model — pharmacy, PBM, insurance, and primary care delivery — that no other US company matches. Understanding this arc is essential because every CVS Health interview, from store associate to software engineer to Aetna case manager, eventually circles back to "Why CVS?" and "What do you understand about our model?"