Interviews

Up to Finding a Job

How to handle the interview process.

Landing an Academic Job: the Process and the Pitfalls: Great advice on the application and interview process in academia from Jon Dantzig, the chair of the faculty recruiting committee at UIUC's Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department.
Math Job Interview Advice: Tips on getting and succeeding in job interviews for academic positions in mathematics, from the AMS/MAA Employment Register to campus interviews. The advice is skewed to those searching for a job at liberal arts colleges.
Interviewing for Faculty Positions: Tips from the Duke University Career Center. Contains good sample interview questions.
First Impressions--Are Interview Results Preordained?: By Dave Jensen, Science's Next Wave. "Perhaps the best advice is that because there's nothing you can do about it anyway, you might as well be yourself. There's something liberating about the idea that you don't really have to perform, to pretend to be something you're not."
Tooling Up: The Dreaded Phone Interview: by Dave Jensen, ScienceCareers. "Telephone interviews can be one of the most uncomfortable pieces of the job-seeking puzzle. For one, there’s none of the human warmth that can (some of the time) make an interview tolerable or even fun. Instead, your fate is being decided by a tinny, disembodied voice on the other end of the line. Still, employers resort to these interviews because they are a necessary step, primarily for cost reasons. Without them, companies would overburden themselves interviewing candidates face to face who could have been disqualified much earlier on."
Illegal Interview Questions: Courtesy of Pomona College's Career Center.
Everything You Wanted to Know About Getting a Job in Silicon Valley But Didn't Know Who to Ask: by Guy Kawasaki. "Many people ask me for advice about getting a job in Silicon Valley, so here’s the inside scoop. Not everyone will agree with this advice, and some will outright deny what I’m saying, but if you use these tips you will stand head and shoulders above most candidates."
Small Mistakes With Big Consequences: Dave Jensen, ScienceCareers. "It is by reading about other people's successes and failures that you can develop a game plan for the continued management of your career. So, in this month's column, I'd like to use OPE to relate three small job-search mistakes that can have very big consequences."
Tips for Successful Interviewing: From bio.com
The Other Side of the Interview: "Most people, young scientists included, believe that job interviews are a one-way process. You, the interviewee, present yourself as well as possible, while the interviewer carefully evaluates you in relation to all the other finalists. That is only half the story."
Rules for a perfect math job talk: by Eugene Lerman at UIUC. Useful advice on how to give a successful job talk at a research university.
Interview Skills for the Job Hungry: Science's Next Wave. "For many of us the first time we face the scrutiny of a 'serious' interview panel is when we try to convince a department to take us on as a PhD student. You may have run the interview gauntlet before then, for summer jobs for example, but the stakes--a career in science, or not--have probably never been so high. And as you progress--applying for postdocs, fellowships, and (whisper it!) permanent academic positions, the pressure just keeps piling on."
Giving a Job Talk in the Sciences: "As a doctoral student or postdoc seeking a professorship, your academic job talk may well be the most important presentation you will ever give. An excellent talk can get you the job, while a poor one will almost surely eliminate you from contention."
Search Committees: The Long and Winding Road of Academic Hiring: by Karen Young Kreeger, The Scientist, Nov. 8, 1999. Only in academia does it take a committee and several months to a year or more to hire someone. In industry, most often a supervisor can hire an employee. But searches for new faculty are complicated.
Ask the experts: how to get hired Nature Biotechnology/ Naturejobs: Experts in academia and industry offer practical advice for job-hunting scientists.
Interviewing for Professional Positions: Tips from the Duke University Career Center.
Interviews - Body Language: "If you have been selected for an interview, you have obviously impressed your potential employer - your next challenge is to maintain their positive perception of you in the interview stage."
Mastering the Phone Interview - Job Interview Advice from Monster.com: "You just got word that you landed a job interview with a company that really interests you -- only there's a slight catch. You won't be meeting with your interviewer(s) face to face. Instead, you'll be taking part in a phone interview, the results of which will determine whether you're invited to meet with company representatives in person."
Tough Interview Questions: Interview Questions - Turning negative situations into positive ones and how to explain these in interviews
Coping With Job Interviews: From the CV Centre
How to Handle Illegal Interview Questions: The interview is going along smoothly. You're psyched that "this may be the one." And then it happens. Out of nowhere. "Are you considering having children?" Or, "How long has your family been in this country?" Or, "Your people place a high value on that, don't they?" Or, "You've done amazingly well for someone in a wheelchair." Here's how to handle the situation, courtesy of Job Hunter E-Zine.
Interviews - Presentations: "It is becoming increasingly common for presentations to be delivered as part of the recruitment process, enabling employers to assess your talent for effective organisation, your communication skills, and your ability to collate and analyse information."
Practice makes persuasive in job interviewing: "...I tested my interview skills with Kathleen Ferris, a managing consultant for Drake Beam Morin in Falls Church, Va., who has 17 years of experience in human resources. Ferris put me through the wringer in a mock interview session and videotaped my performance. Afterward, we talked about what I did well and what I need to improve. She provided an insider's glimpse into the mind of the interviewer, explaining what employers are looking for when they ask certain questions. Here's what I learned..."
You Can Ring My Bell: How to Prepare for the Telephone - Job Interview Advice from Monster.com: "The phone rings at 7 p.m. Jean answers, thinking it is one of her friends calling. The caller announces that she is calling to talk about the position Jean had applied for. What position? She had responded to several job postings. Panic sets in as Jean tries to remember which position the caller is talking about."
10 Avoidable IT Interview Flubs: "In any interview, even one wrong turn can change you from a dream candidate to a potential nightmare. eWEEK rounds up 10 errors that could cost you your next callback."
Interview Preparation: Naturejobs Career View (Nuts & Bolts): It's the moment you've been waiting for. You have managed to get an interview for a coveted...

PhDs.org Science, Math, and Engineering Career Resources

Interviews