Postdoc Interview Secrets They're Not Telling You

congratulations on getting a postto interview now academics are weird so the interview is also going to be weird but I've got the five different categories and the regular questions that you're likely going to be asked so you can prepare so the first one is getting to know you getting to know you is kind of the first stage of any PhD or postdoc interview because it's just the ice breaker academics are going to be weird imagine going into an interview and you've got all academics out there and someone with the highest social capability is going to

start asking you questions and they normally ask who getting to know your questions and the most dreaded one is tell me a little bit about yourself in my opinion that's very lazy but here's other ones that they could potentially ask you so why are you interested in this postdoc position what are your strong or weak points do you have any annoying qualities and anything else we should know about you so getting to know you is that first step but the problem is is that when you're answering this question you don't start broad you don't say

like well I'm Andy I'm a cancer no you don't start like that you have to just be completely focused on the postto they're not really interested in you as a person they are interested in you so that you can get them what they need to progress in their career that's papers and money so you need to kind of like be a little bit sneaky and frame your answers around well you know I've done this research I've got this research background I've published these papers these things are very important to me blah blah blah because then

you're going to set off the interview on the right tone and they'll understand that you are working with them to further your career and their career at the same time now you can be asked these more sort of tricky ones which is like do you have any annoying qualities what annoyed you in others so that can be a little bit of a sort of like question early on just to see how you respond to criticism because what they're also looking for in this getting to know you is coachability so a good interviewer will also just

try to work out what sort of person you are under pressure so by throwing in a bit of a weird one like do you have any annoying qualities or what annoyed you about others they are looking for you to think on your feet it's an annoying thing look at me I'm now annoyed this annoys me it's an annoying thing when they do that but I can see why they do it so you just need to be ready for those Next Level questions to make sure that you're prepared take all of these come up with a

very very simple answer to all of them and I think if you've covered most of these you're going to be ready for the getting to know you questions the open-ended ones are the most annoying but keep it simple keep it short just sort of like three or four little facts about you that's related to your professional life and your post that also gives them a hint that you aren't an idiot essentially so that's the first topic the second thing they want to know about is your past research experience now after we've got over the kind

of getting to know you section they'll want to know more about your research experience it's a natural progression and what they'll ask about so you need to make sure that you're familiar with the stuff you've done in the past but more importantly the stuff that you've done in the past that relates to this current postto so when I was doing my interview with five academics over the phone I made sure that I knew what the position was kind of about I kind of knew it was about transparent electrode materials and I had to make sure

that the transfer skills from my PhD were mentioned in sort of like light of transparent electrod so these sort of questions they'll ask so tell me about your doctoral dissertation they are not interested in everything like I said just the transferable skills tell me about one two projects of yours that you found most interesting what was your contribution so this is them just trying to get a gauge of whether or not you're enthusiastic and let me tell you this they are also getting a sense of feeling from you they're absorbing your energy so to speak

so that you need to kind of talk about this in a very sort of enthusiastic way so be happy with what you've done in the past be proud of what you've done in the past be confident that you can do that again be excited for what you could do going forward those are the sort of things they're interested in with this sort of like past experience they want you to be a good member of their team of their research group and they don't want sort of a sad sap that is a little bit over everything

and was a bit annoyed by how everything went in your doctoral dissertation even if you had a horrible time in your PhD this is your time to pull out all of those little bits of gold and just make sure that you talk about the good things all right don't complain other academics love to complain don't we there's also this can you work on a project from scratch so when you're going from PhD to postto it's the first time you're probably just handed a project and going like go for it good luck even if you haven't

got direct sort of like um experience with a full project there's probably little aspects of your PhD or your past experience you've done from scratch so make sure you can talk about that and also how did you ensure your research stays current with the latest developments in the field so this is just trying to make sure that you understand how to keep up to date with the field and to sort of like mold your approach to a particular field based on the current trends because that's very important in Academia and so your past research experience

is making sure that you've just got that Foundation of excitement and interest in this field but also that you have got some evidence behind you as to like you won't just screw up this post completely talk enthusiastically talk confidently about the stuff you've done in the past and I think you can't really go wrong because you'll be sending out those Positive Vibes bo bo bo bo but don't dance the next section they're going to want to talk about is your skills and abilities your skills and abilities really is the stuff that you know that they

want so this could be specific techniques specific methods specific modes of operation of particular Fields it needs to be the nuts and bolts now here's the thing about this section is that the people that are interviewing you have their own preferences their own slant their own um research field so what I like to do if I know who's interviewing me is I will go and look at their particular technical knowledge and understanding and then I'll make sure that I talk about the things that overlap with theirs it's about giving that awesome feeling to them if

you're talking about what they love doing then it can only be a good thing so skills and abilities it's this sort of stuff thereafter can you describe the key methodologies and techniques you use during your research so this is when we're talking about the actual nuts and bols what stuff are you trained on what methods did you use what software are you using all of that is very very important and just try to have a look at some past papers to see what they've used and uh try to align your answer with those um how

do you approach learning and implementing new research Technologies or software essentially can you learn new things that is really what they're after how do you ensure the reducibility and reliability of experimental results well this is just making sure that you do understand a little bit about you know the scientific or research process to make sure that in a particular field you're not just going to produce rubbish results and then this is probably the most important which is what Advanced Equipment or instruments are you proficient in operating and how have you used them in your research

so when I did my PhD I got trained up on a load of instruments for nanotechnology and I had to talk specifically about those things Atomic Force microscopy scanning electron microscopy tem Optical microscopy all of these things that were so important for the postto they needed to know that they weren't going to spend ages training me up on a piece of equipment or that I had transferable skills from one piece of equipment like the scanning electron microscope and I could put it into the transmission electron microscope you know those things are very um there's a

lot of skills that you can swap in between the two but nonetheless this is what they're interested here the nuts and Bots and I highly recommend that you stalk the out of the people that are interviewing you if you know who they are so that you can talk to the skills and experience that they've got find that overlap everyone get the nice little warm fuzzies deep down below ooh that feels good as we head into the later parts of the interview they may start asking you pointed questions those pointed questions are essentially a sign that

like they've gone through all of the stuff they need to do but now they're really testing you when I've done these sort of like postdoc interviews in the past these really haven't come up because I've kind of had a warm introduction to people they know that I don't need to be poked and prod I have the skills but this can happen if they do just need to work out what sort of person you are so problem solving and challenges this is where they'll talk about failed results this is where they'll talk about what you would

do if something failed then we'll talk about motivation how do you stay motivated and how do you approach troubleshooting experiments that are not yielding expected results all of these are so very very important and it's something that a lot of us take for granted as researchers but this is them just making sure that you can sort of like handle the pressure and that you do have at least some idea of overcoming problems once again we need to sort of like talk about these in a positive light so talk about a time in the past when

you've overcome problems talk about times in the past when you've um changed experimental Direction because something's not quite going the way you expect it to go all of those are very very important stuff um and stay positive stay very very positive because no one wants a boring sad saap on their team who's just going to suck the energy from any lab they work in so make sure you stay positive even though you're talking about problems and challenges always talk about it in terms of the solutions that you've BR and that will just make them feel

comfortable and warm because that's what it's all about yeah the last part of the interview is actually one of my favorite because everyone breathes a sigh of relief ah like the interviewers are like okay we've got another one in the bag this is going well or like it's not going well we need to wrap it up um and you're just knowing it's coming to an end because the rate of questions have slowed down people are getting a little bit bored of being in the same sort of room talking about things for an hour and so

these wrap-up questions really are just short and sweet answers stuff that you should have an answer to um but it isn't going to go on for like 30 minutes you know so the wrap-up questions are a great sign that uh things are going to end and if you get these sort of questions it's normally going to end well for you so you've got had any questions for us is so common and so you do just have to have some backup questions about questions you have for them um and I always just ask about oh you

know what sort of stuff would I be involved in with the department so one thing I like to do when they say any questions for us is I like to put in their mind that I'm already in the job so was I'd be like okay what would the first week look like what would the first month look like how many papers per year would you expect like then they're starting to think about you as this doer as this outcome orientated person and also just stuff like you know how would I contribute more broadly to the

um community in the department in the group whatever it is so make sure you've got just simple questions that make them see you already in the job there's a great bit of social engineering and it works wonders all right do you have any questions for us is there anything you'd like to share that we haven't covered and if there is something just make sure it's sharp and sweet and that it is a highlight no one likes a Boer no one likes to go oh by the way I did all these things if it hasn't come

up naturally Don't Force It But there if there is something that you feel like is important like there's a particular technique or skill that hasn't been mentioned or a particular area of your expertise that you think you could translate to the current post stock you're interviewing for bring it up but once again just make it short and sharp these wrap-up questions question everyone's over it you don't want to keep them there for ages this isn't about you spending another half an hour talking about something this is just oh I just like to mention that during

my PhD I also did these things and I think that would be a great thing to bring across to the post but um yeah you know if if I was going to be the fortunate candidate get the job I'd love to talk about that further something like that is just short sh sh sh sh sh sh you get the idea okay and then we've got what are your expectations from this post position how soon are you available to start and also do you have any concerns about this position that we can address um essentially you

just have to have very simple positive answers to those so do you have any concerns about this position that we can address obviously don't take a job that you've got serious concern about so really that should be no not really I'm looking forward to starting um I would love to you know meet some more of the team if that's possible before I start something just positive and nice and sort of like group Focus would be awesome how soon are you available to start if selected as soon as possible in University terms that means in about

3 months time because the bureaucracy in red tape is uh uh suffocating that's the word okay and then what are your expectations from this postto position your expectations is their expectations their expectation is you get load of papers and you get funding that is now your expectation so this would be a great opportunity for me to publish lots of papers and work with a really well respected team here in whatever University you're doing um the interview at and that's it really you want to align their goals with your goals so you just parot back to

them what they want to hear they get those warm and fuzz again deep down below just near the just near the anus naughty yeah that's it really so there we are that's the wrap-up questions um any top tips I've got for you is um relax remember to smile I think there's one thing that really got me through a lot of postto interviews and I had two or three I think three and that is just smile just enjoy yourself just make sure you're talking positively be enthusiastic um and also if you're doing a phone interview like

one of mine was I had a piece of paper just near me and I jot it down all of the names of the researchers in the order they introduce themselves um I highly recommend that you also stalk their um Pages go read some of their papers um and just make sure you're well prepared it's amazing to me how just those simple things sort of dropped into conversation can make people warm up to you and that's about it really so those are how you absolutely kill your postto interview good luck let me know in the comments

what questions you got asked because that will help people in the future watching this video boom if you like this video go check out this one where I talk about post dos unplugged the truth revealed about postto I think you'll love it