Hello everyone! Haven't posted in ages, but now would appreciate any advice. I have a job interview for my dream job! It's a research job in my area, where there are never jobs, but now this one has come up.

I have to give a 15 minute presentation on 'my central achievements, my research, and where I see it developing over the next 5 years'. Then I have to do a 45 min interview. The panel is made up of 3 professors generally in my area, a statistician in a completely different area, and a hard sciences professor - I'm in social sciences.

Any tips welcome!! I've done loads of non-academic job interviews, and know how to prepare and present myself well, but have never done an academic interview. Thanks everyone!

Hi Sue,

congratulations regarding the interview! Sounds like an excellent opportunity! Well done!

Like you, I have plenty of experience in interviews for professional jobs, not so much for the academic ones. I do, however, know quite a few professors personally and they are just like "normal people". They like enthusiastic people, who are to the point, accurate, but also enjoy it when things are funny and when one can have a laugh! They like people with whom they can work.

As such if I were you, I would stick to the areas you are good at, for example your PhD, perhaps also your experience in civil service work, soft skills, like your presentations skills etc. I would not pretend to be an expert in everything and would acknowledge that I would have still a lot to learn, yet would be happy to work with them and learn. :-)

======= Date Modified 27 Aug 2010 15:04:08 =======
======= Date Modified 27 Aug 2010 15:03:45 =======
Hi Sue, that's wonderful news, congratualtions! Good to hear from you again too.

I recenty had an interview, and although I didn't get the job I did get some pretty extensive and useful feedback, both before and after the event:

1. Make sure you are clear about how your research will contribute to the department and to the university as a whole. Do this when they ask you 'what is your grand plan?' or similar. They said I sounded too much like my research was all about me and my future, and not what I could contribute to the department and to the university's mission, so put some thoguht into how your research will do that, and make sure you get that across.

2. Do lots of research into the University mission statement and future plans. Your awareness of this should be evident throughout the interview.

3. You can also base your questions around this. I looked for faults or unexplained areas or circumstances in the mission statement and future plans, and formulated my questions from that - they said my questions were excellent; I stumped them!

4. Make sure your presentation tells a story about you and who you are - I did this and they really liked it.

5. Chill out and slow down. You are well capable and you just have to let the panel see that.

Good luck and well done for getting so far! XX

Brilliant news Sue! I have info from our careers department on academic interviews and presentations, I can send it all on to you if you like. I'd agree with what Eska says, especially the bit about how your research fits into the uni and the department! And be confident, they obviously like you and are interested in your CV, so just show them how wonderful you really are! You get the chance now to stick in all the fun bits that you have to leave out of the CV and show off your personality properly, and how great you'll be to work with! (up)

Hi Sue - I don't think I can give you any good advice as I haven't started my PhD yet, let alone had an academic interview! But I just wanted to wish you luck - hope it goes well for you!

Nxx

Thank you everybody!

I agree Rick, am going to emphasise what I'm good at, and acknowledge where I need to learn. Two of the panel members are statisticians, which worries me a bit, as I have no quant skills, but am just going to have to push my great qual research skills instead.

Thanks Eska for your info - that's really useful. I'm thinking about how I could collaborate with people at the prospective uni, but hadn't thought about reading the mission statement and knowing future directions. You're point about not making it all about me is a really good one, I think.

And thanks AQ, would love any info you'd care to send!

Thanks again everyone.

In my RA job interview (which I got out of 60+ candidates) I think I scored points by showing prior knowledge of a very specific research area, rather unexpectedly, and challenging the preconceptions of the panel about it. So don't be afraid to be confident and assertive in your views, even challenging if that's appropriate. Don't feel that you have to be too submissive.

Good luck!

Good luck! :D

I've had a couple of interviews (and been runner up/second choice in each one :( ). I wouldn't worry too much about the stats. They'll already have an idea of the experience you have in stats from your application/CV so I don't think they'll be expecting anything drastically different from what you've said there.

If there are any grant sources or proposals you have you eye on, and it becomes relevant in the interview, maybe mention them? I think it always impresses the panel if they know you already have plans to seek grants and funding. Shows you're aware of a fairly important part of the research process even if you don't have much experience with proposals yourself.

If there's a teaching component to the job it might be worth checking out the NSS for the place. I did and although it didn't come up in the interview for my last job I did get a tour of the dept by the head of department and it came up then.