Hi.

I've been asked to prepare a 10 minute presentation on my "research experience/skills and how you can use this to study the project". I'm a bit stuck on what to write for the latter part. This project uses techniques I have very little experience in (cell culture) and I'm not sure my research experience is that relevant to the project.
Any advice would be great.

Thanks :)

Not sure if this would be helpful since I'm not trained as a scientist and I do not have the full context of your interview – perhaps consider how your expertise could benefit their research project. Instead of limiting yourself to practical elements, are there other ways in which you could offer advice, recommendation, consultation to shed new light on their current research projects? I think "research experience and skills" are not just techniques for investigation. In a broader sense, experience could also refer to your general ability in problem solving, connecting the dots, thinking outside the box, or even just managing relations, drafting research reports, visualising data, digital analysis and data collection, generic literature review, etc. Basically try to find ways on how you can contribute to their projects in spite of potential knowledge gaps. Hope this helps :)

Hi Blue Elephant,

That is a narrow title! I do not envy you but I agree with ZH0224. Focus on the project as a whole and not what you are missing. A good structure that I recommend is to break the project down into stages such as; brief literature review, experimental plan, objective 1 with methodology A, objective 2, etc, data analysis, how this will affect the field. It not only gives your presentation a structure but hows that you can break down a big project into smaller chunks. You do not need to be super detailed, just discuss a few papers (and cite them), what you think is achievable for each objective and any potential risks. You might not know all the experimental techniques but it is easier to teach someone experimental methods than how to do research. Even if you don't how to do the methodologies, you can say that you will follow X protocol in Y paper and hope they don't ask to many questions.

Also, I wouldn't throw out all previous experience as non-relevant. I worked in a recycling plant before my PhD and gained a fantastic knowledge of sampling errors. It wasn't relevant to my PhD but I mentioned sampling issues anyway and instead of getting asked questions on the methods I didn't know they asked about my weird sampling method. Just be creative and you might be able to fit in your previous experience somewhere.

Thank you both for your help.
I will definitely try to incorporate your suggestions :)