Hello all,
So I have finally been invited to an interview for a position this upcoming Wednesday. It will be my first job interview in years (since I left my job to do the PhD). Any advice/tips?!?! I'm hopeful about this job and am doing my research on the organisation etc….but never hurts to check in case I forgot to do something else. Thanks.

Good luck and be confident.

Hey incognito, make sure to check out the video advice thread I just put up. There is some detailed interview tips for academic job seekers. I see these tips request come up so I just threw up all the best vids I have found to date.

Thanks Rubygem and Fled.
Fled I will check out your video and many thanks for posting them!

The most important thing when you’re preparing for the job interview is your confidence. If you don’t believe you’ll get this position, there is no sense in even going to the interview. So, keep in mind that you’re great! You’re intelligent, responsible, hard-working and super talented. They’ll be lucky to have you! With such a spirit, you’ll take recruiter’s breath away for sure. What is more, you need to conduct a small research: find out everything about this job, company, its corporate culture, organization, etc. During the interview, you’ll show that you’ve already known a lot which will definitely show how enthusiastic and serious you’re. Good luck!

In response to this, and the other thread: something which I found helpful was being confident enough to discuss where my project would need work (this is probably only relevant if you've submitted your own proposal). I'd thought about it a lot in the run-up to the interview, and I talked about how there were certain parts which would need to be tightened/recalibrated and that my research question would need re-phrasing.

This was based on tips from PhD students elsewhere, and the panel seemed impressed. I was able to anticipate a lot of their questions and demonstrate that I was flexible, adaptable and reflective enough to make changes when needed.

May not be relevant to you - something to think about though. Obviously also you don't want to overdo it and sound like you don't know what you're doing - it's not about lacking confidence or being unsure of yourself, but the opposite.

Anyway ramble over - good luck everyone :)

Incognito created this post 4 years ago.

this might sound funny but wear something blue. there a lot of studies about cold colours being the ones reflecting and triggering confidence. so wearing a blue shirt for example could help you come across as a reliable person. :)