Advice to Job Hunters (from Academia to Industry) (Original)
Our company is growing fast, and we are constantly interviewing candidates.
In the last a few months, at least two Asian Ph.D. ladies failed to get a
job offer after the on-site interview, and they made exactly the same
mistake. This motivated me to write this article, and I hope this will help
some of you.
Industry jobs usually demand very specific skills, but not all the time.
Sometimes being a good scientist is sufficient to get interviews, and then
the rest is mostly up to you. Take myself as an example: 3 months after I
started to look for industry jobs, I already got a few offers, yet my
research background does not match any of these companies’ focus. So you
never know, just as they said – life is a box of chocolate!
When I was submitting my resume, I very soon realized that I could never
meet all of the requirements listed in any of the jobs I applied for. At
some point, I was frustrated. Fortunately, I did not wait too long before
interview emails arrived one after another.
A typical interview consists of 3 parts: a phone screening by HR, then a
phone interview by the hiring manager (whom you will report to later), and
finally an on-site interview. Each step leads to either frustration or the
next (or finally, a job offer). I will not get into details, but a little
preparation goes a long way.
HR usually asks you some general questions, and HR tends to try to figure
out whether you meet their job description or not. If you think these
questions are easy, you are in trouble – after all, not all of us talk like
Trump! I would recommend job hunters to seriously prepare for these
questions typically asked by consulting firms.
Phone interview by the hiring manager is critical. The question is: since we
don’t personally know the hiring manager (in most cases), how do we know
what kind of people they are looking for? The job description can only tell
you so much. Different jobs usually tend to emphasize different qualities:
for example, RA – finish work efficiently before deadline; and scientist –
independently conceive and test ideas. Of course, every manager likes smart
and hard-working employees with a sense of teamwork!
On-site interview is probably the most stressful part, and companies usually
interview a few candidates for one position. So, how to distinguish
yourself from others? (1) Be careful with jokes: an ice-breaker might help,
but also might seem too casual. (2) Most of time candidates’ presentations
are easily forgettable because of many reasons: boring story, poor
presentation, no passion, did not handle questions well, etc. You can get a
point by trying to tie your expertise to the company’s research. If your
research area is tiny, think about the big picture, be creative.
Presentation slides can tell a lot about the candidate, use them to show the
side of yourself other than a scientist. (3) One-to-one interviews are also
important. This is also the part you need to read between the lines,
observe closely, and respond according to the interviewer’s personality.
The consensus of opinions about these two Asian ladies is that we think they
can get job done, but might not be able to drive projects on their own.
This might not be true at all, but was our impression. People can be a tool
but publish Cell, Nature, and Science papers, and this happens all the time
– we all know it, and we just rejected a candidate with a first-author
Science and a first-author Nature sister journal paper. So do not sell
yourself short, answer questions with confidence, and tell interviewers how
you conceived and trouble-shot your projects. But also do not over-sell
yourself, no one likes a know-it-all.
All in all, my takeaway is: be yourself, with a little bit preparation. As
life has taught me, other than being a scientist, it is way more important
to be an interesting person who lives to make a difference and tries to live
a life worth telling about. So stop spending 80 hours in the lab like I did
before, get out, have hobbies, see the world, meet people, and experience
lives! No one can tell you what exactly you should do or not do, but I bet
every interviewer would enjoy talking to and probably working with an alive,
well-rounded you.
I haven’t realized how long this article already is. I lost track of time
while listening to Lana Del Ray’s CD…
