What to Expect and How to Prepare for a National Lab Interview

[nbo10]

Hi All,
I have an interview at a national lab in a few weeks and would like to know what to expect. I'll give a seminar and meet with ~9 staff members through out the day. The seminar shouldn't be problem but I'm concerned about getting overwhelmed by meeting everyone and discussing their research and mine. I'm okay when I have time to process new information but my brain has a certain time constant. The interview for my current postdoc was really low pressure as they had already decided to hire me and isn't really any help.

Does anyone have any words of advice? Thanks

 

[Norman]

Try to be armed with the information ahead of time. If you can study up on what people are working on, maybe you won't be overwhelmed. This can be hard with national labs, since they don't always have websites that are well maintained and up to date. If you can find out who you are meeting and check their arXiv papers, you might not be so overwhelmed.

Good luck!

 

[ZapperZ]

Hi All,
I have an interview at a national lab in a few weeks and would like to know what to expect. I'll give a seminar and meet with ~9 staff members through out the day. The seminar shouldn't be problem but I'm concerned about getting overwhelmed by meeting everyone and discussing their research and mine. I'm okay when I have time to process new information but my brain has a certain time constant. The interview for my current postdoc was really low pressure as they had already decided to hire me and isn't really any help.

Does anyone have any words of advice? Thanks

You didn't say that you're interviewing for. I'm assuming it is either for a postdoc or staff position.

When you present your seminar, note that your audience could consist of member of the entire division or department. So while you might have members of the audience that are very familiar with your work, chances are a large portion of the audience are not in your particular field. So you should include some background info targeted to an audience member who, say has a Ph.D but not intimately familiar with your area.

The interview process can vary based on the person doing the interview. It is always useful to figure out what they are going to hire you for. If you are being hired for a specific project (and this is usually stated in the job description), read up about that project as much as you can, and see how your background and expertise can match with the project. During your interview, emphasize this skill or knowledge that you have, hoping that the interviewee will pick up on this match. It is obvious that you have something that they like, or else they wouldn't invite you for an interview. So elaborate carefully where you can contribute.

Zz.