What to expect from a corporate recruiting interview in the sciences?
September 23, 2010 8:07 AM Subscribe
Please help a new Ph.D. know what to expect from a corporate recruiting interview in the sciences.
I finally earned my Ph.D. in Microbiology last month, and have come to the realization that the typical academic path (constant self-driven research) is not for me -- I don't care enough about any particular biological question to devote my life to studying just that one thing. However, I love solving problems, organizing projects, and managing people (so far my experience is with undergraduate research assistance and junior graduate students, as well as some committee work). My favorite parts of my graduate education involved a lot of public speaking (conferences, teaching), but I think that is primarily because I need more person-to-person interaction than benchwork typically provides. It occurs to me that industrial research might be a really good place for me.
And so, I have my first corporate interview coming up. It's a 45 minute campus recruiting interview with a representative from a large international conglomerate. And I have no idea what to expect. I have never interviewed outside of an academic setting. This is where I need your help, please.
Specific questions I have include:
1. What are good questions to ask the recruiter? I have particular questions in mind in terms of the kind of mentoring they provide new employees, what a typical day involves, their particular corporate culture, and how often projects change. Are these on the right track?
2. What kind of things might I be asked? I've been brainstorming particular situations and challenges I've met during my graduate education that stand out as examples of the way that I think/work, but is there something that might seem obvious (to you) that might not occur to an interviewing novice?
3. What do I need to bring along? Just a copy of my C.V. and a notepad?
4. Dressing myself. I'm assuming suit equivalent, yes?
Thanks for the help. I would particularly appreciate any input from those of you who work in the sciences, in industry.
I finally earned my Ph.D. in Microbiology last month, and have come to the realization that the typical academic path (constant self-driven research) is not for me -- I don't care enough about any particular biological question to devote my life to studying just that one thing. However, I love solving problems, organizing projects, and managing people (so far my experience is with undergraduate research assistance and junior graduate students, as well as some committee work). My favorite parts of my graduate education involved a lot of public speaking (conferences, teaching), but I think that is primarily because I need more person-to-person interaction than benchwork typically provides. It occurs to me that industrial research might be a really good place for me.
And so, I have my first corporate interview coming up. It's a 45 minute campus recruiting interview with a representative from a large international conglomerate. And I have no idea what to expect. I have never interviewed outside of an academic setting. This is where I need your help, please.
Specific questions I have include:
1. What are good questions to ask the recruiter? I have particular questions in mind in terms of the kind of mentoring they provide new employees, what a typical day involves, their particular corporate culture, and how often projects change. Are these on the right track?
2. What kind of things might I be asked? I've been brainstorming particular situations and challenges I've met during my graduate education that stand out as examples of the way that I think/work, but is there something that might seem obvious (to you) that might not occur to an interviewing novice?
3. What do I need to bring along? Just a copy of my C.V. and a notepad?
4. Dressing myself. I'm assuming suit equivalent, yes?
Thanks for the help. I would particularly appreciate any input from those of you who work in the sciences, in industry.
Response by poster: Hmm, so as I suspected my questions are too general. Suggestions, please!
Also, I am female, but the equivalent level of formality is understood.
posted by amelioration at 8:22 AM on September 23, 2010
Also, I am female, but the equivalent level of formality is understood.
posted by amelioration at 8:22 AM on September 23, 2010
I know when my husband had an interview at a Bio Tech that recruited him, there was a "presentation" scheduled, which he thought was a presentation they were going to make on the company. Nope, it was a presentation he was supposed to give on his prior research. Other people they recruited made the same mistake.
So I would be prepared to give a presentation, even if there's no mention of it beforehand.
posted by zizzle at 8:31 AM on September 23, 2010
So I would be prepared to give a presentation, even if there's no mention of it beforehand.
posted by zizzle at 8:31 AM on September 23, 2010
I went from lab work to market research strategy consulting for companies in the life sciences - for many of the reasons you mentioned. I find a good discussion point for job interviews is discussing the differences in demands between academia's expectations (in terms of workflow, production cycles, teamwork vs. solitary grind, and what is considered a "complete" answer) and the corporate world.
In particular, I find those of us raised in the academic science research tradition have to actively retrain ourselves not to go out and do a completely comprehensive review/research project to answer a question for our new corporate overlords. If you're interviewing with someone who's come out of research, or who has worked with other new PhDs, acknowledging this distinction can go a long way to convincing them that you're flexible enough to make this transition smoothly.
Also, draw analogies from your laboratory teamwork to the corporate world. I bill myself as a "small teams specialist" - because I've worked under a single PI interfacing with other research collaborators, and then in a boutique consulting firm with <10 people.
MeMail me if you want to talk more specifics.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:32 AM on September 23, 2010
In particular, I find those of us raised in the academic science research tradition have to actively retrain ourselves not to go out and do a completely comprehensive review/research project to answer a question for our new corporate overlords. If you're interviewing with someone who's come out of research, or who has worked with other new PhDs, acknowledging this distinction can go a long way to convincing them that you're flexible enough to make this transition smoothly.
Also, draw analogies from your laboratory teamwork to the corporate world. I bill myself as a "small teams specialist" - because I've worked under a single PI interfacing with other research collaborators, and then in a boutique consulting firm with <10 people.
MeMail me if you want to talk more specifics.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:32 AM on September 23, 2010
Oh, and another subtle point. In the corporate world, CVs are generally called resumes. Some people in corporate America will understand that a CV is more or less the same thing as a resume, but some people don't know the word CV. (This will be different if you deal with non-American business people, as resumes are often called CVs in the business world outside the US.)
As for specific questions to ask a recruiter:
1) Benefits
2) "corporate policies" you should be aware of. Leave this open-ended and see what he responds with.
3) If you are planning to do original research who owns the rights to the research. It likely is the company who owns the rights, but if your recruiter doesn't know the answer to that question you know that the recruiter has a limited amount of information available for you, in which case you need to dig deeper with other people.
4) Who do you meet with next? If it's a person on the business side of things (meaning, not someone from HR) then try to figure out where in the corporate hierarchy that person fits. If the company is publicly traded try to find out what branch of the company the person is in.
The reason that you want to ask the HR person who you meet with next is that then you can start doing some due diligence. Example: if the recruiter says "Next you're going to interview with Jane Doe, the VP of widget sourcing" then look on the company's web site for its management. Who does it look like the VP of widget sourcing would report to? Someone like the EVP of Widget sourcing or so on. If you get a name of the head widget source google his or her name, and come up with some relevant articles in the general press or trade press about the company. Discuss those things with any non-HR person you are interviewing with.
posted by dfriedman at 8:33 AM on September 23, 2010
As for specific questions to ask a recruiter:
1) Benefits
2) "corporate policies" you should be aware of. Leave this open-ended and see what he responds with.
3) If you are planning to do original research who owns the rights to the research. It likely is the company who owns the rights, but if your recruiter doesn't know the answer to that question you know that the recruiter has a limited amount of information available for you, in which case you need to dig deeper with other people.
4) Who do you meet with next? If it's a person on the business side of things (meaning, not someone from HR) then try to figure out where in the corporate hierarchy that person fits. If the company is publicly traded try to find out what branch of the company the person is in.
The reason that you want to ask the HR person who you meet with next is that then you can start doing some due diligence. Example: if the recruiter says "Next you're going to interview with Jane Doe, the VP of widget sourcing" then look on the company's web site for its management. Who does it look like the VP of widget sourcing would report to? Someone like the EVP of Widget sourcing or so on. If you get a name of the head widget source google his or her name, and come up with some relevant articles in the general press or trade press about the company. Discuss those things with any non-HR person you are interviewing with.
posted by dfriedman at 8:33 AM on September 23, 2010
I'm in the same boat as you (grad student looking to escape after the Ph.D.), so I can't really help with the what-questions part of your question. But I would suggest talking to your university's Career Services department. They can't really help you with academic stuff, but they can be helpful in giving advice about how to appropriately present yourself to corporate employers.
I would definitely wear a suit. If you're male, I would do what dfriedman says. If you're female, I would wear a dark pantsuit or skirt suit (not too short though!) with conservative accessories, natural makeup if you wear makeup, hair that is not distractingly styled, and low-to-mid-heeled shoes (or dressy but unobtrusive flats if you have knee/foot problems that preclude heels, or if you fall down when you try to walk in heels). Basically, you don't want there to be any part of your appearance that someone could fixate on, or that could distract someone from you as a whole person with experience and skills that they hopefully want to come work for them, and you want to look put-together because that gives a good first impression.
I don't know what sort of positions within industry you're interviewing for. If you're interviewing for an industry post-doc (still doing benchwork), or a position where you will definitely be using your specific scientific knowledge/expertise, you should probably bring a traditional CV. If you're interviewing for a non-research position where your thesis topic won't really matter, a more standard resume format might be more helpful. It might be OK to ask the recruiter which would be more appropriate -- unless it's necessary for the position, the recruiter probably doesn't want to wade through a multi-page CV full of words that he/she doesn't understand. You should probably prepare both formats anyway, because I'm guessing that, like me, you're looking at a pretty wide variety of possible career directions. Career Services can also help you with your resume -- it's really shocking how little detail you're expected to go into, especially if you are used to writing CV's.
posted by kataclysm at 8:36 AM on September 23, 2010
I would definitely wear a suit. If you're male, I would do what dfriedman says. If you're female, I would wear a dark pantsuit or skirt suit (not too short though!) with conservative accessories, natural makeup if you wear makeup, hair that is not distractingly styled, and low-to-mid-heeled shoes (or dressy but unobtrusive flats if you have knee/foot problems that preclude heels, or if you fall down when you try to walk in heels). Basically, you don't want there to be any part of your appearance that someone could fixate on, or that could distract someone from you as a whole person with experience and skills that they hopefully want to come work for them, and you want to look put-together because that gives a good first impression.
I don't know what sort of positions within industry you're interviewing for. If you're interviewing for an industry post-doc (still doing benchwork), or a position where you will definitely be using your specific scientific knowledge/expertise, you should probably bring a traditional CV. If you're interviewing for a non-research position where your thesis topic won't really matter, a more standard resume format might be more helpful. It might be OK to ask the recruiter which would be more appropriate -- unless it's necessary for the position, the recruiter probably doesn't want to wade through a multi-page CV full of words that he/she doesn't understand. You should probably prepare both formats anyway, because I'm guessing that, like me, you're looking at a pretty wide variety of possible career directions. Career Services can also help you with your resume -- it's really shocking how little detail you're expected to go into, especially if you are used to writing CV's.
posted by kataclysm at 8:36 AM on September 23, 2010
I'm also part of the post-PhD recovery program (sciences), and have interviewed for several other industries.
Although a recruiter or head hunter can be a small hurdle to a new job, I wouldn't worry about your interview with that person as much (I'd focus more on the later interviews with people at the company). However, do dress up/ask appropriate questions, yada yada yada. If you are interested in management, do ask what the projected timeline is or opportunities for managemement, etc. Do write down those questions and ask them again when you interview at the actual place because in my experience the recruiter doesn't really know or they want to get $$ from you being hired (so as dfried states, they are trying to sell this to you).
The are a questions that I've been asked almost consistently at non-academic workplaces. I anticipate that you won't be asked this by a recruiter, but by people at the company:
--Are you sure that you want to leave academia? How do we know that you don't plan to go back to do a (postdoc, etc.)?
--(if the job involves working with a lot of nonPhDs/some combinatino or one of these questions) How do we know you can relate to non-PhDs? Are you sure that you will be happy here and not bored and leave in a few months?
--They may ask you to explain your dissertation work in a few minutes using every day vocabulary (or "pretend that I'm your grandmother, tell me about your dissertation work).
By the way, if you have time, I'd start doing info interviews with PhDS who are in your particular industry. They all had to start by leaving academia and made some sort of transition. I've found that people were really helpful in terms of reviewing the CV and telling you what is typical for your industry and answering a lot of the questions you have. You may find positions/job titles that you were not even aware of before this.
Just previewed. Be really careful before you start changing the CV. Ask people in the industry (this is the purpose of those info interviews). Yes your recruiter/head hunter is looking for key words.However, like a goof ball, I spent a lot of time making my CV into a traditional "1 page resume" and found out after I started talking to people (people in my new industry to recruiters) that they actually wanted the traditional CV, and something along the lines of a functional CV. It may be appropriate for other industries, but do ask people in your field (i.e the people who work there with the job title that you want).
posted by Wolfster at 8:44 AM on September 23, 2010
Although a recruiter or head hunter can be a small hurdle to a new job, I wouldn't worry about your interview with that person as much (I'd focus more on the later interviews with people at the company). However, do dress up/ask appropriate questions, yada yada yada. If you are interested in management, do ask what the projected timeline is or opportunities for managemement, etc. Do write down those questions and ask them again when you interview at the actual place because in my experience the recruiter doesn't really know or they want to get $$ from you being hired (so as dfried states, they are trying to sell this to you).
The are a questions that I've been asked almost consistently at non-academic workplaces. I anticipate that you won't be asked this by a recruiter, but by people at the company:
--Are you sure that you want to leave academia? How do we know that you don't plan to go back to do a (postdoc, etc.)?
--(if the job involves working with a lot of nonPhDs/some combinatino or one of these questions) How do we know you can relate to non-PhDs? Are you sure that you will be happy here and not bored and leave in a few months?
--They may ask you to explain your dissertation work in a few minutes using every day vocabulary (or "pretend that I'm your grandmother, tell me about your dissertation work).
By the way, if you have time, I'd start doing info interviews with PhDS who are in your particular industry. They all had to start by leaving academia and made some sort of transition. I've found that people were really helpful in terms of reviewing the CV and telling you what is typical for your industry and answering a lot of the questions you have. You may find positions/job titles that you were not even aware of before this.
Just previewed. Be really careful before you start changing the CV. Ask people in the industry (this is the purpose of those info interviews). Yes your recruiter/head hunter is looking for key words.However, like a goof ball, I spent a lot of time making my CV into a traditional "1 page resume" and found out after I started talking to people (people in my new industry to recruiters) that they actually wanted the traditional CV, and something along the lines of a functional CV. It may be appropriate for other industries, but do ask people in your field (i.e the people who work there with the job title that you want).
posted by Wolfster at 8:44 AM on September 23, 2010
I would echo the views of others in this thread.
Questions will vary but there are some themes which are worth remembering.
I am reminded of when I interviewed people for corporate jobs was this notion which existed among academics that somehow
science jobs = doing good
corporate jobs = sell out and roll in cash
The sooner you get this out of your head the better. Neither stereotype is true. Many scientists waste tax payers money and deliver far less than they should and corporate jobs don't necessarily pay tons of money. You may want to internalise this a bit and this will help you position yourself.
At a practical level it may be worthwhile to remember that intellectual curiosity alone does not drive corporate research. There is a definite market driven direction which research fulfils and you are required to apply your curiosity within a relatively tight framework. It is not as if academic research is without constraints but it is the dimension in which they apply that differ.
If you are able to choose then you should pick the NATURE of the job to suit your personality and liking. I recall my fellow PhDs going into a range of jobs such as R&D, advisory, sales, product liability, finance.
If you want you can flip through a few issues of Nature Biotechnology which will prepare you for some of the current and topical discussions which are ongoing in the world of business of science.
posted by london302 at 9:06 AM on September 23, 2010
Questions will vary but there are some themes which are worth remembering.
I am reminded of when I interviewed people for corporate jobs was this notion which existed among academics that somehow
science jobs = doing good
corporate jobs = sell out and roll in cash
The sooner you get this out of your head the better. Neither stereotype is true. Many scientists waste tax payers money and deliver far less than they should and corporate jobs don't necessarily pay tons of money. You may want to internalise this a bit and this will help you position yourself.
At a practical level it may be worthwhile to remember that intellectual curiosity alone does not drive corporate research. There is a definite market driven direction which research fulfils and you are required to apply your curiosity within a relatively tight framework. It is not as if academic research is without constraints but it is the dimension in which they apply that differ.
If you are able to choose then you should pick the NATURE of the job to suit your personality and liking. I recall my fellow PhDs going into a range of jobs such as R&D, advisory, sales, product liability, finance.
If you want you can flip through a few issues of Nature Biotechnology which will prepare you for some of the current and topical discussions which are ongoing in the world of business of science.
posted by london302 at 9:06 AM on September 23, 2010
Most "first contact" interviews will be distressingly formulaic and you can expect many overworn cliche questions (eg. "What is your greatest weakness?"). Probably worth browsing through a few books in the relevant aisle at a B&N. Lots of these questions have "right" answers (following the first question, a right answer is "I work too hard and am far too detail oriented"). There are trends and fashions in recruiting, and especially if the recruiter is an HR-bot, they will not be engaging you on a terribly substantive level. Research and read up on "behavioural interviewing", for instance. You want to be aware of the common approaches to interviewing, so that you can feed them responses that can be scored high.
Apologies for the cynicism: I am a PhD scientist, and am just about to embark on a recruiting / interviewing tour. I would love to have substative discussions with the candidates, but I have a very defined framework that I am required to operate in. I just hope that for every hour long interview, I'll be able to somehow spall out 10 minutes to have a real conversation.
posted by bumpkin at 10:03 AM on September 23, 2010
Apologies for the cynicism: I am a PhD scientist, and am just about to embark on a recruiting / interviewing tour. I would love to have substative discussions with the candidates, but I have a very defined framework that I am required to operate in. I just hope that for every hour long interview, I'll be able to somehow spall out 10 minutes to have a real conversation.
posted by bumpkin at 10:03 AM on September 23, 2010
1. Assuming the recruiter is from HR, they won't know this stuff and will just give you some boilerplate BS. These are good questions, but you'll only get real answers from people who actually work in the department/group you're applying to. Nevertheless, you should ask these of the HR recruiter because that's what they're expecting you to do - their primary job is to screen out sociopaths, weirdos, and people with poor personal hygiene before they get to the second round of interviews, so you want to act reassuringly normal.
2. The stock questions here are "What's your greatest weakness?", "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?", "What kind of work/life balance do you strive for?", "How do you handle difficult co-workers?" "What is an example of a problem you have overcome?" (this one comes in both technical and personnel flavors). When you talk to technical people you'll get more technical questions, but HR works from this script. It's the same at every company I've interviewed at.
3. Yes, plus business cards if you have them, and maybe a granola bar or some kind of unobtrusive snack you could wolf down between interviews if low blood sugar makes you tired/slow/doofy. Most places will offer you water or coffee.
4. Suits may be a little too formal for women; here in the SF Bay Area most female candidates at biotech interviews will wear dressy slacks and a sweater or silk blouse, maybe a nice jacket. Low to moderate heels, light makeup if any, subtle jewelry. The look you're going for is Functional. Not too severe, not too decorative. Again, HR people probably wouldn't notice as long as you look professional, but if you're talking to scientists, you'll be sending the wrong message if you look too dressed-up. You want to look like you could go into the lab, slap on a lab coat and some safety glasses, and start pipetting right then and there.
Good luck!
posted by Quietgal at 11:15 AM on September 23, 2010
2. The stock questions here are "What's your greatest weakness?", "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?", "What kind of work/life balance do you strive for?", "How do you handle difficult co-workers?" "What is an example of a problem you have overcome?" (this one comes in both technical and personnel flavors). When you talk to technical people you'll get more technical questions, but HR works from this script. It's the same at every company I've interviewed at.
3. Yes, plus business cards if you have them, and maybe a granola bar or some kind of unobtrusive snack you could wolf down between interviews if low blood sugar makes you tired/slow/doofy. Most places will offer you water or coffee.
4. Suits may be a little too formal for women; here in the SF Bay Area most female candidates at biotech interviews will wear dressy slacks and a sweater or silk blouse, maybe a nice jacket. Low to moderate heels, light makeup if any, subtle jewelry. The look you're going for is Functional. Not too severe, not too decorative. Again, HR people probably wouldn't notice as long as you look professional, but if you're talking to scientists, you'll be sending the wrong message if you look too dressed-up. You want to look like you could go into the lab, slap on a lab coat and some safety glasses, and start pipetting right then and there.
Good luck!
posted by Quietgal at 11:15 AM on September 23, 2010
« Older Forgotten book with pranks and an aardvark | How do I use spaced repetition learning to improve... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Assuming this person is from HR, he will be trying to sell you on the company as much as you are tying to sell yourself to him.
Questions about things like corporate culture will get a boilerplate answer that are not going to be very helpful for you, especially if you are interviewing with a large corporate conglomerate, which can have dozens of different offices, and therefore different cultures, around the globe. The same would go for the other questions you have listed in number 1 in your list.
I don't know the answer for #2.
Bring a copy of your resume, a notepad, and a list of references.
Clothes: A suit is a good idea. I'm assuming you're a man; if not don't listen to this advice. But a conservative suit, shaven face, clean fingernails, etc. all go a long way to making a good impression on recruiters.
posted by dfriedman at 8:17 AM on September 23, 2010