My terrifying interview

Turns out this is the season for interviewing so another post on the application/interview process: So one of my friends mentioned an interview that she had for a faculty position that was very stressful and it made me recall my worst faculty interview.  The faculty members threw around their weight.  Tried to beat her down verbally, and made the program unappealing from a friendliness standpoint.

My situation was at a very big school and they asked for three presentations all over the same day.  This was a 7am-8pm day.  The presentations were a research talk, teaching and research interests, and then a lecture.  The lecture was covering a topic that I had taken a class on over a decade ago and a topic that isn’t really used outside of the classroom.

I showed up and immediately had a discussion with the department head.  After this, he took me over to the room to give me research talk.  There were a ton of questions.  I loved this!  I love answering questions and getting feedback so this was awesome.  My teaching and research interests went over okay, but then the lecture came up.  Again, this is a topic, that when I took it, that I got an A in.  Top of the class. But a decade later and with only a few days to prepare, I wasn’t coming in at the peak of my knowledge.  The lecture started off well and then about 15 minutes in, things started to fall apart.  I was asked questions I couldn’t answer.  They wanted this lecture to test my knowledge of this narrow topic that I definitely didn’t remember.  So I answered as best as I could while they pretended to be naïve students.  I was sweating hard.  I couldn’t hold it together, but somehow persevered and made it through the class.  I could tell I was discombobulated by the end and not of the proper mindset. 

I’m normally really personable, great conversation, not a bad face to look at, but I was really really off after this.  I felt like they were talking down to me for the rest of the day including the dinner.  Afterwards, one person said it was because I’m more applied and make more money, but I brushed it off as a just a comment trying to relax me. 

What’s funny is that I already came in with a job offer and this was just a backup.  I don’t know why I was sweating so hard.  I looked up the school recently and saw they hired someone I know that I enjoy the company of, so I’m glad I wasn’t their pick.  But holy crap.  We get it: you’re smart about this topic, maybe you should be smart about your human interactions and you wouldn’t be a lonely man with nothing but your right hand to come home to.  Sorry, that was uncalled for.  But remembering back to that situation gets me in a bad mood.

Finding a new intern

Working with undergrads was some of my favorite experiences from grad school, so every time I get approval to hire an intern, I get pumped.

The problem with interviewing undergrads is that they're desperate for things to slap on their resumes, so they'll say anything: "I designed complicated circuits", "I can use machine shop equipment", "I know advanced biology/chemistry/physics", etc.  They often overestimate their abilities because they don't know any better and they think the skills they've learned are advanced.  Unfortunately, they're taught at a very basic level and aren't really taught the knowledge in detail before the application. 

So I ask a few basic questions in each interview. The questions vary based on what's going through my mind, but they usually encompass these questions depending on the type of position I'm trying to fill:

Why is the sky blue?

If I have a bath with saline residue, how would I clean it?

How do I make 0.1M of NaOH?

How does the heart beat?

How can I sterilize this equipment?

*Solve dy/dx=x for x
Heat conduction is a function of what?

What's Snell's law?

What do the kidneys do and what's the functional unit?

Name 5 components of a eukaryotic cell
What's mechanical stress?

**What's the unit of electrical current?

Really simple questions depending on the position. Today I interviewed a student who has a 4.0 from a top 20 university. She's finishing her MS I'm biomedical engineering after a BS in biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering. Her answer to * was "x"; her answer to ** was "watt".  What the heck?  Is this seriously what schools are pumping out?!?

I wanted to scream. Of course, I corrected her and explained it. It seemed like it was the first time she was seeing these answers. At first I thought she was nervous, but if she was, she masked it very well. She seemed quite confident in herself. I really hope she was just not in the proper state of mind today, because I'm probably not going to be interviewing too many people from her background or university. I hate to stereotype, but I don't have time for this crap.  I hire interns to have someone to mentor, but ultimately I have to get things done.  When someone is this far behind, by the time they are ready to actually contribute, their seven month internship is over.  I've been pretty lucky with interns where they can usually contribute within a couple months.  Interns of all races and sexes.  Unfortunately, this young woman is not going to cut it.  Schools, please do better.  I haven't started my academic post yet, but I'm really hoping I don't let kids pass by with this remedial knowledge.

What the heck takes so long?

When I got my current industry position the timeline was roughly like so. Each offer I got was very slightly different, but the timing was similar.

Late Oct: Put together letter and resume. 

Early Nov: Applied to position.

Late Nov: Phone interview with recruiter.

Early Dec: Phone interview with hiring manager.

Mid Dec: Second phone interview with hiring manager's team.

Late Dec: On-site. 

Early Jan: Second on-site. 

Mid Jan: Offer.

Early Feb: Negotiated offer and acceptance.

Early Mar: Started. 

This process was a four person local and 2 person international team to decide hiring and needing the VP of R&D's permission.  They needed someone to do the job, they posted a specific position, and quickly filled it to get work done.  For my academic search, here's how quickly things have been shaping up for the position I'm furthest in on. 

Mid Sept: Started putting together materials

Mid Oct: Applied. 

Early Dec: Got request for phone interview. 

Early Jan: Phone interview. 

Now: Expressed interest in bringing me in for on-site. 

By now I had a written offer from industry after 3 phone interviews and 2 on-sites from the job I eventually accepted. What the heck takes academia so long? After the two schools that have said they'd like to bring me on campus told me so, I responded to the email with something like "Great! Please let me know which dates work best for you, as I have some international travel coming up to test some new devices."  I threw in the devices thing 1. Because it's true, and 2. Because I want to hammer in the point that they want someone with my experience.  This was a couple weeks ago.

The two schools that have said they are interested in bringing me out seem to be holding still.  So what could possibly be taking so long?  In industry, I got emails saying "unfortunately, we had to go with someone else", or "how does INSERT DATE HERE work for you?".  But no response since my response to their interest-emails.  Not even an email saying, "we will let you know more details as get closer to scheduling".  Bear in mind that they have already gone out of their way to say they want to bring me out.  I'm bewildered as to what's taking so long (although maybe ~2 weeks isn't that long?). Maybe I just operate on a much shorter time scale than most other people I know. I know if I took this long to get candidates together, short-list them, and bring them in I would be in deep trouble from my boss wondering what the heck is taking so long. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: 

I'll never understand how this process works. 

Landed the on-site!

Of the 2 Skype interviews I've had so far, they've both gotten back to me with on-site requests. One is an R2 school in a city I'm not a huge fan of, the other is at an R1 in a city that I truly adore. I'm working on my job talk and I'm a little torn.

I decided on 4 projects that cover a wide range of fields so everyone will be interested at some point (my field is quite interdisciplinary).  One of the projects is my favorite project from my work in industry. Because it's industrial work I have to be very careful.  This project has already had successful animal studies, and this will revolutionize the field.  Most of the impact in the field has been incremental, with two major advances that significantly change patient outcome.  My company has been using small changes to sell more products the past few years.  This product I'm so proud of will change the medical device world.  It will be amazing.  It's patent protected, but other companies don't know how close we are to getting this product ready.

I strongly feel that if I just focus on my grad school work and little things that are in patients in my current position my job talk won't be as strong.  I'm trying my hardest to figure out what to present.  I have my two favorites from grad school, and my future projects.  I feel like showing my current favorite project would really show them that my industrial experience is valuable to them.  But how? Maybe I'll use hypothetical statements...


Outright Rejections (their loss): 9/29
Phone/Skype interviews offered: 11
Phone/Skype interviews accepted: 5
1st campus visits offered: 2
1st campus visits accepted: 2
2nd campus visits offered: 0
2nd campus visits accepted: 0
Offers: 0

My first interview/Talking with academics

In grad school, and during industry interviews, I consistently got the comment of "you seem like you can take control of a project and get it done."  I have a ton of drive, and it definitely showed. The passion for my research was evident. During my first set of faculty interviews I've noticed it's not quite there. I'm having trouble making great, convincing chatter that I deserve a faculty post and can bring in money and get publications.  Right out of grad school I know I could have convinced these search committees but I think industry has done two things to me: diminished my drive, and put me into a rut.

Since I wasn't in the academic mindset when things like grants and progressions of projects came up in recent interviews I felt like I was drawing a blank. And when it came to the projects I was proposing, since I haven't had time to catch up on literature, I was definitely lacking. In grad school I nailed all of these types of questions. I think I still did okay, but I know I could have done better a couple years ago. 

As I've said multiple times, I feel like I'm dumber. Maybe it's just me, but I just don't feel as smart. This might just have to do my loss of motivation in my work, and my overwhelming desire to get into a good academic position.  I noticed I do better in interviews when it seems like I don't really care if I get the job. I think I've been coming off as a desperate graduate student, and can't seem to get out of this funk. 

Prepping for my first interview

When I interviewed for industry jobs I looked up questions and not one was asked of me. So I practiced for no reason.  For academic jobs I thought that I would hold off of looking at typical questions, then the over-careful person in me took over and I've been reading up on every question I can think of.  Questions like, "What would you bring to our department?" "Why do you want to join us?" "What classes could you teach?".  I'm worried that I'm going to put my foot in mouth, since if I claim that I can bring real-world medical device experience they could get offended (even though it's the truth since most academics in medical devices have never tried their devices in a person).  I'll probably end up saying something about how I like to collaborate on medical devices and my experience can bring new things to the table like blah blah blah...

Maybe it will be for nothing again, but I hope it works out since the first school I'm interviewing for is in my top-5. It's a decently large R1 with great core facilities and collaborations in a city I love.  My advisor has told me that the person he talked to there has said I'm the front-runner. It makes me kind of nervous. Actually, it makes me incredibly nervous. Especially since I've never been interviewed over Skype. Of course, I'll be myself, but I can't help but feel like it's going to be like my defense all over: four faculty members staring at me, judging me. Although I hope it does go like my defense. I had a really fun time, cracked some jokes, and passed with flying colors (30 second faculty deliberation). Hopefully, these faculty members are as receptive.

I'll post some time afterwards with the damage, but in the meantime, I'll be talking to myself in my office while staring at these questions. Yay.

Outright Rejections (their loss): 5/29
Phone/Skype interviews offered: 11
Phone/Skype interviews accepted: 5
1st campus visits offered: 0
1st campus visits accepted: 0
2nd campus visits offered: 0
2nd campus visits accepted: 0
Offers: 0

Getting a job in the medical device industry PART DUECE

This is part two of my experience of finding an industry job. 

Now that you have a resume tuned to specific job posting, start writing your letter.  The letter is a weird thing. In my current role, I use it as stage two after the resume, after the recruiter/software has filtered the first round of candidates.  The only thing I look for here is whether the letter is generic.  If it's generic, I figure they're lazy, and throw the application away.  Some people actually look in detail.  Either way, write it very focused on what you can provide to the employer. This is generic advice, and I don't have any other tips here other than making sure it flows and keywords and phrases appear here, too. One other small tip: you'll be applying for a ton of jobs; make sure the correct company name and job title appear. I've gotten a lot of letters addressed to the wrong company.

Next up, you go online.  Even if you know someone, you usually have to go online and apply for legal reasons.  Your insider can bypass the recruiter though, which helps a lot.  I had no insiders, except at one company.  So for the other jobs, I submitted online and waited.  About half of them called me without any further work on my end.  For the other half, I went into stalker mode.  Look up everything you can about the company and try to find someone in the group where you think you're applying.  Someone said to use LinkedIn. I didn't use it for personal reasons (bing! Idea for a later post).  What worked for me was random searches.  For example, I found one job posted on a board of some obscure society, and the hiring manager actually put her email in the posting.  So I emailed her.  It look a lot of time to find these contacts, and I seriously felt like a stalker, but it worked out in the end.  In the emails, you have two sentences to explain how you found their contact info and why you deserve an interview.  Hiring is something I don't have a lot of time for, so it needs to be optimized...and short.

After this, comes the first talk with HR.  Strike up conversations about the city and employer (don't ask about the work, salary, travel, etc.).  You just want to show that you have general social skills.  The recruiter will ask questions about your availability, expected salary, and talk-up the company.  Only talk about the availability.

If this goes well, you have your first phone interview.  This was usually with just the hiring manager, they'll ask you an assortment of questions, and are getting a feel for what kind of skills you bring to the table and whether you have a compatible personality.  When they ask you if you have questions for them, don't be generic.  Generic questions encompass: "What's your day like" "Describe your company's leadership structure", etc.  I hate answering these because everyone asks them.  Be clever and find unique questions like: "I've been reading about this medical device tax, how is your company handling it" "What's the hiking like around your area", etc.  This is YOUR chance to determine whether you fit into the group.  You're trying to spark up a conversation.  Remember, you're going to be working with this person A LOT.  The second interview often involved the hiring manager and the team over a conference call with me.  Be sure to get names and recognize voices.  Take notes on what they're saying, and again, look for unique questions.  Your goal is to turn this into a group discussion.  Remember this whole time to be taking notes on whether you are compatible with their personalities.

If all has gone well, then you schedule the on-site interview.  Try to get as much out-of-interview time as possible.  This gives you a chance to check out the city, since you'll be spending more time out-of-work then in-work.  When you meet with the first representatives, be sure to be very appreciative.  For me, I flew out first-class and they gave me a limo.  It was pretty awesome.  You'll meet with between 5-20 people over the course of 1-2 days.  Be professional, but most importantly, keep the small talk and typical conversations out and replace it with unique, interesting conversation. Research the company and all the people you're meeting with.  And again, I can't stress this enough, MAKE THESE CONVERSATIONS.  It might seem like you're being interviewed, but it needs to be two-way.  In this process, there will also be meals.  Take cues from the people you're eating with.  If they drink, then you drink, if they are very formal, you be formal.  You want to relate.  And if you're too stuck up or too sloppy at the table, they'll assume it translates to the work.  Send thank you emails. Short emails.

Some companies had 2nd interviews, some stopped at one.  Treat the 2nd like the first, that's all the advice I have on that.

Now comes the fun part: the offers.  The recruiter will call and make an initial offer and go over bonuses, perks, etc.  Take notes here since you won't be getting a paper (or digital) offer for another day, and the hiring managers will want to talk to you that day.  The hiring managers will ask if you have any questions.  Now's the time to start asking for stuff: salary, bonus, relo, vacation, etc.  You were sucking up this whole time, now the employer has to.  This will be the only time they're really sucking up to you.  After this talk, be sure to be extremely grateful, and tell them you'll let them know in 2 weeks, max.

Talk with those important in your life, maybe make a trip to the city again to see things, explore real estate, etc, then make the call to the one you want to work for.  The hiring manager will work with the recruiter on the details after this.  So what do you do with the offers you turned down (other than cry since you may have taken the wrong job)?  You call each and every person you talked to to thank them and let them know why you didn't take the job.  Be honest, but tactful.  If you didn't mesh with their personalities, mention that you seemed a better fit at X company even though you know you'd have a fun time at Y (that you turned down).  You may be calling these people again when you're hunting.

Overall timeline after applying for a position: 2 days to 1 month for first call; 2 weeks for first phone interview; 1-2 weeks for second phone interview; 2 weeks to 2 months for first on-site; 1 month for second on-site; 1-2 weeks for offer; 2 weeks for decision/negotiation.

So, that's all I can remember, I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but if I think of it, I'll add the edits.  Happy hunting!