<p>I have an interview soon with for a research position within a lab focusing on molecular genetics and genomics of complex diseases. I've done a few interviews at the academic level for graduate school, but this will be my first interview for a research position as a graduate (as opposed to a student). This will also be a phone interview because the institution is too far away to easily visit just for the interview. </p>
<p>Can anyone pass on a few helpful tips?? Particularly, any differences (if they exist) between interviewing for a student research position as opposed to a research tech/associate position. Also, any helpful tips for phone interviews?</p>
<p>Any information that you have about the organization ahead of time is excellent. If you can find out anything about the person who had the job you are interviewing for, or former lab members, you would have a better idea of what they are looking for. Perhaps you can contact people that are listed as authors in the recent past on some of the labs publications, explain that you are interested in working in their former lab and ask them about it. </p>
<p>The big differences in my job interviews between when I was applying for undergrad lab jobs and lab tech jobs, was that for the latter, they weren’t judging me or my probability of success long term, they were just interested in what I could do for them. Thus, I outlined how my skillsets match up to the topics they are working on. Be careful not to focus too much on soft skillsets eg. I am organized, I am a quick learner. Everybody will say these kind of things at an interview.</p>
<p>My lab actually looks for very similar qualities in techs and grad students, because my PI feels that a tech position is also a training position. When we interview potential techs, we want to hear about their previous research experience, and we want to know that they learned from that experience. We want to hear about techniques, but we figure we can teach anybody anything they need to know, so we really want to hear how candidates think about science.</p>
<p>We tend to hire candidates who are smart, excited about research, have plans for future postgraduate work, and who would fit in well with our lab.</p>