This month’s PhD chit chat at EE was on CVs and academic interviews. Normally I write a twitter thread to summarise our conversations (eg these threads on reviewing papers or families in academia), but there were so many thoughts this time I’ve expanded into a blog post! Thanks as always to the PhD students, postdocs and academics who shared their advice and experiences.
Before you apply for a job
The first step to applying for a job is finding one! Start looking about a year before you finish your PhD. A good place to look is grant lists – people who have just been awarded a grant will often have money to hire postdocs. Evoldir is a good source of job advertisements – often the titles are not helpful, so make sure you open them all to have a look. If you find an amazing job but you can’t apply because of the start date, email them and tell them that! Ask if they will have anything else coming up soon – this will make sure you are aware of it, and will also let them know you are interested. Apply for as many things as possible! Even if you don’t get the job, they now know you and your work. You might end up with a collaboration or a future job with them.
When you find a job to apply for, it is a good idea to contact the people before you send in your application. This means they know who you are and your application is less anonymous. The best way to do this is at conferences – make a list of people to talk to before the conference, have a chat over coffee or in one of the breaks, follow up your conversation with an email afterwards. Sometimes it can be good to contact people before the conference to arrange a time to chat. If you are applying for a job and you haven’t met the person, send them an email before the application introducing yourself. If the job is part of a grant, you can also ask for a copy of the grant so you have more information for your application.
Remember that while you research them, they will also research you! This will probably happen as soon as you send your initial email, so make sure your internet presence is up to date. It is good to have and update your department website (if you have one), Google Scholar page, ResearchGate profile and your own website. Also make sure your Facebook account is set to private.
The application
Postdoc applications usually consist of a CV and either a cover letter or selection criteria, followed by a Skype interview. Some jobs will also require you to give a mini-presentation about your research. This is usually around 5-7 minutes, and it is good to highlight parts of your research that are directly relevant to the job.
Make sure you research and personalise each of your applications – know about the job, the department and the PI, and tailor your application to fit them.
Most jobs will require references. Choose your referees based on how relevant they are to the job, and make sure you always let them know that you are applying and the details of the job. This is important for several reasons – it means they will be expecting the email and won’t delete it, and it means they can tailor their reference to the job.
The CV
Often they will give a page limit for your CV, but if they don’t then around 3 pages is a good rule of thumb. There are many, many ways of formatting a CV. The most important thing is that it is easy to read and consistent. Tailor the order of things to the position – make sure anything that is directly relevant to the job is at the top.
What should you include in your CV? Put in anything that enhances what you are doing. This includes any skills you have (eg lab or field skills), any academic service (eg journals you review for, committees, departmental responsibilities), collaborations you have, conference presentations, any supervisory experience (such as supervising Honours students – even if you are not the official supervisor). If you have a paper with a lot of citations or in a journal with a high impact factor, include those details as well. You can also include submitted manuscripts and say they are available on request. You don’t normally include manuscripts in prep as this a bit meaningless – it could mean it is at any stage.
How many papers should you have? There is no hard and fast rule, but 2-5 papers is generally good for your first postdoc. After that you should be publishing around two papers a year. It is important to balance quality and quantity – a few first author papers are generally better than a lot of middle author papers, so keep that in mind. Sometimes supervisors have enough funds for you to stay at the department for a few months after submission to finish off any papers – this can be a good option if it is available. It is a lot harder to finish papers once you move and start new projects, so this can make sure they are completed and your CV is competitive.
The interview
Interviews for postdocs are usually done on Skype. This can be to your advantage – it means you can have as many notes as you like, hidden below the camera! Make sure you spread them out so you can see everything without flipping through the pages. Even if you don’t use them in the interview, making notes can help with your preparation – organising your thoughts, preparing answers to questions, researching the people who will be interviewing you. Often the main thing they are looking for in the interview is your energy – make sure you are friendly and passionate, even if they are exhausted and grumpy after doing 20 interviews before you. Other good points are to stay on topic and be honest – it is always better to say you don’t know something than ramble. Some practical tips to help the interview go smoothly: double check the interview time on the day, especially if it is in a different time zone, prepare at least 30mins before to ensure Skype is updated and there are no technical problems, use an ethernet cable rather than wifi if possible to get the best internet connection.
There are lots of sample interview questions online – have a look, but make sure you think of answers to them not just read them over! An interviewer will usually start by asking you about your previous work – something like “what cool research have you done lately?” or “what was a highlight of you PhD?”. This will show your passion about science and how good you are at communicating your work. If you can make this relevant to the job you are interviewing for that is even better! Other questions might include:
- how do you deal with stress?
- why are you a good fit for this position?
- tell me about a time you had to overcome a difficult situation
- what have you been reading lately? (this can be either general papers, or targeted at the job topic)
- do you have any pending publications? (this is asking you if you have any ongoing work that will distract you from the job)
At the end of the interview they will often ask if you have any questions – it is good to always have some prepared! Some ideas include their expectations of the job, the social environment of the department and how the lab group is managed. If you want to hear more about their work, you could ask about research they are interested in but haven’t published about yet. As a general rule, don’t ask about salary here – that is part of negotiations once you have been offered the position.
Good luck!
Christiana McDonald-Spicer 