The New York Times article was interesting, but one would expect that GPA would be a better predictor of future grades than an interview. One would not necessarily expect GPA to be the best predictor of performance outside the classroom - it probably doesn’t hurt, but there are other factors that are important to consider.
I’m still fairly new to running my own lab (3 yrs), but here’s what I’ve found to be useful when hiring prospective undergrads, techs, grad students, and postdocs. Selecting candidates to interview: - GPA and similar measures can be useful as an initial filter, especially for undergrads who don’t have a lot on their resume yet. But I don’t I tend to not use too high a bar at this stage as it can exclude people who turn out to be really good at actual research tasks, but maybe made a rough start in intro college classes. - More and more, I’m trying to be specific in listing what skills or experiences I want a person to have coming into a position (vs. the ones they can learn on the job). I can then use a spreadsheet to tick off which applicants have these skills/experiences or not, thereby avoiding the “first impressions” issue when reading and trying to rank resumes. For undergrads, I often find I have to email some of them to ask for more information - in a recent search, none of the applicants addressed all of the requirements in their resume or cover letter. I’m not sure whether I would have taken the time to do this if some of the applicants DID address all the qualifications, but it turned out to be very helpful. The interview: - Some structure is vital. Since there are always particular skills or experiences you are looking for, you need to ask every candidate about those things. If you don’t don’t ask everyone similar questions, you can’t properly compare them. - However, as some other respondents have pointed out, the exact wording of the questions could differ depending on the person’s file and you might need to ask different follow-up questions. For instance: “I see that you’ve listed experience with forest modeling. What kind of models have you worked with?” vs. “I see you have experience with C++. Have you ever worked with forest models?” - I always ask: “Do you have any questions for me?” That can reveal interesting things, such as the degree to which the person has taken the trouble to look up what your lab does. I’m still working on figuring out what questions or evidence from someone’s past record best predict the ability to work independently (but seek help when necessary), to come up with interesting questions/creative solutions, and to exhibit persistence/“fire in the gut”. For those with a more extensive work/school record and good interview skills these qualities come through loud and clear… but if someone has no research experience, for example, or is a bit shy and awkward, it can be hard to tell. I like the suggestion of posing a hypothetical question and asking “how would you handle that?”. Emily Moran UC Merced On May 19, 2017, at 2:38 AM, Chinmay Hemant Joshi <chinmayjosh...@iisertvm.ac.in<mailto:chinmayjosh...@iisertvm.ac.in>> wrote: Dear Nathan, I read the New york times article. I think its good to ask same questions to all candidates for the position they are being interviewed for. But along with that they may be asked certain other unique questions based on their responses to their previous questions, to really know the strengths of the candidate in various contexts, that cannot be really covered by the questions asked to everyone. For example: If a candidate who is being interviewed for doctoral position. One obvious questions that will be asked is about his/her past research experiences. Some candidates may have an experience working in say 3-4 labs during their undergraduate study period, while some may have worked in only one lab. Now the interview panel may wrongly conclude/infer that latter candidate has mediocre research experience than the former, but it could be that the latter candidate found a suitable lab to work on his/her ideas and thus did not explore much and was able to get a very good grip on the topic that he/she studied. As an undergraduate student, I do feel that the grades should not be given too much importance than the knowledge and the research experience of the person. The interviews should certainly be designed which would reveal the real potential of the candidate and also should be in a way that candidate becomes really expressive in the contexts of the questions asked. What are your thoughts on this? I hope my mail is not too much outrageous or offensive to anyone in any manner. [https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/mailtrack-crx/icon-signature.png] <https://mailtrack.io/> Sent with Mailtrack<https://mailtrack.io/install?source=signature&lang=en&referral=chinmayjosh...@iisertvm.ac.in&idSignature=22> On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 1:38 AM, Morehouse, Nathan (morehonn) <moreh...@ucmail.uc.edu<mailto:moreh...@ucmail.uc.edu>> wrote: Hi all, I recently read a piece in the New York Times titled, rather revealingly, “The Utter Uselessness of Job Interviews” (https://nyti.ms/2oNQ0im), which highlights recent social science research on the utility, or lack thereof, of unstructured job interviews for assessing job candidates. Over the years, I have relied heavily on unstructured interviews for evaluating prospective researchers wanting to join my lab group. A loosely conversational interview struck me as friendlier, and in principle, able to provide the flexibility to extemporaneously delve deeper into certain topics. But this NYT piece, and the research it stems from, suggests that such interviews are at best unhelpful in identifying the candidate with the highest aptitude, and at worse, counterproductive. And I have to admit to leaving many interviews feeling like I didn’t necessarily cover the ground I needed to, or that I didn’t derive much new insight beyond what I had gleaned from application materials. So I’m re-thinking my approach by moving instead to a much more structured format for interviewing. I’m emailing to ask for recommendations for questions that people have found helpful when interviewing prospective postdocs and grad students. What questions have you used over the years that have provoked particularly useful responses? Thanks in advance for your suggestions! Nate Nathan Morehouse _______________ Assistant Professor Department of Biological Sciences University of Cincinnati 711H Rieveschl Hall Cincinnati, OH 45221-0006 Office: (513) 556-9757 colorevolut...@uc.edu<mailto:colorevolut...@uc.edu> http://www.morehouselab.com<http://www.morehouselab.com/> "Il y a un autre monde mais il est dans celui-ci." - Paul Éluard -- Chinmay Hemant Joshi Integrated MS student, IISER-Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala,India
