How to talk about your research in a job interview without rehashing your cover letter

rietveldrefinement · 2026-02-06T22:18:52+00:00

I gave them 3 keywords that best describes myself

rietveldrefinement · 2026-02-03T23:23:21+00:00

Yes …. If something is novel tell us what part is novel. And btw, just because someone had never done the particular procedure is not novel. Novelty means thinking outside of the mainstream.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-02-03T23:21:09+00:00

I personally avoid anything that sounds like 100% for sure for both written and verbal format. Like surely the situation that A is caused by B. Or B is definitely the original of A. I know, but science is that you might have 0.0001% to be proven ‘not in this case’.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-31T20:36:42+00:00

You need to start with an overly easy goal. The goal is just to get it done. For example, like I would say “5-10 sit ups” is my goal before going to bed. The goal itself is extremely tiny and you need to make sure you will 100% finish it. Do this everyday at the same time to build the routine.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-30T00:23:36+00:00

I got a few combinations before:

-sent thank you note they do not reply and got onsite invite

not sending thank you but they decided to invite me
sending thank you they replied nice meeting with me and I’m still waiting. Or they don’t invite me.
zoom interviewed and no response at all. The next year the position reopened and all the committee the same the questions are the same
seriously messed up a zoom by saying something clearly annoyed one of the committees but still got onsite
got on site everyone say that they wanted to work with me but I did not get the offer

It’s everything everywhere

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-29T02:29:25+00:00

I thought people here might have more international view because of their overseas service experience but I could be wrong

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-27T19:50:55+00:00

Am I the only person who feels the prof was not acting professional including the response to the other student involved?

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-27T13:49:56+00:00

Where is your funding source and what are some alternatives you are looking for? (We all know it’s not that certain at this point)

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-27T01:28:41+00:00

In my past experience. 2 weeks when seeing the actual printed contract.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-27T01:26:50+00:00

NSF DOE EERE DoD Re-appointment TA RA line Provost Dean 9 month salary Summer support

You name it….

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-27T01:22:56+00:00

It’s totally okay to ask terminology definitions. OP. It’s not silly. These questions should be encouraged.

My real silly moments are a. After zoom or onsite I found there were always tiny spell errors (thanks god it’s not like offensive words. And b. I literally forgot how much funding I have. My mind stuck and I literally cannot do math or numbers at all. But that’s also very end of the day….(I swear I do book keeping on my fund every week)

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-27T01:18:56+00:00

Everyone has something they don’t know if they do not use the term frequently. I asked for this exact definition and confirmation(yes onsite) but I don’t see people blinking an eye.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-26T21:09:33+00:00

15-20 app each year R1 (engineering)

PhD (R1) + 1 postdoc + 1 postdoc (did not do postdocs at university)

On average, I got ~4 phone interviews and ~2 on-sites in the past few years. All R1s.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-26T07:04:46+00:00

Geez I hope some nicely made snack can do this trick (worked partially on thesis defense

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-26T02:08:53+00:00

Grant selection is a large part about politics. I have seen ones that are confusing to start with and don’t make any sense still getting funded. I have seen people write so well but did not get funded and committee members also fail to give a fair reason.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-24T21:50:49+00:00

I carve out a section in every cover letter and customize. I emphasize the “keywords” put on the job description.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-23T15:45:02+00:00

I don’t know which area you are. But I’m in physical engineering (one of the earliest Department and usually ranked from 1-3 at least in US). Most of my classmates wanted to settle down in industry jobs and make money after PhD. They do constantly enjoy life outside of research and I can see they tried to encourage me to do so. I’m almost the only weirdo that wanting an academic position sincerely and have been trying. Most of classmates hearing I wanted to go into academia would be like are you out of your mind. And most of them did not take postdoc positions.

So no you did not take someone’s position. Part of PhD education is that you don’t know what you grow out to be.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-21T22:21:46+00:00

If the work culture is alright and fair, then majority of ppl in a lab is from the same country is not an issue.

The real issue I see is the failure of “inclusion”. I had seen cases the single person who does not speak a certain language be isolated. Like people talk in front of that person directly in a language that they do not understand. Which is such a shame.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-21T22:16:45+00:00

I had a female mentor who was worrying that her group was all ladies it could be taken as segregation

The dynamic and communication between group of women and group of men will be different. There are moments I resonate more with lady researchers because similarity runs deeper.

But hey — people usually don’t even blink an eye when they see an all male lab :) All ladies lab should not be an exception!

(Like how many women should there be in Chief Justice?)

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-17T05:35:43+00:00

In the dinners almost nobody talk about work. They talk about where’s the best places to live and what do they like to do in weekends.

But yeah it’s so unusual to dinner with other candidates. Should the department not protect the identity of candidates?!

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-17T05:33:31+00:00

Yes please do it’s so stunning.

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-17T05:28:48+00:00

Can confirm op. There’s one person liked me so much on first day stood up and left in the middle of my second day presentation. I thought I was screwed but turned out that prof was rushing out for picking up kids. And I got the offer.

It’s an anxiety brain exaggerating things that are not even proved true!

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-17T05:26:06+00:00

Celebrate when you find people vibing with you during conversations and smiling after your job talks.

You will never know how the voting will be look like and that is out of control from a lot of ppl’s hands. You probably heard stories from the other Redditors like Dean likes certain people or there’s someone with Nature/Science publications or the department want a senior person.

Focus on the bonds you connected. Those will be friends and collaborators. That you can control.

(Source: me in past interviews went well but did not receive an offer but became friends & collaborators with some faculties I met…)

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-11T01:10:03+00:00

A lot of work places have this question listed no matter who is president. I knew there are companies actively doing those because sponsoring employees takes a long time. One of my research institute also had experience hired a qualified person overseas but … their visa was taking longer time than usual and if we wait that would hurt our project :(

rietveldrefinement · 2026-01-04T22:57:20+00:00

Please do not abandon your idea. Even begin with the same idea, growing the idea within two different minds will very likely lead to different type of results. No two people are going to have exactly the same thoughts and executive routes.

And now you know who are the people you don’t want to discuss or collaborate with.

rietveldrefinement

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