beneuroscience, 8 months ago

@elduvelle @academicchatter My wife (then girlfriend) and I interviewed for the same position long ago. After asking about my strengths and weaknesses, I was asked about her biggest weaknesses 😱😱

"ohh you know, leaves other people looking bad in the shadows of her greatness..."

elduvelle, 8 months ago

@beneuroscience @academicchatter Ooh… are you supposed to actually answer to that?

beneuroscience, 8 months ago

@elduvelle @academicchatter No of course not. But I was naive and put in a very awkward (illegal) situation so I said some stuff about her being a perfectionist and tried to spin each weakness into a strength.

elduvelle, 8 months ago

@beneuroscience @academicchatter
Were you (both) hired? 👀
(And did you ask each other later what you answered to that question? Since you’re now married, I guess it mustn’t have been too bad 🤭)

beneuroscience, 8 months ago

@elduvelle @academicchatter We were both offered the position, I took it and she took a different offer. We obviously dished immediately after.

And yes happy ending :) Had been dating about 6 months at the time and now been together 14 years, have 2 kids and a doggo. And we work together sharing an office 😅

elduvelle, 8 months ago

@beneuroscience
Awww 🥰

kofanchen, 8 months ago

@elduvelle
"if your supervisee told you they got harrassed, what would be your action?", I didnot prepare for this and only anwser it with intuition....

elduvelle, 8 months ago

@kofanchen oh very good one!

teixi, 8 months ago

@elduvelle @academicchatter

my basic recommendation is that you have to afford for each one expert singularities while acknowledging the impossibility of total readiness.

then for those human emotional barriers no one can predict for.

learn on their trajectory, then imagine the ways how such research could possibly follow.

but then if you don't get a reply —usually or rarely— a sorry:
don't get down, take it as practice to improve next one.

final difficulty answering salary/future expects.

antares, 8 months ago

@elduvelle "How would you handle a co-worker who was having a bad day?" Asked by at both the HR screening interview and the technical interview. 🤔

marcwhoward, 8 months ago

@elduvelle @academicchatter what classes do you want to teach?

elduvelle, 8 months ago

@marcwhoward ooh.. yeah I hadn’t thought of this one

DrSuzanne, 8 months ago

@elduvelle @academicchatter Someone asked me why I had been unemployed for so long. Is there any good way to answer that?

EvelineSulman, 8 months ago

@DrSuzanne @elduvelle @academicchatter I would say: anything goes (even: that was my choice), as long as it is no direct lie.

DrSuzanne, 8 months ago

@EvelineSulman @elduvelle @academicchatter I wasn't offered any positions for that period of time even though I was looking so what would be a good answer? That's what I told them anyway, but it was such a stupid question.

EvelineSulman, 8 months ago

@DrSuzanne @elduvelle @academicchatter it depends: those years can explain a lack of publications or a lack of teaching experience.

NicoleCRust, 8 months ago

@elduvelle @academicchatter
Not sure about the most difficult. But the most pervasive: Do you have any questions for me? I remember thinking: I have to say something! Will they know if I ask each (of 8 or so) all the same question?

antares, 8 months ago

@NicoleCRust In my most recent job search I asked each interviewer how likely it was that the job I was interviewing for would still be there in 10 years and got some surprisingly frank answers. The places that were the most anxious to assure me that the job was good long term also seemed to be the ones where I felt the most comfortable asking for pay above baseline.