Blank Paige

Things have been such a whirlwind for me these past few days. I officially accepted the position that was offered to me, and next month I will begin my new post doctoral position. I have finally gotten a chance to sit down and type and brief recap of my interview.

The interview time was scheduled for 11am, and I was already told it will be the following format:
1. Talk

2. Lunch

3. Tour of the facilities.

THE TALK

The talk I put together was essentially the thesis defense talk I gave. I made some minor changes and additions to slides. Initially when I was setting up my laptop, I was told that it will just the PIs in the lecture room. However, one of them was running late and when he arrived, he had his lab members with him. This prompted the other PI to call his lab members. So instead of having just a two person audience that I had anticipated, it was more along the lines of 10. I am a comfortable public speaker, but I was more concerned about the questioning.

Boy, did I get a lot of questions (during the talk, and after the talk). Not only from the PIs that interviewed me, but from the other audience members as well. I answered them and felt I did reasonably well. I tried to come across as confident, but really I was scared out of my pants.

THE LUNCH

Of course after the talk, I will still nervous for the lunch. After all, just b/c I finished my talk, does not mean the interview was over. The conversation was a mix of casual and science. I unfortunately could not finish my lunch and only was able to eat half a sandwich. I spilled water on myself, which I was grateful to have them not notice.

THE TOUR

Probably the best part of the interview. I was very much impressed by their facilities, and it was really fun to see what was available. I also got to speak to the lab, who spoke positively of the two PIs. I really like the two PIs, they really seem to encourage a positive post doc experience where an individual can learn more. I feel that I will fit well into the lab group and culture.

THE OFFER

After speaking w/ the lab members, I was called into the office and was immediately offered the position. I was given a few days to consider their offer and I accepted. I will start on August 10th! Huzzah!!!

I can’t believe it. They offered me the post doc position at the end of the interview!

I am very excited about this opportunity. I will be able to expand my repertoire of skills and strengthen the ones I already have, and I think this will make me a much more attractive candidate come entering industry. I will be in a better position and more qualified since I will have that experience. The Principal Investigators seem really nice and seem genuine in their desire to give me a positive post doctoral experience. In addition, their viewpoint of what a post doc should be aligns with mine nicely.

I’m really looking forward to it. I will give the interview details in a separate entry.

So my 2nd round for my interview will take place tomorrow. I have so many things I still need to prepare for, such as: Google mapping the location, finalizing arrangements with my ride, putting things on the GPS (yes I’m paranoid), having contact information ready, ironing my interview clothes etc.

But those are relatively minor things. What I’m most concerned about is my interview. I’m set to give a talk when I arrive around 11am. This talk is driving me insane. It’ll be about my PhD work and they told me to be prepared for questions (obviously). It’s like living the thesis defense all over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I’m so nervous right now. I need to review everything and I have no idea what they are going to ask. I wished I had my hard copies of the papers I’ve collected over the years (since I had reading the files on the computer).

So scared of questioning period!

Then after the talk, I can’t even relax b/c they are then going to take me out to lunch and then show me the facilities. So it’s going to be stressful talk, super stressful questioning, stressful lunch, stressful tour.

I need to breathe, breathe breathe.

I had my very first interview over the phone yesterday for the post doc position that I had written about earlier. The whole morning I was freaking out and so nervous, however after a few minutes, I felt pretty comfortable talking.

It is definitely not like a regular interview (from what I hear anyway since I never had a real non-academic interview before). There were no behavioral questions i.e. What is your greatest strength? or If you were a houseplant, what would you be? sort of thing. It was all about science, all about the things I did in my academic research past. I had things planned out in my head, but for the inevitable “What did you do during your Ph.D?” question, I think I just ended up rambling on.  Dammit, I wished I was more articulate when I need to be!

It was more casual than I anticipated and the two PI’s seem very friendly. I asked them a lot of questions as well too (i.e. how many post docs have gone through their lab and what they were currently doing in their career etc.), and learned more about how things were run. I wished I got more detail on the research project though. However they ddi not seem to mind that I have no experience in protein X-ray crystallography and it’s something I wouldn’t mind learning. Doing a post doc means I get to expand my current skills set further.

At the end of the interview, I remember feeling that it could have gone better and I really wasn’t sure if they were interested. They were really nice to me, but I thought maybe it was b/c  it was for the sake of being nice and they weren’t going to reject me until the email. I sooo wanted to have the feeling that I nailed it, but I didn’t. So I was worried that they weren’t interested at all. However they did say that I’ve made an impression on them on the phone and want to meet me in person and as soon as possible. So this Friday I will be making my way there for the 2nd round. In my thank you letter, they had replied and told me to prepare a talk about about 45 min and questions. Gah! My Ph.D talk was only 30 min. Also I think I need to restructure the talk to suit them more. So my itineary on Friday would be to meet them at 11 am, give them a talk, have them question me and then go for lunch and they will show me around.

I’m nervous about this talk. I would hate to travel there, do my thing and then be rejected! I’ve been trying to keep the k nowlege of this from ppl. Asides from NS and LP I didn’t tell anyone else. Now it’s been expanding…I don’t like that. What’s w/ the secrets? I just rather preserve my pride in the case of rejection.

I really should be thinking more positively.

I do have a question: Should I focus everything on this talk these next few days? or should I continue w/ the job applications.

Jobs applied since last post: 0 (b/c was preparing for the phone interview and had a party on Friday night)

I

am

so

nervous.