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
