Thanks for the input, Hao and Amy! I absolutely agree that things like GPA should be taken in the broader context of other metrics. The question I’ve been grappling with is not necessarily what to use to predict future success in the lab, but rather whether I can get more information out of interviews than is already available from CVs (GPA, publication and funding, etc.), letters of interest, and recommendations from references. Each of these has specific benefits and shortcomings for predicting success.
I’ve been trying out a more structured interview style over the past several days while interviewing prospective postdocs, and it has been going well (at least for me). The particular insight for me of structuring an interview beforehand is that it forces the hard thinking of what you want to ask and why before you enter the interview. As a result, you’re more likely to ask better questions, be more consistent between interviews, and move beyond gut reactions or snap judgements. I’ve also decided to flip questions from being really open ended to asking the interviewee to solve a more specific problem. For example, instead of “Tell me how you balance competing projects,” I’m asking “Imagine a situation in which you have two important deadlines, but you discover you can’t meet both. What do you do?” This approach reminds me of recommendations for search committees seeking to avoid implicit biases when evaluating faculty applicants. A common piece of advice is for the search committee to agree upon a set of evaluation criteria and a clear ranking scheme before reading any applications. Then all committee members endeavor to rank all applicants based on the criteria. Of course, this system can be gamed in favor of people “you just liked”, but one has to consciously cheat the system to introduce such biases. Cheers, 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 From: "Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news" <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU> on behalf of Hao Ye <h...@ucsd.edu> Reply-To: Hao Ye <h...@ucsd.edu> Date: Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 2:42 PM To: "ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU" <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU> Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] interview questions for prospective postdocs and grads? Hi, Kahneman's book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" has some discussion on the topic of intuition and judgment in interview situations: http://www.businessinsider.com/daniel-kahneman-on-hiring-decisions-2013-1 I do think there is something to be said for more structured interviews where assessments are done on the spot, rather than waiting until afterward when halo effects could introduce bias. And while I think the "standard" metrics (GPA, GRE, undergraduate institution) do have some predictive skill (at the very least, other people use them in deciding whether to award fellowships or collaborate), I think it could be useful to assess these under a single umbrella of "external validations" so as to isolate these factors from other considerations relevant to the position. Best, -- Hao Ye h...@ucsd.edu<mailto:h...@ucsd.edu> On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 5:52 AM, Amy Tuininga <tuinin...@mail.montclair.edu<mailto:tuinin...@mail.montclair.edu>> wrote: Hi Nathan, I think we all struggle with this. If your goal is to attract and hire individuals with high GPAs who will do well in courses, then I agree, this approach of no interview, or a very structured interview (I'd like to hear more of what that entails) will work. If your goal, on the other hand, is to hire individuals who are high functioning in multiple settings, I don't think GPA is the single best predictor. I think more factors need to be considered. If someone has a test for that, I would be interested. Thank you, Amy R. Tuininga, PhD Director, PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies<http://www.montclair.edu/csam/pseg-sustainability-institute/> Montclair State University 1 Normal Avenue CELS 100G Montclair, NJ 07043 973.655.3667<tel:(973)%20655-3667> tuinin...@mail.montclair.edu<mailto:tuinin...@mail.montclair.edu> On Tue, May 16, 2017 at 4:08 PM, 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<tel:(513)%20556-9757> 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
