Dear Nathan, I read the New york times article. I think its good to ask same questions to all candidates for the position they are being interviewed for. But along with that they may be asked certain other unique questions based on their responses to their previous questions, to really know the strengths of the candidate in various contexts, that cannot be really covered by the questions asked to everyone. For example: If a candidate who is being interviewed for doctoral position. One obvious questions that will be asked is about his/her past research experiences. Some candidates may have an experience working in say 3-4 labs during their undergraduate study period, while some may have worked in only one lab. Now the interview panel may wrongly conclude/infer that latter candidate has mediocre research experience than the former, but it could be that the latter candidate found a suitable lab to work on his/her ideas and thus did not explore much and was able to get a very good grip on the topic that he/she studied. As an undergraduate student, I do feel that the grades should not be given too much importance than the knowledge and the research experience of the person. The interviews should certainly be designed which would reveal the real potential of the candidate and also should be in a way that candidate becomes really expressive in the contexts of the questions asked. What are your thoughts on this? I hope my mail is not too much outrageous or offensive to anyone in any manner.
<https://mailtrack.io/> Sent with Mailtrack <https://mailtrack.io/install?source=signature&lang=en&referral=chinmayjosh...@iisertvm.ac.in&idSignature=22> On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 1:38 AM, Morehouse, Nathan (morehonn) < 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 > > colorevolut...@uc.edu > > http://www.morehouselab.com > > > > "Il y a un autre monde mais il est dans celui-ci." - Paul Éluard > -- Chinmay Hemant Joshi Integrated MS student, IISER-Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala,India
