Expect the Unexpected: A New Grad's Guide to Interviews

I've worked in the Biotech industry for many years, so my experience is mostly limited to interviewing for jobs in science. I consider myself an expert on the topic of interview skills because of my record--I have received a job offer for every interview I've ever been on. In some cases, especially in the beginning, it was a case of being in the right place at the right time. But many more times I've beat out several other qualified candidates.

It can be difficult to get an interview, especially for a job at a desirable company, and I don't have any tips on how to tweak a resume so that yours stands out among hundreds of others. The best thing you can do is find someone who works in the industry and have them review your resume and offer suggestions. Getting someone to schedule you for an interview upon seeing your resume has more to do with things that are out of your control, and a lot of what happens during this stage of the job hunt has to do with luck. You never really know who will be looking at your resume, or even if the position is still open, so my advice is to not spend too much time worrying about your resume beyond making sure it looks good. Instead spend some time thinking about what you're going to do once you are selected for an interview.

For entry level graduates, the first interview can be the most intimidating experience of your life. You may be used to short one-on-one interviews and suddenly you're faced with a conference room full of people firing questions at you at the same time. You never know quite what to expect when you're interviewing at a new company and there are many different interview styles. I'm going to cover several different types of interviews I've been through so that you know what could be waiting for you.

The Two-Step Interview: Day 1- HR Screen

Important tip: Human Resources are there to screen you, but they do not work in your specific field. Keep it simple.

When I was still in school I applied for a job as an entry level chemist doing extraction experiments in a biochemistry lab. The first part of the interview process was meeting with HR for a candidate screen. And because I was still new to the process, only recently having retired from my high school career as grocery store cashier, I didn't realize the first interview was primarily to make sure I was a normal human being and not a drooling lunatic. She was not interested in hearing the glorious details about the exciting experiments I was working on in school and she just sat and stared at me as I rambled on about exponential growth curves and infectious parasites. Halfway through the interview I realized that she didn't know, nor care about, the difference between an acid and a base, so I should probably cool it with all the science talk and stick to the basics. After that I stuck closely to the job description and listed the lab tests and equipment I had experience with.

Day 2- The "Group" Interview

I must have done okay because HR called a few days later to set up the next interview. This time I would be meeting with the bioanalytical group and as soon as I heard the word "group" I realized that this was going to be a very different kind of interview. The interview ended up taking place in a large conference room with me on one side of a long table facing seven scientists and supervisors. I had to use the Jan Brady Technique of imagining them in their underwear to keep from vomiting all over myself from anxiety. The key to this kind of interview is to concentrate on only one person at a time as they ask you a question and try to forget that there are six other pairs of eyes staring at your face as you speak.

The One-on-One Serial Interview (with schedule)

Never arrive at an interview thinking you will be out in an hour. This can happen, but you should be prepared in case you're in for a serial interview that could last most of the day. When I arrived to interview for my first job after graduating college, I was handed a schedule. I'd made plans for later in the morning never thinking that the interview could last for longer than an hour or two. But when I met with Human Resources upon arriving, I found out that I was scheduled to interview with individual people from various departments for four straight hours. I would be meeting with everyone from the Operations Manager to team supervisors right on down to people who would be my peers if I got the job.

When I left the interview I felt like an abducted prisoner of war being set free. My mouth was dry, my brain numb, and I spent the ride home thinking up creative answers to the same boring question I had to answer too many times in four hours: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

I've always wanted to be an acrobat...

I hear there's good money in mafia crime...

I figure if I keep playing the lottery, in five years I could be on a beach in Jamaica with a cold one in my hand and I can stop this science bullshit and do what I was put on this earth to do-take it easy and collect bling...

The Round-Robin Interview

This one is kind of fun. It's like speed dating except the prize at the end is a job, not a person. I'd never heard of this interview style until I recently went through it while applying for a position at a pharmaceutical company. The company was expanding so there were many openings and many candidates and the best way to save time was to gather everyone in a big room and have the candidates go from station to station speaking to different people. Like a job fair but where everyone works for the same company.

The round-robin interview can be intimidating, especially if you're new to the world of interviewing. The good part of it is that you get through three days of interviews all at once and you don't have to fret about being called back another day because you only have one interview suit and you've already worn it.

Those are the most common types of interviews you will experience. Now as a bonus I will tell you about the most bizarre interview situation I've ever found myself in, though it will most likely never happen to you. At the very least, making you aware that absurd interview situations exist may help you keep your cool if you ever find yourself in the middle of one.

The Absurd Interview -Dr. Come walk with me

I was interviewing for a research position at a university a few years ago and all I knew before arriving was that I would be meeting with the PhD in charge of the lab. Everything seemed normal at first. We talked about his research and my background and then out of nowhere he asked if I would mind walking with him to the park across the street so we could talk in the sunshine. Once we were outside he decided to stop in at the convenience store to get a snack. It was the strangest feeling standing in a convenience store with a sixty year old guy I didn't know trying to decide which snack food would be most appropriate for an interview in the park. I quickly selected a bottle of water and then I fretted over who would pay as we stood in line. Especially since I had no money.

The interview became progressively more strange. If you've never found yourself sitting on a park bench with a biochemist you've just met, talking about the functional and structural levels of proteins, then congratulations. You've successfully avoided the freak interview. After we returned from the park, Dr. Fresh Air asked me about my personal life and specifically wanted to know if I had plans for starting a family any time soon. He didn't want to hire someone who would get herself knocked up within the next couple of years because it would be disruptive to his research. It wouldn't have been more inappropriate if he had asked me my bra size or grabbed my ass.

At the end, after the lab tour and a quick discussion about job responsibilities, he walked me out to my car. Not just to the door of the building or to the edge of the sidewalk, but all the way out. So far out that he opened my door for me and stood at my window talking to me and looking around at the interior of my car for a few minutes before I drove away.

I don't know what he was looking for in my car, but I got the feeling he was the kind of boss who would have a hard time with personal boundaries, and expect me to take showers with him. I politely withdrew myself through email two hours after the interview. And I still feel dirty.

Once you finish school and get a few years of experience the interview process will be much more complicated. Usually you will be applying for positions that require specific education and skills and you'll be required to talk about your work history and projects. But in the beginning, it's mostly about personality.

You need to be personable, friendly and confident in the interview. You may not have all the answers to everything you're asked, but if you leave them with the impression that you are bright and eager to learn, they will want to hire you. It's often as simple as that. I know there are plenty of websites out there devoted to the specifics about interviewing: what you should say, what you should wear, how to prepare yourself. And those things are important, but sometimes people obsess too much about the details and forget the big picture. There is a corporate culture to consider and a candidate who has good communication skills and seems comfortable under pressure may win out over the candidate with no personality and all the right answers. The best way to prepare for an interview is to be ready for any scenario. You may find yourself in a low-pressure one-on-one interview or you may walk into a room full of people who expect you to know every detail about their work. You never know what to expect, so all you can do is refuse to let yourself feel intimidate, don't waste time obsessing about the "right" answers, and just be yourself. A well-groomed, suit-clad, meticulously polished version of yourself, that is.