Interview performance- could do better

On Wednesday I had an interview for a research associate/fellow position in Queen’s University, Belfast. The position is part of research being carried out on an all island basis to do research into applications for the transport applications.

I’d been asked to prepare a 5 minute presentation on “how my experience prepared me to do research in the high performance thermoplastic composites.”

I had learnt off the presentation and happy I knew what I was going to say.  As this was an academic position I looked at the people I thought were leading the research so I looked at their areas of research and revised up on finite element analysis and did a review of high performance thermoplastics and their composites and methods of manufacture.

I’d prepared a few questions in relation to the position; we there plan’s to extend the research beyond April 2011, was the position part of the new “Institute for a Sustainable Future” and about their facilities.

I have to admit I didn’t get as much research done as I would normally have liked. I could blame my 3 week old son for not letting me get any sleep at night, and busy evenings. Or my 2 ½ yr old daughter for not letting me get any peace during the day to spend a few days doing the research work.

So on the day I got there 20 min early to relax and compose myself. I’m happy the presentation went Ok. I hindsight think I should have stood up. I normal do during presentations standing and I feel it flows much easier for me when I stand up.

So what was I asked about?

I know where in transport applications high performance thermoplastics are being used? I have to admit, I had to mostly rely on previous experience and knowledge rather than my research but  was able to give an answer if not as good I would have liked.

Had I worked in teams? I elaborated on one of the projects I mentioned in the presentation so this was well answered I think.

I was asked about the processing of Wood Plastic Composites, but this was more to educate the interviewer rather than to test my knowledge. I was then asked about crack propagation and how it could be prevented. I was able to answer this question, but I don’t think I as fluid as I would have liked. I also forgot one method of preventing it by using fibres perpendicular to the direction of the crack direction.

I floundered on my own questions, I had made assumptions, but the research was not part of the new Institute, so this threw me a little. So the question on facilities went straight out of my head.

The interview was quick, 25 min with no casual, social conversation you would normally get in other interviewers where they are trying to find out a bit about you as a person.

I’m not overly happy with how the interview went.  I could have been prepared better and should have been. I’ll hopefully find out what they made of it.

Lesson’s for next time?

My 2 ½ yr old is going to a new crèche, it’ll give me a chance to get work done. So I’ll get my research done better. I didn’t use a mind map like I normally would. It would have helped me cover all the areas I needed to research for the interview.

I have contacts in Queen’s I should have used them to try and find out more about the role and the people doing the research so I knew the panel better. The Personnel dept in Queen’s wouldn’t even tell me how many were on the panel never mind who was on it.

Hopefully I'll get some news next week, as I try to set up more possibilities.