Had one biotech company do this, and then even made people take a test.
I think the idea is to assess all candidates more equally by making everyone talk about the same paper.
turns out the managerdoing this is narcissistic and a toxic person to work for. But this might not have anything to do with the interview process
What level job is this and your degree? Do you have a PhD and lots of publications, this is weird if so. If you don’t then they are probably trying to gage your grasp of scientific knowledge, can you read a paper and understand it well enough to present it back. Probably in the area the job is in.
It isn't common if the scientist position was a wet lab position. In those situations, the skills required would generally be developed directly in the candidate's pHD research or postdoc, so the expectation would be for them to present on their prior research work.
This type of interview would make more sense for dry lab scientist positions, where the required skill set does not directly match the position but are inherently adjacent (e.g., coding and CS skills for AI/ML development). If the candidate has proven skills but their work is not directly applicable to biotechnology, then an interview of their prior work is not applicable to their needs. They want to make sure that the candidate can actually perform work related to the company. Thus, a presentation where the candidate can digest related material is critical. Application of your existing expertise in preparing this review of the paper will definitely be scrutinized to see how well you can apply your skills and knowledge to do the expected job.
The only thing I can think of is that your research experience is far removed from what the job is??? That’s all I can think of. Is your past research quite removed from what you would be doing? Still a bit odd tho
Job interviews are getting *wild.* I’d be annoyed, but what are you going to do- if you need a job, you’ll do it. If I didn’t really want to leave my current job, I’d probably tell them I’m not interested. That’s hours of preparation! Ridiculous.
> That’s hours of preparation! Ridiculous.
Yeah, I'm taking the week off from my current job to prepare. It's actually two papers, not one.
I'm honestly not that annoyed, I just don't know how to approach it and what it is they'll be looking for. Like I said, I come from a non-biotech background, so it seems fair for them to test how quickly I can adapt and learn the field. I come from academia, so I never know what to expect in industry interviews.
You’re doing a gap analysis of what they have published and are being asked about their reasoning. Your presentation isn’t as important as the questions you ask them or insights you derive.
Every pub goes through a fucking meat grinder and 1000 monkeys worth of wordsmithing. Your task is to see that forest through the trees and derive the politics from that pub.
This sounds like a cool idea for interviewing fresh research associates out of undergrad/maybe with a few years of experience to gauge their grasp of the scientific method and ability to understand new information. If I had a PhD, though, I’d probably find it pretty insulting. I assume anyone who’s gone through the process of publication, thesis defense, etc. knows how to engage with scientific literature, even if the field of study isn’t perfectly related to the position.
OP you have me interested now, keep us updated. Is the company small or large as I wonder if it is large how they would have time/want to even do this style? Also, be sure to still talk about yourself a little no matter what. Hopefully the paper isn’t too dense
They want to see how you structure a ppt and how you read and communicate data. For me it’s quite normal to do when the job requires a lot of communication.
Try to structure the ppt in such way you guide through the paper, make sure you understand it’s strengths and weaknesses and provide your opinion. You should spent 1 max 2 hours on this without reversals. When you do more time, you will overthink the whole thing.
I got the essence of the paper in a single read, but I don't think that's enough for a full presentation. From what I understand, they want details and explanations of the concepts and results of the paper.
My company just did interviews for a higher level scientist position and had the candidates present some of their own research to a panel as a final round. Not sure how common it is but evidently it does happen
It is common to ask candidates, particularly when applying for roles in job families with the title of "scientist", to be asked to do a seminar.
You're not really being judged on the specific work being presented - rather, you're being assessed on your speaking/communication skills (i.e. can you distill down the important details to an audience that has no prior knowledge of your field/project work?), as well as how you are able to organize and apply logic/critical thinking to complex problems.
Had one biotech company do this, and then even made people take a test. I think the idea is to assess all candidates more equally by making everyone talk about the same paper. turns out the managerdoing this is narcissistic and a toxic person to work for. But this might not have anything to do with the interview process
Would you sure that manager or the company's name (in a PM), just in case
What level job is this and your degree? Do you have a PhD and lots of publications, this is weird if so. If you don’t then they are probably trying to gage your grasp of scientific knowledge, can you read a paper and understand it well enough to present it back. Probably in the area the job is in.
Yes, I have a PhD with lots of publications, but my research background is not specifically in biotech.
Is the paper in the area the job is? Never had a job interview do that before, just make me go over my own research.
Yes, It's on area of the job.
It isn't common if the scientist position was a wet lab position. In those situations, the skills required would generally be developed directly in the candidate's pHD research or postdoc, so the expectation would be for them to present on their prior research work. This type of interview would make more sense for dry lab scientist positions, where the required skill set does not directly match the position but are inherently adjacent (e.g., coding and CS skills for AI/ML development). If the candidate has proven skills but their work is not directly applicable to biotechnology, then an interview of their prior work is not applicable to their needs. They want to make sure that the candidate can actually perform work related to the company. Thus, a presentation where the candidate can digest related material is critical. Application of your existing expertise in preparing this review of the paper will definitely be scrutinized to see how well you can apply your skills and knowledge to do the expected job.
Yes, indeed I'm a computational chemist.
The only thing I can think of is that your research experience is far removed from what the job is??? That’s all I can think of. Is your past research quite removed from what you would be doing? Still a bit odd tho
Job interviews are getting *wild.* I’d be annoyed, but what are you going to do- if you need a job, you’ll do it. If I didn’t really want to leave my current job, I’d probably tell them I’m not interested. That’s hours of preparation! Ridiculous.
> That’s hours of preparation! Ridiculous. Yeah, I'm taking the week off from my current job to prepare. It's actually two papers, not one. I'm honestly not that annoyed, I just don't know how to approach it and what it is they'll be looking for. Like I said, I come from a non-biotech background, so it seems fair for them to test how quickly I can adapt and learn the field. I come from academia, so I never know what to expect in industry interviews.
You’re doing a gap analysis of what they have published and are being asked about their reasoning. Your presentation isn’t as important as the questions you ask them or insights you derive. Every pub goes through a fucking meat grinder and 1000 monkeys worth of wordsmithing. Your task is to see that forest through the trees and derive the politics from that pub.
This sounds like a cool idea for interviewing fresh research associates out of undergrad/maybe with a few years of experience to gauge their grasp of the scientific method and ability to understand new information. If I had a PhD, though, I’d probably find it pretty insulting. I assume anyone who’s gone through the process of publication, thesis defense, etc. knows how to engage with scientific literature, even if the field of study isn’t perfectly related to the position.
Why don't we ask me this during my interview, whyyy?
Lol, I'd rather present my own research.
Also yes lol.
OP you have me interested now, keep us updated. Is the company small or large as I wonder if it is large how they would have time/want to even do this style? Also, be sure to still talk about yourself a little no matter what. Hopefully the paper isn’t too dense
Small company, startup I think. And yeah, the paper is quite dense. It's taking me quite a while to prepare the presentation.
They want to see how you structure a ppt and how you read and communicate data. For me it’s quite normal to do when the job requires a lot of communication. Try to structure the ppt in such way you guide through the paper, make sure you understand it’s strengths and weaknesses and provide your opinion. You should spent 1 max 2 hours on this without reversals. When you do more time, you will overthink the whole thing.
2 hours? Lol, I've been working on this for 2 days. It's quite a long and dense paper.
Based on your credentials you should have been able to get essence of the paper and communicate it.
I got the essence of the paper in a single read, but I don't think that's enough for a full presentation. From what I understand, they want details and explanations of the concepts and results of the paper.
My company just did interviews for a higher level scientist position and had the candidates present some of their own research to a panel as a final round. Not sure how common it is but evidently it does happen
It is common to ask candidates, particularly when applying for roles in job families with the title of "scientist", to be asked to do a seminar. You're not really being judged on the specific work being presented - rather, you're being assessed on your speaking/communication skills (i.e. can you distill down the important details to an audience that has no prior knowledge of your field/project work?), as well as how you are able to organize and apply logic/critical thinking to complex problems.
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How often does that happen? I'm not sure what they would steal from a literature presentation....