How to Answer the Most Important Interview Question

What Is The One Thing You Would Do If Money Was Not A Limitation? 

You need to be prepared to answer this question at any postdoc interview. With this question, they want to know your dream, your true passion. If you try to lie and be someone else, it won’t work. This question will get you. 

This is an excerpt from my 'How to Postdoc' book, so the focus is on postdoc interviews, but you can glean from it whatever makes sense for any STEM role

You can pretend you like particle physics more, but the truth will come out. The truth you have been hiding. You have been hiding the truth because of money. There is more money in particle physics, or so you think. So you say you like particle physics more and that you want to learn something about particle physics. But, the interviewer can smell the fear, the uncertainty, the lies… in your answer. 

They can smell it even though they are not even on the same continent. They can smell it from Hong Kong. You are in Berkeley Lab in California and you are speaking to the PI of the collaboration that is interviewing you. They aren’t even colocated with you. They are interviewing you over the phone amid their busy schedule. And, catching your lies. 

What is the truth then? You like astrophysics. Astronomy, even. If you had unlimited money, you would do the experiment that helps you to learn more about astrophysics, not particle physics. Just because you are standing in a particle physics-heavy lab does not mean that the truth is not the truth. 

The truth is there, albeit hidden. And it will come out. It has a way of doing so. Don’t lie, don’t beat around the bush. You can’t lie, you can’t fake true love. Don’t be a closet astronomer. Come out with it. Tell the particle physicist that you like astronomy more. Do it. Because they already know something is not right about you… and your ears are very, very hot. So, why bother to pretend? Just tell the truth and breathe… 

If you can’t do astrophysics, what is the point of anything anyway? So, stand in Berkeley Lab and tell the world you like astrophysics, that your dream is to leverage particle physics techniques and particle physics phenomena to study astrophysics. Your ultimate question has to do with astrophysics. If you learn about particles along the way, that is well and good, and a bonus. But, you dream about the night sky. You care about objects, events, and explosions in the sky. Tell them and breathe. Let your face settle back to room temperature. 

The above is about me trying to hide the truth at first at the interview for the Chamberlain Fellowship. I tried to downplay my strong feelings for astrophysics at an interview where I discovered I was being interviewed mainly by particle physics experiments. It did not work. The truth came out. If I had not fought it, it would have come out with more grace. So, I suggest, don’t fight it. Own it.

A postdoc is not a real job. It’s a dreamer’s position. It’s a “training position” so you can be underpaid while you over-achieve. While you are actively setting yourself behind financially and possibly other aspects of life, the least you can do for yourself is be true to your passion. 

So, be prepared to answer this question: What do you care about and why? What do YOU care about and why? The topic you pursue as a postdoc is all about YOUR interest. If you are not interested in it, don’t bother. If you can’t get anyone to fund it, fine. Bad luck. Get a job in the industry. Do anything but a postdoc. If you can’t follow your dream in academia, go elsewhere. 

Quick Takeaways For Interview Questions

• Even before applying for postdocs, establish what you care about and why. This needs to be crystal clear in your head. Sometimes, a research statement or cover letter is written more broadly, but there should be no doubt in your mind about what makes you tick. This is important as should you get an interview call, you will be asked to elaborate on your interest, and no matter how much you try to beat around the bush, YOUR interest needs to a) exist and b) be communicated. 
• Write about what you would like to do in the postdoc position. Write in as much detail as possible. This is just for you, not for the research statement. Get good at explaining what you would like to do during your time in the position as a postdoc. Great ideas are quickly chucked when they are not understood. If people cannot understand you or your idea, it won’t work. They won’t be sold on it. So, get good at explaining your idea or proposal for research and be prepared to answer specific questions about it.
• Learn what you can about the culture and values of the organization or group that you are interviewing with. The more you can relate everything you have so far to how you will add value to not only the specific group but the whole department or organization the better off you will be as far as securing funding, aka, the position. Sometimes, if a professor likes you and wants you to have the position but can’t pay for you, they might be able to convince the department to chip in and help pay for you. In that case, it would help if you make a good impression with that department as a whole. So, doing your homework on the organization or department as a whole would be worthwhile. 

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This content first appeared on the How to PhD blog at https://howtophd.org/2020/10/quick-takeaways-for-answering-interview-questions-postdoc.html