Excellence Everywhere - National University of Ireland, Galway

During an interview, in some cultures it issuggested to be very polite, never makeeye contact with interviewers, and to avoidspeaking about oneself (e.g. describing yourstrengths in overt terms). Specifically, femalesare encouraged to avoid eye contact with maleinterviewers. When interviewing with a personwith a foreign/international background, theseprinciples may be viewed as major weaknesses,and thus reduce your chances ofgetting hired. It is important to find out thebackground of the interviewer and adjust one’sbehavior accordingly.”Abdoulaye Djimdé, MaliA few back-up slides of new work or additionalexperiments may occasionally add value to anydiscussion arising from your presentation.View your slides projected in a lighted room, ifpossible. Many images look fine on a computerscreen but work poorly when projected. In particular,avoid using light-colored text on light-coloredbackgrounds or dark text on dark backgrounds.Finally, practice your talk in front of a mirror. Doingso allows you to time your presentation whilegetting used to the sound of your own voice. Keeprepeating the talk until you can deliver it easily,using your slides as your only memory aid. Ifnecessary, edit the talk down until you can deliverit comfortably within the time allowed. Rememberthat a talk that is slightly too short is much betterthan one that is too long. It may be better to focuson only one aspect of your research, so that youcan give sufficient detail within the time you have,saving the rest for the question-and-answer session.When you feel comfortable giving your talk, enlistyour supervisor, your colleagues, scientificallytrained friends and any students you work withas an audience for a “dress rehearsal” practicetalk. If you will be using a laser pointer when yougive your interview talk, practice with one, as thejumpiness of the laser spot can be a distraction forthe audience if the speaker is not used to handlingthe pointer. Encourage the group to ask questionsand offer frank criticism of your work, your mannerof speaking, your gestures and any annoyingspeech or gesture habits that distract from yourtalk, and your professional appearance. (Especiallyif you are a very sensitive person, it is good to startby reminding your helpful crowd you are looking forinsights that will let you quickly improve the talk,not for thorough dissection of your work, personality,and appearance.) This is a useful exercise asit may help prepare you to respond to comments,including difficult and unanticipated questions.Ask the group for suggestions for improving yourPowerPoint slides. Make sure that you start preparingyour talk well before the day you will have toleave and that you ask for comments early enoughto leave time for editing your slides and your talk toincorporate with any good advice you receive.Interviewing in a Global ContextWhen NGOs and multinational organizations recruit, they will frequently meet with researchers inthe South, but bring with them assumptions and expectations that come from institutional culturesin Geneva, New York, Paris, London, or elsewhere. The dress code, how to interact with the organization’sstaff during the process, how forward or aggressive to be during the interview, and even howmuch to pursue eye contact may be different from what is right for institutions in your country.Eye contact, in particular, is difficult to gauge. In many (but not all) Northern cultures, briefly droppingand then re-establishing eye contact on encountering a person in a position of power is a respectfulsign, but keeping them dropped is viewed as unconfident or dishonest. In most places, whether Northor South, gaining, pursuing, and holding eye contact too much is interpreted as aggressive. Findingopportunities to talk informally with people from the countries frequently represented will give you achance to experiment with different levels of eye contact.GETTING STARTED: Finding and Moving into a Job11