How to Be Competitive for Industrial Research Jobs

2. Application  When to start applying? • Industrial research labs do hire year around, but the bulk is in spring • Try to send out your application before Feb, but the earlier the better  Application materials • Resume/CV • References • Research Statement  Where to send the application • Directly to the researchers of the lab • Applying online is usually not useful – gets lost in the flood  What gets you an interview? • Publications • Past internships or collaboration • References © 2011 IBM Corporation 2

3. Interview Format  Phone Interview • 30 minutes or 1 hour • About your PhD work and intern experiences  Onsite Interview • 1 or 2 days • 1 hour job talk on your PhD work (expect questions during the talk) • 30 minutes dedicated Q&A (grill time) • One-on-one with individual researchers, 30 to 45 minutes each  Usually about your PhD work and other experience  Usually, people won’t ask you to write a sort algorithm on the white board © 2011 IBM Corporation 3

4. What are interviewers looking for?  Phone Interview • The candidate is the same person as on the resume • Communication is reasonable • No surprises  On-site Interview • Is the candidate smart? • Can the candidate stand by his/her work? • Will the candidate work well with people here? • Will the candidate be successful here? • Will the candidate be happy here? © 2011 IBM Corporation 4

5. How to prepare the interview?  Know your stuff well • Practice your job talk • Think about what questions people will ask  Be honest when answering questions  Do some research on the lab • Who are the people working there, What are they working on, especially your interviewers • Any chance to connect your work with their work? • Think about what questions you would like to ask © 2011 IBM Corporation 5

6. Interview is a bi-directional process  You are also interviewing the company  What should you look for? • Do you like the way they do things? • Do you like the work environment? • Do you like the people there? • Do you see yourself successful there? • Will this place help achieve your long-term goal?  Observe during your interview  Ask questions during your interview  Talk to people you know © 2011 IBM Corporation 6

Notas del editor

Hi, I am Yuanyuan Tian from IBM Almaden research center. I have been working for iBM since 2008. My primary research area is large scale data analytics, especial large scale machine learning and graph mining. If you interested in my research, please come to talk in tomorrow industrial session 1 or stop by my poster. Since I was on the job market 4 years ago. My memory is still fresh. So, I will share with you my view on how to be competitive for industrial research jobs. This is based my the experiences of myself and some friends and colleagues.
The first step to start application. For engineering jobs, once you have offer, you are only given a week or 2 to make a decision. On the other hand, research offers are usually flexible for the decision time. There are usually 2 chanels to send your application. I highly recommend directly sending your application to the researchers who work in the lab, instead applying online. Because online applications easily get lost in the flood sometimes. So, what gets you an interview? First is your publication record. Because publications are the hard facts of your research achievement. If you have interned or collaborated with researcher in the lab you are applying, it is extremely helpful for you to get an interview. Lastly, recommendation letters are also helpful. For example, based on my experience in IBM, some professors or researchers have established very good reputation in referencing candidats, so we value their opinions a lot.
When an emploer is interested in your application, you will first get an phone interview. ,,,, if the phone interview goes well, you will get on site inteview. Almaden has reputatin of asking deep and hard questions, so we call it grill time. The rest of the interview will be one-on-ones with eisuviual researchers.
In order to be successful in the inteview, you need to know what the interviewers are looking for. Phone interview is filtering step to make sure that candidate is the same as what it says on the resume and communication is reasonable. As long as there is no suprises, you will get an onsite interview. For the onsite inteview, interviewers are trying to find out whether
How what the inteviewers are looking for, here are tips on how you can prepare the inteview. The most important thing is to know you stuff well. Because the whole interview will be about your work. Make sure to practice your job talk. Since the job talk is first impression and foundation for your whole interview. Think about what questions people may ask. When answering questions, be honest. If you don’t know the answer of a question, say so. Never make up an answer. Another home work you can do is to some research on the lab.
Finally, I want to emphasize that interview is bi-directional process. Here are questions of which you want to find out the answers. How to find out the answers. You can observe the people’s behavior and interactions during your interview and ask questions. If you know people working there. Talk to them before or after the interview.
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How to Be Competitive for Industrial Research Jobs

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How to Be Competitive for Industrial Research Jobs

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