Stand up during a phone interview.
That is all the not-obvious advice I have to offer in this post of my Job Hunt series. Really.
What else would you like to know? Join the conversation by leaving a comment.
So why should you stand during the phone interview? Energy. When you are up, you are free to move about your room and your speech will flow better than if you were bottled up sitting in a chair. You might even use a headset so your hands are free to gesture (even though no one else can see you) because, again, it aids your flow. There’s more on the topic here.
I won’t belabor the next point because an endless amount has been written about interview preparation, but this is what I did that seemed to work well. Using two sheets of paper…
Imagine if Bush were a good public speaker.
Spurred by the news that former President Bush will be the featured speaker at a motivational seminar next week, Slate published a collection of public speaking advice for Bush from different motivational speakers (which was a moderately interesting read). But it got me thinking…
Opinions of political leaders span the entire spectrum between loved and hated, but most people would agree that President Obama has public speaking skills superior to Bush’s. Now, imagine if Bush were as eloquent as Obama. Depending on your opinion of Bush, you might ask:
- What else could he have persuaded America and its allies to stick their noses into, that he couldn’t do with fear mongering alone? Or…
- What other greatness could he have achieved by motivating people to action by appealing to their aspirations, rather than their (there it is, again) fears?
Fyi, the Slate article containing the public speaking advice is here.
How I paid 62 cents for a brand new hardcover bestseller.
I went to Borders tonight because I had $15 in Borders Bucks that needed to be spent this month before they expired.
Retail price of book: $25.95
-Apply 40% off coupon-
Subtotal: $15.57
-Apply Borders Bucks-
Subtotal: $0.57
TN 9.25% Sales Tax: $0.05
Total: $0.62
Saving money is one of my interests, but what does it have to do with nanotechnology research? Read the rest of this entry »
Ah, ’Tis the Season for Bigger, Better Things
The air has a new crispness to it, the leaves are swirling to the ground, and Vanderbilt’s football team is giving the home fans very little to cheer about. Fall is here, and if it’s your (anticipated) final year of graduate school, fall is when the search for a grown-up job begins. The amount of information out there on job hunting and interviewing and résumé writing is endless. After reading up on this subject for a few months, I think I can post some short articles focusing on what’s relevant to early-career scientists. Here is the first piece.
I. The Wisdom of Feldman (or, What is a core competency?)
Over chicken wings following his student’s PhD defense, Dr. Feldman shared his thoughts on breaking into the post-PhD world as a scientist. Read the rest of this entry »
What makes you indispensable?
Grad student scientists want to become their advisor’s go-to investigator. This position makes you privy to the advisor’s more closely held thoughts and often spares you from working on trivial/crappy projects. (Within reason: you don’t want to be so trusted that they end up overburdening you with every task they deem important—since we know profs believe everything they work on is of the utmost importance.) A post on Keith Ferrazzi’s blog lists ten tips for becoming indispensable at work. Some of his ideas strongly resonated with me, in the context of doing research.
1. Get out in front and analyze cutting-edge trends and opportunities.
I want to get better at this practice. As grad students we become occupied with our particular project and how to get it done. But the big-time scientists out there seemingly predict what next year’s Nature-level hyped topic will be, and get to work on it this year. I don’t have a ready idea for what to try on this topic, because the “cutting edge” of science that you read is something that was submitted up to 12 months prior to publication. Read the rest of this entry »
Send this man to Toastmasters!
Poor guy. Seriously, though, this is a FAIL on the part of the team’s media relations director for allowing the player to end up in this situation.
What is Toastmasters? Find out here.
