I recently had the opportunity to sit in on 15 mock interviews for graduate students and postdocs. While a list of standard interview questions was provided as a resource, each interviewer was encouraged to bring their own spin to the interview process. I was able to take notes and compile the questions below. If you are a student who is about to go on the job market, hopefully these questions will help you prepare.

Questions About Previous Experience

• Tell me about your experience as a grad student.
• Did you always know you were interested in this type of work?
• Tell me about your background.
• Have you written any grants yet?
• Can you tell me about your most exciting project in your research career?
• Tell me about how you got into this.
• Tell me about what you’re currently working on.
• Tell me about your history and then I’ll tell you about my lab and we will go from there.
• What kind of skills are you bringing to the table?

Questions About Teams & Mentoring

• What kind of supervising style do you do the best under?
• Can you describe your experience on a team?
• Have you had any mentoring experience? What has that been like?
• What strengths do you bring to the table in your lab?
• How do you prioritize the ideas you have?
• What is the best mentoring style you respond to well?
• Are you a person who likes to prepare ahead of time or do you need deadlines to inspire you?

Questions About Challenges

• Can you describe challenges you’ve overcome and how you worked through them?
• What’s the most challenging aspect of your work?
• In this position, you don’t get to publish. Is that going to be a challenge for you?
• From your experience in working in different environments, you’ve probably encountered different interactions styles. Have you had conflicts with colleagues? How did you deal with them?
• Your boss comes to you and says this person is causing friction in the lab and needs to be talked to. How, as their supervisor, would you deal with that?
• Do you have ways to deal with the stress of this job outside of work?
• How do you take criticism?
• Have you ever made a mistake? How did you deal with it?
• What kind of plan do you have to learn from your failures? What process do you go through?
• You want a marketable portfolio. What are you doing to make yourself more marketable?
• I’m trying to get a sense of how you handle group situations. Can you explain how you are in a group?
• How do you handle the dialogue in collaborations between authorship?

Questions About the Future

• How are you helping bring innovation to your lab?
• What experiences are you looking to have in my lab that will prepare you for the next step?
• I want you to dig a little deeper into what you expect from yourself. What will you do to make yourself more competitive?
• For this project, what people and what resources do think you’ll need to move forward.
• Hypothetically, say you found the answer to your research. What would you do next?
• Knowing your background, what do you see yourself teaching?
• What areas would you prefer NOT to teach?
• What are your long term goals?
• What kind of impact do you think your work will have?
• What are the most important aspects of a job to you? What do you look for?
• What do you bring to the table in my lab and what are you seeking to learn to get you to the next step?
• What are some ways you are trying to further your own professional development?

Laser pointers have become a primary tool for presenters. While their original function was to help the audience follow a presentation and absorb content, they have started having the opposite effect.

Most presenters end up performing what I call the “laser dance”. This is when they circle (over and over) a word, a bullet point or a section on a graph. It is very hard for the human eye to follow a small dot moving at an erratic rate. It is almost like trying to track a fly in a room. It is unsettling and starts to make you feel anxious. An audience shouldn’t spend their energy trying to track a small dot. They should be focusing on the content the presenter wanted to highlight.
Using a laser also causes the presenter to face the screen rather than facing the audience. The screen becomes more important than the people listening to the talk. An audience can sense this, and starts to disconnect with the speaker, and therefore doesn’t listen to the content.

Instead of using a laser, use animations. Try animating a circle around the part you want me to focus on. Or, block out the other part of a graph you don’t want me to see. You can also try bolding a section of text you want me to see.

By utilizing animations, all a presenter has to do is push the advance button on a clicker. They can face their audience and make it easy for the audience to focus on a particular area of the slide. This helps the speaker effectively communicate with their audience. 

Before any interview, you want to feel prepared. Not only should you have all your materials ready (resume, notepad, outfit), but you should feel confident answering basic questions about your qualifications.

Click here to read my post on the Top 5 Interview Tips. 
 
However, what many people forget to bring to an interview are stories. Stories allow people to demonstrate their qualifications through actions rather than statements.

Whenever I coach someone before an interview, I ask them if they have stories that demonstrate how they

• Overcame an obstacle
• Learned a valuable lesson
• Had to switch strategies based on new evidence

Most people who are interviewed have 1 or 2 stories that instantly come to mind. But once they use up that story, they end up struggling later on in the interview. Or they end up having to use the same story to answer multiple questions. Of course, once they go home, another example might occur to them. If they had only taken the time to think about their history before coming to the interview, they could have impressed the interviewer on the spot.

I have my clients brainstorm 3-5 stories that showcase how they push through complications, think outside the box, and evolve in their job. That way they don’t miss an opportunity to demonstrate why they are the right candidate for the position.

Networking is critical in today’s world. However, in a networking environment, many people don't know how to start a conversation. I've written out a number of options to help you get the ball rolling.

OPENERS
Cold openers are often the most intimidating. My advice is to keep it simple. Some effective openers are:

— Hello, I'm _________. 
— Hello, I'm _________ and I'm here for _________. What brought you here today?
— Hello, I don’t know many people here, so I thought I’d introduce myself.

EVENT
​When you are at an event, it gives you a unique opportunity to connect over the specifics that brought you two together. Try commenting on the event itself by asking:

— How’d you hear about this event?
— Did you hear _________ speak? What did you think?
— What a beautiful venue, have you been here before?

ROOM
Think about commenting on the environment you are in. Look around you, what do you see? Bringing up your environment can help you identify an easy way to open up a conversation. For example, you can ask:

— Have you tried the mashed potato bar (or any of the food at the event)?
— I’m going to go and get a drink, care to join me?
— It’s packed in here, mind if I join you over here where it’s quieter?

GROUPS
Breaking into a group is easier than you think. Look for groups where the conversation seems relaxed. These are the ones that it is easy to step into. When you do come up you can ask:

— May I join you?
— Did you all come together, or did you meet here?
— You seem to be having a good time, mind if I join you?

​Keep these phrases in mind when you are at your next networking event. You never know what connection you could make. 

No matter how hard we try, there will always be instances when we have limited time to practice a presentation. In this situation, it’s critical that you don’t panic or scold yourself for failing to carve out enough time beforehand. Instead, focus on the following game plans:
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1st Level: No time to prepare
​If you haven't rehearsed your speech, try to stay relaxed. Walk up to the front of the room, breathe and smile. Introduce yourself (if someone hasn’t introduced you). Then, look at your first slide, say the point of the slide, and then go into the details. When you click to the next slide, pause, breathe, and then say the point of the slide and then explain the details. The pattern of 1) Point of slide and 2) Details is very effective if you want to stay on track and look confident as you present.

2nd Level: A few hours of time to prepare
If you only have a little time to prepare, the first thing you should do is practice your introduction. It’s the first time people hear you and it is your premium opportunity to establish a solid connection with your audience. The second thing to do is figure out your transition sentences. When does one idea end and another begin? Plan out each transition and practice it out loud. Last, practice your conclusion. An audience won’t know you haven’t practiced very much if your introduction, transitions, and conclusion are smooth.

3rd Level: At least one day to prepare
When you have a high-stakes project that you are presenting, it is critical to leave time to prepare. For these presentations, in addition to the introduction and conclusion, I suggest knowing the first and last sentence of every slide. This will drastically help the flow of your speech sound professional. If you can look at any slide and know how it begins and ends, you are ready to present. 
For more communication tips or to book a workshop, please visit www.activatetocaptivate.com.

One of the hardest tasks when putting together a presentation is figuring out what to edit. At the start, all the information seems necessary. However, an audience can only take in so much. If you overwhelm people with too much information, they start to tune out. Therefore, in order to keep your audience’s attention, it is critical to know how to distill your message.

To help you edit, here are three questions to ask yourself:

1. What do I want the audience to remember?
Too many tangents are hard to follow. Many presenters want to impress their audience and stuff too much information into their presentation. In one sentence, answer the question, “What do I want my audience to remember?” Knowing this statement will help you clarify your message and delete unnecessary information.

2. Will the presentation make sense without this information?
Whenever I am working with a client on a presentation, I always ask them, “Do you need that?” This question helps people distill their message, as well as edit the images on their slides. Remember, wanting to talk about everything and needing to, are two different things. If a piece of information is critical for your overall message, then keep it. If it’s not, get rid of it.

3. Can I remember this without my slides?
Once you’ve done your first round of editing, go through the presentation and see if you can remember the content without looking at your slides. If there is a section that is too hard to recall, this is a good indication that you have included too much information. Because, if you have a hard time remembering your presentation, then your audience will too. Go back through and see if you can make additional changes to distill your message even more.
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When you are crafting a compelling presentation, editing is critical.

Great presenters are aware that there are many variables in a presentation. While you can control the content and the delivery of a presentation, many other factors play a role in a presentation's success. Here are five things to think about to help you avoid disaster in your next presentation: 

1. Investigate Your Fears
You are your best critic and chances are you know where you are underprepared. Are you worried your presentation will be too long? It probably is. Are you worried you might forget information for a certain slide? You probably will. Are you worried you use too much technical jargon in your presentation? You probably do. Trust your gut. Figure out what you are uneasy about and take extra time to address these potential problems.

2. Prepare Without Technology 
Technology has a tendency to fail at the worst time. That’s why great presenters use PowerPoints to enhance their presentations, but they don’t need them. They know the information so well that if something does go wrong, they can still tell their story effectively without any aids. Make sure you know the information well enough that you could give your presentation with or without visual help.

3. Brainstorm Questions
The audience’s reaction to your presentation also depends on how you answer questions. Are there questions you hope the audience doesn't ask? Assume those questions will come up and practice your answers out loud. 

4. Take Improvisation Classes
A great presenter can think on their feet. If you are worried about being able to handle the unexpected, try taking some improvisation classes. I’ve seen firsthand how practicing improvisation can help people grow and learn to trust their instincts.

5. Practice Things Going Wrong
​The best way to avoid disaster, is to practice dealing with it. In a rehearsal, have a friend reorder your slides without telling you. Or, you could have a friend ask you a hard question in the middle of your speech. Bring in someone to help you explore how you handle numerous situations.

​When it comes to avoiding disaster, you have to think outside the box. Great presenters can overcome many obstacles. Give yourself the opportunity to experience dealing with the unexpected.

As a presentation coach, one of the questions I get asked the most is, “What do I do with my hands?” 
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While there are plenty of power poses and effective body language techniques I could explain, my first response is a little different. If you are worried about your hands, it means you are worried about YOU. How you look, how you are being perceived, how you are portraying the information. A presentation is not about you. It is about the audience. It is about trying to do something to the audience. If you are worried about yourself, it means you’ve shifted the focus inward. You need to redirect that attention out again.

Figure out what you are trying to do with your information. Why you are saying it? Do you want to excite your audience? Do you want to rattle them? What effect do you want this content to have? 
​
While there are specific motions and poses people can do to help maximize the effectiveness of a point, you can’t start there. Presentations can become too choreographed and staged. I want to listen to the genuine you. That can only happen if you start by thinking about the audience first. After you connect with them, you can work on making small moments stand out.

Interviewing for any position is nerve-wracking. You are entering an environment where your abilities are evaluated, analyzed and scrutinized. However, it is important to not let that pressure affect you. Here are some ways to overcome the stress of an interview and showcase your confidence: 

Breathe
​When you don’t breathe normally, your nervous system kicks in because your body isn’t getting enough oxygen. This causes your heart to beat faster which can make you feel nervous. That is why proper breathing is so critical. Before you enter the interview room, take long deep breaths. Stay as calm as possible. Continue this awareness in the interview room. When you are asked a question, don’t hold your breath as you listen. Breathe the whole time. If you notice you are running out of breath when answering questions, slow down. Proper breathing is the first step to staying calm and looking confident in an interview.

Body Language 
You don’t have to speak to communicate. Body language is often much louder than words and body tension is often read as insecurity. Before you enter the room, stretch your shoulders, neck and back. When you enter the room, imagine you are taller and wider than you are. During the interview, don’t collapse down into a small ball. Stay relaxed and open. When you leave the room, stand tall, smile and look them in the eye as you thank them. Let your body tell the interviewer that you are ready and excited about this opportunity.

​Ownership
Many people enter “defending mode” in an interview. They feel they have to justify their history, experiences and goals. You don’t have to defend anything. You need to own it. You are there to give your qualifications a voice. If you get an interview, they are already interested in knowing more about you. You’ve done everything you can to prepare. Now enjoy the chance to share your thoughts with a potential colleague. This is the time to bring your ideas and passion to life.

When you breathe normally, have open and relaxed body language and own your ideas, you can show the interviewer how confident and excited you are about this opportunity.