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4 Secrets To Ace Your Research Job Interview

Posted on October 28, 2019July 29, 2023 by Hassaan Tohid

This current blog is a continuation of my previous blog, in which I discussed how to find a research job. Now let’s say you got an interview call after the job search from a university lab, they are hiring a research assistant. They asked you to come for a job interview next week Wednesday morning 9:00 am. Now what are you supposed to do? What preparations do you need to make? How do you present yourself for this research job that you desperately want?

Remember, there are certain rules to get a job, you need to follow those rules. I want you to stop being nervous and consider this job interview as a practice interview. You want to set up a goal of 5-10 interview calls, your 5th interview should be your real target. It means that you are not going to this interview to be hired, you are just going over there to perform the best you can as a practice session. You are practicing meeting with people. If you are an immigrant who just moved to the United States, then this is a great opportunity to meet and mingle with people. I will repeat once again, you are going to this interview to practice interviews. The first job interview usually is not the job interview that you pass. But gradually you become better and better, and your communication skills improve, and you start to feel comfortable with the idea of job interviews. Your fear of job interviews gradually disappears.

I remember, when I went to my first real job interview, I was scared to death, my hands were sweaty, I was shivering with anxiety and fear. I had a strong and rapid heartbeat; I still remember it as if it was yesterday. It was the worst kind of feeling anyone can have. The interview surprisingly went well, yet I didn’t get that job because of a bad luck that I will discuss in some other blog. Then I went to another interview, then another, then another interview one after another. Now I started to enjoy the process because I was so comfortable by the idea of giving a job interview that I knew what they would ask, and what I need to do. As a result of going to one job interview to another, finally at my 5th or 6th interview, I got the job.

After that job, I switched some jobs, and my interview passing rate was 100 percent. I got every single job I got interviewed for (Remember, I still applied for hundreds of places and got hundreds of rejection, but I am talking about the actual interviews here, because when you apply at hundreds of places, you get a call for an interview from 2-3 places, and you want to pass those 2-3 interviews).

Eventually a time came that, I had two offer letters in my hand, with the same salary and same position and job description. Where people struggle to get a job, and pray for it all the time, I had two offer letters, with both places waiting for me to join. I chose the one I liked better. Since then I have been helping others clear their job interviews.

With this experience and helping and coaching others, I learned some secrets to ace a job interview. I am going to share those secrets with you. The following are the secrets:

THE SECRETS OF SUCCESSFULLY PASSING A RESEARCH JOB INTERVIEW

1• GROOM AND DRESS WELL

Make sure you are dressed well and groomed and clean. No one wants to hire a person dressed like a hobo. Life is not a movie, where a hero goes for an interview in dirty clothes and still gets hired. It probably happened to Will Smith in Pursuit of Happiness and it was a real story, but it is one in a million cases. Everyone wants to hire nice, cleaned and groomed people. In short, everyone wants the best candidate.

Now just think about it, will you eat something that looks nasty? That looks bad and unhygienic? Will you eat a food item that smells bad? No one likes it and no one wants it. I ask this to girls reading this blog, if a nasty smelling, badly dressed guy proposes to you, will you marry him? Same question to the guys, will you marry a smelly, unhygienic girl?

Consider your job as a marriage proposal and remember there are many other candidates who want this opportunity. You must look great, you must look pretty, you must look handsome, you must look well groomed, and use perfume or cologne and brush you hair and teeth very well. You should be the best-looking candidate on the job interview day.

2• BE ON TIME

Once I was interviewing some candidates for a job vacancy that we had, I was the decision maker. I interviewed almost 11 people if I remember correctly m, for this job interview. Finally, I was confused between the two candidates, both had similar experience, similar background, and similar qualification. We called them for another interview for the final decision. The main thing we looked for was, whoever is late today in arriving at the office, even a single minute, will be rejected. Both came on time though. Then we decided on some other factors and made the final decision. But what was the first factor considered? Being on time. So be on time, ideally reach 15-20 minutes early. Keep traffic under consideration and finding the office and finding the parking space. Many candidates think 9:00 am means 9:00 am. No…. 9:00 am means you should be done parking by 8:30 am and get out of the car go to building, find the interview room, it can easily take 15 minutes or longer. Then you knock the office or the lab door at 8:45 am. This punctuality is looked at carefully by the interviewers and it is really considered seriously, don’t ignore it.

3• DON’T BRAG ABOUT YOUR QUALIFICATIONS INSTEAD DO THIS

Many candidates think that bragging about their achievements in the interview will give them a job. Remember, you already bragged about it on your resume or CV, thats why you are invited for the interview. Now they want to see if you really are what you claimed on your CV. Bragging with your degrees and work experience will not do anything here. They want to see if you really know the skills you claimed you have.

Or are you that kind of person who has degrees and diplomas, but is unhygienic and has no sense of dressing and cleanliness? Do you respect others? Do you have manners? And do you respect their time by being on time? There are so many things they are looking for, and I will not discuss other things that you need to know, in this blog. I will keep those points for another blog on job interviews. Here we are discussing about research job mainly. When you are in front of the job interviewer who is highly likely be a senior scientist or a professor, be ready to talk about your publications, remember, your interview mainly will revolve around your publications. This is the main part of your CV they will talk about. If you don’t have publications, then you better have a good explanation why you don’t have it and what are you doing to learn to write and become a published author as soon as possible. If you already have papers published, then you should remember the outcome of your research articles. If they ask you about one of your publications and you don’t remember the key findings, you will give an impression that probably you didn’t work on that article and someone else wrote it for you and you just got your name as a coauthor in publication.

Another skill they will highly likely discuss is statistical data analysis. Therefore, never ever lie on your CV. They will catch your lie immediately if you lie about it. Be ready to be asked about some basic questions on statistics and software programs like SPSS, R, Python, RevMan, AFNI etc.

So, it’s a smart thing to revise your basics of statistics quickly before the interview. I would suggest just read a short book on statistics or watch a basic statistics video. If you know advance statistics, then it’s the best time to revise it, because it will really impress the interviewer. You got to brag with actions by showing your knowledge rather than just bragging without any substance.

4• BE A GIVER NOT A TAKER

That is the most important part of the interview, which weighs more than anything else. Most people when they go for a job interview, they go there to ask for a job. Every single candidate that is interviewed is looking to get something. The candidates don’t understand that the employer is also looking to get something as well. They are looking to get a great candidate. When you ask for a job, it seems like you are inferior, and the interviewer is superior. This reduces your influence during the interviews. I want you to follow this strategy from now on wards. When you go for a job, remember you are there to give something, rather than take something from them. Now just think about it, when someone comes to us and wants to get something from us, we immediately subconsciously become protective and want to get rid of them, but if someone comes to give us a gift, how will we react?

People who offer us something we tend to like them; we want to be around them. So just change your approach from now onward, instead of going to ask for the job, go to an interview and tell them what you can do for them, what you have to offer, how you can solve any of their problems. Ask questions, ask them what is the current problem they have in their lab? Is it data collection? Or research writing? Or computer related work? Just ask a lot of questions and dig deeper and find the problem. Now present the solution on how you can solve this problem for them. Now show them what you can offer and how you can help them handle this situation. This is how you get a job. You don’t get a job by begging for a job. You get a job by being a giver and a problem solver.

CONCLUSION

By grooming and taking good care of your physical appearance, and being on time, demonstrating your knowledge, and by being a giver and a problem solver, your practice job interview can turn out to be the interview that gives you the job.

The Diet Plan Of The Most Successful Scientists Of The World

Posted on October 25, 2019July 29, 2023 by Hassaan Tohid

It is an open secret that in order to be successful we must emulate successful people. We should schedule our day like successful people, we should behave like them, we should spend our life like them. If we want to be physically fit, we need to follow what the physically fittest people do, we need to follow their diet plan and their exercise routine.

Now if you want to be a successful scientist then you need to do what successful scientists do. What is that secret diet that will make you an expert scientist? I will discuss that in detail what expert scientists eat each day, and if you eat that every day, you will become a successful scientist. Now the question is, does it sound logical? Does it make sense to you that if you follow certain diet plan, you will become a scientist? Now let me discuss the breakfast plan, lunch, and the dinner plan of the most successful scientists each day. I promise you, that the diet plan mentioned in this blog will not just make you a scientist but it will make you one of the greatest scientists around.

THE DIET PLAN OF THE GREATEST SCIENTISTS:

BREAKFAST DIET

The morning diet of the successful scientists is not what you are thinking about. I know you expect me to give a magical eating formula to you that the successful scientist eat every day like a particular brand of bread, a special butter, a unique jam, some vegan toast, or some special coffee extracted from the remote village of Bahamas. I am sorry to disappoint you, because there are all kinds of best scientists, diabetic scientists, obese scientists, heart patients, and many more. There is no universal diet plan that makes you a scientist. The morning diet plan of every successful scientist is that they “read”. They read recently published articles in scientific journals, or read some sort of book on their specialty. This is their morning diet, and I want you to follow that diet. Some scientists attend morning seminar because they consider it very fruitful for themselves. Some scientists read text books on their specialty, while some scientists write their manuscripts early in the morning. Some scientists just meditate, while some scientists just read minimum one abstract in their specialty published in a renowned journal. Some scientists read journals of which they have the monthly subscription. Some scientists just go for a walk, some exercise, and they all eat just like us. Because what you eat doesn’t make you a scientist, what you do every day makes you a scientist. This is the morning diet of the successful scientists. Are you willing to adopt any of these diet plans I mentioned? Can you also have a similar breakfast? I think you can…

DAILY LUNCH DIET

What do the best scientists eat for lunch? At the lunch hour they are working hard on their project, they are either brainstorming, or thinking about their study or their project. Some scientists are busy writing their articles. They eat what all of us eat as humans. But one thing is for sure, they don’t waste a lot of time eating, they have a quick lunch, so that they are back on track on their mission and their goal. The project they are working on is their mission. Their day time is their best time to focus on their task, they never waste that time. You should do the same.

DAILY DINNER PLAN:

The dinner of a scientist is a very important diet. What do they eat? They eat the knowledge they acquire from different books, from different research articles, and from different seminars that they attended at the breakfast or lunch time. They revise the notes they took from those seminars or webinars, or the brainstorming meetings they attended. Many other scientists consider the dinner time as the family time and they have a wonderful family dinner just like all of us. There is no supernatural diet that any scientist used that made him a scientist. The scientists become what they are because of the hard wok , diligence, determination, dedication, learning, and improving themselves.

CONCLUSION:

If there is a diet plan that can make you a scientist, it is hard work, continous learning, reading, brainstorming, thinking, educating oneself, and self improvement. There is no magic diet or plan or recipe that can make you a scientist. I am sorry to disappoint you, but being a scientist is a combination of certain qualities rather then eating certain food items, whoever can possess these qualities will become a scientist. Any of us can be a scientist, but the one who eats the kind of breakfast, lunch, and dinner I mentioned in this blog will be one day considered as one of the greatest scientists around. Do you want to start this diet?

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

The Four Secrets Of Completing A Research Paper Fast

Posted on October 24, 2019July 29, 2023 by Hassaan Tohid

The research paper writing has become an essential part of the lives of almost all professionals belonging to all walks of life nowadays. Whether you like it or not, you have to write and publish research papers for promotions, salary raise, respect and finding better jobs. The challenge is the lack of proper step by step guidance. I will discuss the step by step approach in any of the upcoming blogs soon, however, in this blog I will focus on the speed of writing and completing a research paper. How do you write a research paper is already a challenge, then another challenge that bothers students is how to complete it before the deadline. If you follow the following four rules of rapid writing, you will complete the paper fast.

DECIDE

Many students just wish to write a research article, but it is merely a wishful thinking. They never really decide to complete the article on time. The decision is something that you take as the point of no return, that you say, “no matter what happens, I will not stop “until” I achieve my goal.” Many people don’t have that decision making power. The first step is always to decide the deadline, your school, college, or university deadline could be different, but you should have a personal deadline for your own paper. Preferably, a week before the real deadline. This will motivate you and force you to complete your task. This will encourage you to finish your paper fast.

Make a promise to yourself that you will finish the task before the deadline, no matter what happens, you will not stop and quit. The strength of your decision will be determined by the “reasons” you have to complete your article on time. Write down the list of possible reasons why you want to complete this article. The more the reasons, the stronger your why, the stronger your decision and commitment will be. Most people who don’t achieve their goals, have no reason or very few reasons to achieve their goals. The more reasons you have the bigger and stronger your WHY would be. Work on making your WHY bigger and bigger and your will be able to complete your task. The power of your decision will be stronger and stronger with each WHY you can come up with. Simply thinking of whys is not enough as well. You must write those whys down. Writing does one magic, it involves your sense of touch and the sense of vision together, when you involve multiple senses it creates an everlasting effect on your mind. Follow these suggestions, and you will really benefit from it.

PRIORITIZE

You should prioritize your goal of finishing a research article. Many students want to write a paper, but they cannot stop watching TV, movies, surfacing Facebook, and other social media. Most of their day and time is spent on these useless things. Everyone has limited high energy hours, and many students waste those high energy hours surfing social media, then they want to work on their article when all of their energy is lost. No wonder they cannot complete their research paper on time. How could you complete it, when you are not in your best energy levels? You need high energy levels to use your mind and your hands to write. The mind cannot work when you are tired or about to sleep. The research article should be your priority, priority means everything should come after that. Analyze your own-self and see what is the best energy time for your mind and body? And use that to write the article rather than doing it when you are down and tired.

MAKE THE DEADLINE VISIBLE

Another important secret all successful people use to complete their tasks is to post the deadline everywhere in their surroundings, so they can look at it again and again. You need to write the deadline or type it and print it, then stick it on a wall or a door where you can see it every single day. Our mind gets 60 thousand thoughts each day, it is impossible to remain focused and remember the deadlines easily because of too many responsibilities at hand. The best solution is to remind yourself again and again about your deadline. How do you remind yourself? By deliberately forcing yourself to look at the deadline again and again as much as possible. Try it, and you will really be able to finish your paper on time.

ONE DAY AT A TIME

It is commonly said, that if you are asked to eat an elephant, how do you do it? The answer is “one bite at a time”, of course metaphorically. But what does this example mean? It means that if you have a bigger and challenging task at hand, you need to divide it into small steps and tasks. Now if you have a research article pending, how do you finish it? Do something everyday, write something everyday. I would suggest, first count how many days you have? Then decide how many paragraphs your article will have, if its 20 paragraphs, then complete the article in 20 days. One paragraph a day…. simple. Can’t you do that? Everyone can do that. How much time does one paragraph takes? Hardly an hour if you are an average speed writer. See how easy it is to complete your paper… unfortunately many students are so lazy, they cannot even find one hour per day for one paragraph. A paragraph is around 5 lines to half a page only. The excuse they usually give is that I don’t have time. You don’t have time because you never scheduled the task. Now I am telling you another open secret, schedule the time of writing. Set up an alarm in your cellphone that everyday at one particular hour you will write only one paragraph or 5 lines to half a page. And you will gradually see your task becoming easier and easier. That is how you write and complete your paper fast. Maximum in 20 days or may be a month the latest. Now do you have any excuse left of not completing your research paper?

CONCLUSION:

Proper planning and management can help you complete your paper fast. Decide that you will finish it before the deadline. Prioritize it, then write the deadline and post it somewhere you can see everyday. And last of all, follow the philosophy of one bite at a time. If you do that, you will finish not just your article in time, but anything before the deadline. This is the real science of completing the tasks.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

How To Decide A Research Topic

Posted on October 22, 2019July 29, 2023 by Hassaan Tohid

The research topic selection is a daunting task for most researchers who plan to write a research article . In most of my webinars and classes, the most commonly asked question with consistency is about the selection of a research topic. The research topic selection becomes very easy if we follow two rules discussed below. I learned these rules with experience, and I am providing you with these rules to save a lot of your time. Now let’s discuss the two rules of the art of topic selection for a research article.

THE FIRST RULE:

The first and the most important rule of topic selection is to first discover what you are passionate about. You need to have a clear idea about your passion. This is also the statement that most of us have heard at some point in our lives, yet we don’t know how to discover passion. Your passion is something you love the most, a subject or a topic that you most like to talk about, or most like to enjoy studying or reading about. Is economics the subject that you enjoy the most, or is it medicine? Or is it engineering? What kind if engineering? You cannot just say I love medicine as a subject to decide a research topic, because you have to narrow it down. Narrow it down to one specialty. The same concept is valid for engineering, economics, history or whatever field you belong to.

How do you discover your passion is the topic of another blog that I will write soon, however, in this blog I would just like to focus on the rules of topic selection. Why deciding the topic of your passion is important? It is important because you need to select a topic that you enjoy rather than getting bored. If you get bored, you will not be able to complete your paper.

THE SECOND RULE:

Many people forget this when they choose the topic they are passionate about, that we should give the fish the worms not ice cream to eat, this is the philosophy by Dale Carnegie. Now what does that mean? It means that fish eats worms, it cannot eat ice cream, if you try to feed ice-cream to fish, it will die.

Many authors try to write an article that is solely about their own passion and interest. They forget the fact that the final decision about publishing is that of the journal. You cannot publish an article if the journal doesn’t want it or like it. Now this may sound contrary to what I mentioned in the first rule, but if you read it carefully, I said in the first rule that you should write what you are passionate about but in second rule I said that “your passion should be in demand.” If you are passionate about a topic and the topic is boring for the rest of the world, then no one will publish your article. Therefore, always write an article on a topic that you are passionate about but that topic should be the topic that is trending, or the topic that you feel will interest other readers as well. You should also analyze whether the journal you are targeting has been publishing these kinds of papers or not? In conclusion, what I said was, don’t be self-centered while deciding your topic. Your focus should be the service to mankind and others, the selfish passion (that doesn’t benefit anyone) will not take you anywhere. Your passion should be useful for others, the topic should serve others, it should help others, it should be a trending topic, and last of all it should be also of interest for general population. You can figure this out by a quick survey, by including 50-100 people that what particular aspect of your passion related topic people would be more interested in, this will give you a fair bit of an idea about what to focus on. May be just ask your friends’ or family’s vote, siblings and cousins can come in handy for this voting that what is in trend these days. Ask any friend, sibling, or cousin who is always on social media, that relative or friend will tell you what is in trend. For example, everyone knows Baby Shark is in trend these days, how about a research topic on why kids love the song Baby Shark? It is a very good Psychology Topic.

Another approach could be, search your passion related topic and see what is being published these days related to your topic and how much is the attention that topic is getting. If you follow these two rules, you will write an outstanding article and successfully publish it in a scientific journal.

LESSON LEARNED:

Select a topic that you are passionate about but don’t be selfish while selecting the topic. Your topic should serve others. Analyze what particular aspect of your passion is in trend and journals would be interested in publishing. Otherwise, in the end you will probably complain and say that “I chose the topic related to my passion but my article never got published!”

Dr. Hassaan Tohid