Chemistry Interview

Insider tips!!!

Want to know what turns on and off recruiters, then you are at the right place.  I have put down some points which I recollected from my experiences.  The first thing you got to remember is that there is a concern behind every question the interviewer asks for.  In most of the companies recruiters who interview chemists and chemical engineers at all levels are look to find candidates who can exhibit technical mastery, show passion, communicate clearly and work well in teams.  Recruiters try to zero down on some of some of the important characteristics of chemists by asking questions such as: Can you tell me about your research (present a clear and concise description of their current research project)? How would you describe your strengths and weaknesses? Describe a time when you have demonstrated your leadership skills. Tell me what you like or don't like about your supervisor.

Interviews are job seekers' best chance to showcase their qualifications in the best possible light but it is good for candidates to cite any of their accomplishments at the end which were not mentioned earlier.  Make sure that you don’t promote yourself excessively like putting up a show of your awards, rewards, certificates in chemistry (you can include all these in your resume).

Now that we have seen some ways when recruiters turn on now we will see what are some of the ways of turning off recruiters during an interview? an arrogant attitude and stretching the truth to sell yourself do not work well, recruiters say. Don’t overstep and know your boundaries.

What if you getting nervous to attend an interview? Take a deep breath and let it out slowly, relax. Look at your interviewer in the eyes and greet him by name (if you know it) combined with a affable handshake and a pleasant smile, and say, "I'm glad to meet you. How are you today?”  All this starts off a good beginning.

Don’t be friendly with recruiters be professional. Recruiters are not there to make friends or to engage in gusty conversation with the candidate. Their main task is to weed out people out, and narrowing the field to a few.  Recruiters first examine a candidate's technical and communication skills set to evaluate whether the candidate has the capacity to do the work or not. Then they look at leadership skills, motivation, ability to set goals and achieve, if the candidate will succeed on the job.  Coming to the term leadership don’t get confused by it.  Suppose something good happened while you were in that position so tell them as a individual what difference did you make so that it happened.

Recruiters refer to technical, communication, and fit as the deciding factor and they assign the rating differently. Appearance and communication skills are important only to a point and chemists are not highly trained lab technicians but they can think on their own.

Some of the recruiters do homework for each interview by gaining some knowledge up on the candidate's research field. That way he can ask critical questions about the science and go beyond the questions which can be answered with ease. They ask candidates why they approached their research in a certain way and challenge them to look at the same problem using alternate solutions. A honest "I'm not sure" answer is not taken negatively.

Hope i helped you to some extent!