Starting a career in science: the interview.

Kristin H. Kain is the Associate Reviews Editor and is based at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA ([email protected]) Interdisciplinary science offers new approaches to unsolved problems. Think about creative ways that your talents and experience might mesh with work in fields outside of your own Nice clothes, people guiding you from one office to another, a fancy dinner, and established scientists hanging on your every word; the scenario paints a dreamy picture, if only it were not in the context of a stomach-churning job interview. Many resources offer advice for the interview process. These discuss appropriate dress and hygiene and the expected professional conduct. The source for these types of ‘how to’ articles is usually from inside the ivory tower – the human resources (HR) or upper level people involved in hiring. We offer a different perspective and discuss what recent interviewees – who are now successful Assistant or Associate Professors at noteworthy research institutions – found most surprising, interesting and ultimately valuable, during their experience in the academic interview process. You might think, ‘the nerve of an editor to write such an article’, but I own this article because this format gives would-be authors the freedom to speak candidly about their experience. From my ‘objective’ position as an editor, I spoke with and surveyed many admired junior faculty and these suggestions stem from their collective knowledge. The hope is that their real experience with the inner workings of academia might facilitate the success of other new scientists to successfully climb aboard.