Advice for the Job Interview

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Maintained by Harry E. Pence, Professor of Chemistry, SUNY Oneonta, for the use of his students. Any opinions are totally coincidental and have no official endorsement, including the people who sign my pay checks. Comments and suggestions are welcome (pencehe@oneonta.edu).

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Last Revised February 1, 2004

Some Hints for the Job Interview

Watch the schedule of placement visits to your campus carefully, and be sure to ask for an interview if you might be interested. It's a good idea to have some interview experience to prepare you for the job hunt, but don't waste an interviewer's time if you won't have any interest in his or her company. You should also consider signing up for a mock interview, provided by the campus placement office. They will videotape your performance and then evaluated it to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Some general suggestions for interviews

• You make a strong impression with your appearance as well as your verbal answers, so dress appropriately. You would like to look a little more formal than the people who are interviewing you but not too much. You don't want to interview for a job as a ditch digger when your are wearing a suit, nor do you want to interview for a professional position when you are wearing jeans and a torn T-shirt.
• Plan to arrive early. If you must travel some distance to reach the interview, be sure to allow extra time in case there is unexpected traffic congestion.
• Be polite and cheerful, and try to maintain eye contact with the interviewer. Don't smoke or chew gum during the interview.
• In some cases, you may be involved in several interviews in succession. Take advantage of breaks to use the toilet, even if you may not feel as though you need to yet.
• Prepare a list of your strengths in advance, then try to mention as many of them as possible in your answers to the interview questions.
• Bring several extra copies of your resume in case they are requested.

Remember that an interview is a two way street. The company is evaluating you, but you are also trying to decide whether or not you wish to work for the company. In most cases, asking questions suggests that you have done your homework, and so doesn't hurt your change for the job. To better understand both the employment market as well as the challenges that are facing companies today, you might well visit the Forbes 500 Listing, the 200 Best Small Companies in America, or the Annual Report on American Industry, all maintained by Forbes magazine. Questions for the job interview provides some questions that you may wish to ask. The ACS Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs also has a web site, which gives a few tips on What a B.S./B.A. Chemist should consider before accepting an industrial position. The Riley Guide is an excellent tutorial on job-hunting, and vault.com gives information about companies where you are sending your application. Another stop on the must-see list is the salary surveys at the Jobstar site.

Each interviewer develops his or her own set of questions, but the following are commonly used questions that you can think about as practice for the real thing.

• Describe your ideal job. What are your long-term goals?
• What made you decide that you wanted to be a chemist?
• Where would you like to be five (or ten) years from now?
• What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?
• From the viewpoint of one of your instructors, imagine how he or she would describe you.
• What did you do with your spare time when you were a student?
• What were your favorite courses and why?
• Which kind of job would you least like to have and why?
• It's a good idea to review your basic chemistry before going to the interview. You may be asked to determine the pH of a solution or asked how you would prepare a one molar solution of a NaCl.
• What is your greatest achievement in your life thus far?
• Describe one of your successes. Describe a case where you failed. What did you learn in each case?
• Do you work well under pressure? How do you respond to a job that requires you to do the same process over and over again?
• Where do you think you will be five years from now? ten years from now?
• If you have a short period of poor grades on your transcript, be prepared to explain what happened. Don't be surprised if the interviewer asks, "I notice that your grade in physical chemistry was much lower than the grades in the rest of your chemistry courses; is there a reason for that?"
• Why do you wish to work for this company?

You would probably like to know what salary you might get in an entry-level chemistry position as well as what your long-term expectations might be. Each year Chemical and Engineering News publishes valuable information about the current job market in chemistry and about what salary expectations might be realistic. The most recent salary and employment survey appeared in the Nov. 13, 2000 issue and the survey of starting chemistry salaries appeared in the March 13, 2000 issue. Chemical and Engineering News is one of the benefits you would receive as an ACS student affiliate member, which is another argument for joining the affiliate chapter on your campus.

How to Keep a Job Once You Have Been Hired.

Once you have found a job, there is no time to completely relax. Many companies are downsizing or restructuring, and you want to make every effort to insure that your job continues to be safe. Even if you are not looking for a new position, you should update your resume at least once a year. Of course, this is especially important if there are indications that your company may be downsizing. If you do receive word that you are going to be terminated, you may be so discouraged that you will find it to be hard to do all of the paperwork required for an effective job search. Therefore, you should prepare in advance.

The May 1, 1995 issue (pg. 15) of The Scientist offers some good suggestions that you should follow to provide as much security as possible. The following ideas may also be useful.

• Try not to let your focus become too narrow. Keep informed about the full range of your company's business, including the main competitors. Choose one or two trade journals that cover the business and read them regularly.
• Tending the Rolodex is a vital part of your career development. Keep an up-to-date list of people in your field who are familiar with your work. Once every six months to a year, you should contact these people so they remember you. Having lunch is not only a good opportunity to share ideas about the latest developments in your field, but these contacts may serve as both sources of job leads as well as references.
• Keep a record of the projects that you are involved in, with dates and a brief description of the role that you played. Facts like these are essential when writing a resume but can be hard to try to remember several years after the event. This information is especially useful if you have worked on project development or evaluation.
• Patents, publications, internal reports, and other concrete examples of your work can be valuable. Taking courses or even presenting training sessions yourself helps to create the image that you are keeping up with recent developments. Try to create a portfolio that will show off your accomplishments.
• Make sure that you are aware of the new communications technologies. Your company will probably be using e-mail and the World Wide Web, but even if you don't use them at work, become familiar with the capabilities of these modes of communication.
• Perhaps most important, be aware of the current developments related to your field.

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