Advice

Marcus has been awarded 3 postdoctoral fellowships, and has been involved with many academic interviews; from both sides and at different levels.

He is often asked to give advice on postdoctoral fellowship applications and academic interviews.

Rather than doing this ad hoc, we hope that you find the following helpful.

Postdoctoral fellowship applications

The key things to keep in mind are that, most fellowships:

  • Have a long lead time. In many cases you'll need to apply 12-14 months before you start.
  • Have a <15% success rate. So it's always worth applying for several at a time. This is especially true as there are lots of good candidates and many fellowships share a fairly similar application structure - so you can iterate on your earlier applications.
  • Want you to demonstrate your independence. A fellowship is often a stepping stone to an independent position, so you need to demonstrate that you will not just be carrying on your previous PhD or postdoctoral work, nor simply working for your new mentor. Some ways to do this include: changing your mentor, moving to a new department or institution, or shifting your research focus or methods.

For your proposal, I recommend:

  • Find a big picture question which frames your future research. Ideally, you can concisely state this. For instance, my research aims to discover how brain structure shapes function.
  • Identify 2-3 directions your work could take (often termed work packages): WP1 - developing computational models. WP2 - analysing biological data.
  • Within each work package, define 2-3 concrete research questions. For example, in WP1 (above), we could ask: RQ1: what neural dynamics can minimal circuit models display? RQ2: How do neural network dynamics develop with task-training?
  • If possible, include a simple figure which explains your proposal or even your work packages. I would prioritise using this to communicate the key ideas / concepts, rather than to show actual data or results; which may be hard to follow and may prompt critical questions.
  • Finally, write simply and explain your ideas clearly. It will be hard for your evaluator(s) to get excited about your proposal if they cannot understand it! It is best to assume that they will not be experts in your specific area and, for some fellowships, they will be from a different field entirely.

Academic interviews

To prepare, make a document where you write out potential questions and answers (in the form of a few bullet points). You shouldn't try to memorise these answers, but it is good to think in advance about what your ideal answer would include.

Try to think about questions around three themes:

  1. Person - you and your background. For instance: Why would you like this position? What is a paper you like and why? Tell us about a research project you have worked on? If you have already published something, tell us about that?
  2. Project - your proposal. For example: Could you please explain your proposed project to us? What got you interested in this topic? Why would you like to work with your proposed supervisor? What if everything you planned didn't work out?
  3. Place - your proposed environment. For instance: Why is this department the right place for you and this project? Why would you like to come to this University specifically?

In general, you should try to:

  • Sound independent. Use phrases like: I did, my research, my PhD project proposal etc.
  • Keep your answers concise. Your interviewers may have a list of prepared questions to ask, and it's important to give them time to cover them. One thing that may help you is to think of a triangle ▲: give a short answer, then allow them to follow up if they like. You can even end your answer using a phrase such as: I'd be happy to talk more about that if you like.
  • For every answer try to draw from your CV. One way to do that is to use phrases like: During my master's degree..., working as a research assistant... etc.
  • Structure your answers using phrases such as:
    • I'll give two viewpoints. First... Second...
    • On the one hand... On the other...
    • I'll answer in terms of neuroscience and machine learning. From a neuroscience perspective... From a machine learning perspective...
    • In the short term... In the long term...

One last thing. For each person interviewing you - I would spend 5-10mins looking at their research (their website, recent publications, most cited publications etc) to try to get a feel for them and their expertise. This will help you to pitch your answers. Though, you should always try to explain everything clearly and avoid using technical terminology unless it is really necessary.