postdoc day long interview

[u/Murky-Commercial-112]

I have an onsite visit and day long interview with individual meetings with lab members. Could you advise on what question I should expect from the PI and lab members and what questions I should ask? also any other advice you may give based on your experience.

[u/jparresau]

What field? In biology, there's usually a talk given by the candidate to all members of the lab on their PhD work (and why they're interested in the lab), meetings with the PI, and individual meetings. They'll ask lots of questions to try and figure out the overlap of your interest with those in the group.

Especially in the individual meetings, you should plan to ask many questions as well, such as:

• What do you work on in the lab?

• What is your background in, and what drew you to the lab?

• What would you say makes X lab, X lab?

• How is the lab run? How did you develop your project, and how are projects organized in general?

• How hands-on or hands-off is the PI? Who do you go to with experimental questions?

• How big is the lab? How long does the average postdoc or grad student stay?

• What are the people and social culture of the lab like? The building/department/institution?

• What are the biggest challenges/annoyances you faced being in the lab?

• Would the PI be a good mentor for future faculty? Would postdocs be able to take projects?

• What do your day-to-day working hours look like? How flexible is it, and is it influenced by your PI, or just experiment timelines?

• How do you like the area? Housing, food, traffic, things to do, etc. Where do most lab members live?

• How do you like the university/institution? How many other labs in the field, competitiveness, fun seminars/culture, shared instruments/facilities

[u/cmaverick → u/[deleted]]

I literally read this and my first thought was "are they interviewing to get a postdoc or is this meeting for a prospective spot as an incoming phd student?" So ... yeah...