What not to do during an interview November 21, 2013
Posted by mareserinitatis in work.Tags: blunders, faux pas, hiring, interview
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Fortunately, I get to tell you about someone else’s faux pax, not my own.
Nice change of pace, eh?
I’m interviewing students for a position right now. I have to admit it’s a bit weird because I really never saw myself as being in a position to hire someone. I’ve always been on the opposite side of the table before.
I’d say that most of the interviews have gone as expected, and I’m dreading the final decision. Except one interview was…odd. There always has to be one.
Based on my experience in this process, it’s not a good idea for someone to say, “Oh, I thought this was the other position you have open.” It seems to make the interview short and awkward. It also explained why this candidate was talking about things that I wasn’t sure were relevant. As you may have guessed, this particular candidate is not a good fit for the position.
Wanted: Short yellow guy with suspenders July 22, 2013
Posted by mareserinitatis in education, engineering, research, work.Tags: hiring, minion, students, supervising
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I may have some funding coming in for a project soon, and it looks like I will need to hire a student to help me with some work. Despite the fact that I have supervised students here and there, this will be my first time hiring my own minion. It has me a little worried. I have seen enough students come through to know that not every student will be as useful as the Minion was.
The easy answer is, obviously, to clone the Minion. Sadly, I lack the ability to do so. Even if I could, I’m worried I’d end up with the guy on the right:
Well, let’s be honest…I’m a bit worried I’ll end up with the guy on the left, too…although he has a lot more potential than Mr. Purple.
Some advice given to me by a more senior colleague (well, that’s pretty much all of them) was to come up with some really good questions. That is an excellent suggestion, except that I will probably want a student early on in their career who doesn’t necessarily need to know a whole lot in the field yet. I fully expect that, even if they were a senior, they’ll need some training to use our equipment (which they wouldn’t get in classes), and so it’s best if I find one who will be around a while.
No, I think I’m going to put together an obstacle course/logic test and check to see if they have the tenacity to get through it.
Can you imagine it? “Crawl through this tunnel carrying this PCB and, at the other end, hook up the impedance analyzer and provide me with the reactance at 2.5 GHz.”
I hope HR doesn’t mind…and I hope I can find an empty office so I have a place to do it. And I appreciate suggestions my readers may have for additional suitable obstacles.
The atheists strike back December 21, 2010
Posted by mareserinitatis in religion, science.Tags: gaskell, hiring
6 comments
There has been a lot of discussion the past couple days about Martin Gaskell, the astronomy professor who is suing University of Kentucky because he believes he was denied a job offer based on his religious beliefs. From the accounts I’ve read, it sounds like they flat-out asked him about his religious beliefs during his interview.
I have to concur with Gaskell: if they did in fact ask about his religious beliefs and his answer was used as a factor in his hiring, that is discriminatory.
The problem, however, is that I can understand why they were doing it: Gaskell’s background led them to question if he was going to misrepresent science through a religious lens. (After the many things I’ve read, it’s a question in my mind, too.) It is wrong to choose someone for a job based on their religion or lack thereof. However, it’s also stupid to hire someone for a position when they may be expected to do something as part of their job when it is likely that they will refuse due to religious issues. That, quite honestly, is an expensive lawsuit waiting to happen, and no one benefits (except the lawyers).
The focus, however, should not be on one’s religious beliefs: it should be on how one intends to do the job. If someone is religious, that shouldn’t factor into the hiring equation unless there is potentially a conflict of interest. The University of Kentucky apparently expected that this was the case. Rather than asking Gaskell about his religious beliefs, they should have asked what would have been a more relevant question: if you were approached by a child who told you that the Earth was 6000 years old but wanted to know what you thought, how would you respond?
If the response is that Gaskell would agree with the child, then I think it’s fair to say that he doesn’t have or is choosing not to utilize their background in science. He is instead choosing to ignore reams of data that show otherwise as well as letting their religious beliefs stand in place of his background knowledge and critical thinking skills. He is letting opinion or belief substitute for an understanding of the evidence. This is not a person you want to hire to do scientific work.
I don’t believe one should use religion as a criterion for hiring. On the other hand, I do believe that it is fair to expect that a candidate will uphold a standard of scientific integrity when the job is fundamentally that of a scientist. I think it is fair to ask how that person intends to uphold that standard. Because of the attacks on scientific integrity by the religious right, I think there has been a lot of anxiety about religion’s potential conflict with science. Scientists need to stay rational, however, and remember that religion isn’t the enemy: ignorance is.
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