Science & Technology Interview Questions & Answers

My initial telephone interview was with a member of the graduate recruitment team, and it lasted 45minutes. After having a brief chat about what the interview would involve, he started asking questions. It was standard competency based interview asking me to describe a moment in my life that applied to the question and how I dealt with the situation. I was also asked about my CV and relevant qualifications as well as why I felt I was suited to a job within the MOD and DSTL.

Describe a situation where you were working with a group of people from a variety of different backgrounds, and got into difficulty having to use the different skill sets of each person to solve the situation.

Make sure you chase up the company if you feel it has been an unusually long time since you last heard anything, it doesn't hurt to be overly enthusiastic.

I passed the telephone interview stage and was told I would be contacted shortly regarding an assessment centre date. However I didn't hear anything until over a month later when I got an email saying that all the assessment centre dates at the moment were full and I'd get an email soon notifying me of an alternate date. I then didn't hear anything back until 6MONTHS LATER, with a short email essentially saying that they'd forgotten about me and there was no longer a vacancy but they'd keep my CV on file.

I was e-mailed by an administrator after applying for the role (by completing an online application form, submitting my CV and personal statement) that I had been invited to interview in around 1.5 weeks' time. I arrived in plenty of time and thought I had prepared enough by revising my undergraduate dissertation and bits about my placement and postgraduate literature review. Unfortunately, I hadn't prepared enough and I spent too much time explaining the background to my project topic (Toxoplasma gondii, it's discovery and how it was eventually identified in many areas globally but that older misconceptions could not explain these occurrences as it was thought the parasite could only survive in the felid intestine, yet it turned out it could survive just as successfully outside of the felid in other secondary hosts), so overall I struggled through the interview as I was under-prepared. Yet I have since asked my undergraduate university for help with interviews and will hopefully soon go on to do well at interviews I have lined up very soon.

Sometimes it could be a very easy question (or in this case it should be for me who completed a Masters in Stem Cells and Regeneration) you weren't expecting: twice this happened to me.

1) I was asked on one occasion "so in layman's terms, what is a stem cell?" and although I knew what one was I couldn't put it succinctly and proficiently into a sentence, I replied with "it is a cell that can form many other cell types by differentiating along specific lineages" - so I really hadn't answered the question, it wasn't in layman's terms as the panel had to ask me later on "what is a lineage?" and I hadn't stated that there were different types of stem cells and that they don't always form many different bodily tissues e.g. somatic stem cells and progenitors are uni or oligopotent - so can only make a cell that is anatomically close to them i.e. a cardiac progenitor will make a cardiac cell. Moreso, I hadn't also said that stem cells can proliferate for extended periods in culture and are developmentally younger than residents cells whose biological fate has been decided.

2) Also I was asked "what techniques I might expect to need to learn or improve upon in order to fulfill my role?" - really this was all provided in the person specification of the advertisement e.g. fluorescence microscopy, qRT-PCR, cell culture etc. but I had focused my efforts on remembering all about my previous work rather than considering what was needed of me in this role, so I stumbled through by giving one example "fluorescence microscopy" followed by a lot of 'erms' which is no good at all!

Make sure you have a healthy knowledge in balance between your work/achievements and the work you are going to do with the company you apply for; don't get caught short either side by knowing too much about yourself but not enough about the company or vice versa

I arrived on my own and at the time was the only person being interviewed (I think this was purposely carried out so that only one person was called to be interviewed each day or at markedly different times). I notified reception of my arrival, waited for around 15 minutes, was taken upstairs by an administrator who seated me outside the interview room for a further 10 minutes, then I was called in and sat in front of an academic panel of 4 (3 of which were my supervisors, 1 of which was an external examiner), I was quite nervous - the interview was very formal and some appeared more friendly than others and I never really eased into it, though I was happier that my potential supervisors were actually present rather than a previous interview where I was being interviewed by unrelated academics; the interview lasted around 40 minutes (including me asking the panel questions).

My interview lasted for 1h 15mins on the phone. This time comprised mainly of six different sets of competency questions assessing e.g. team work, leadership, creativity and ability to deal with difficult situations and people. The woman on the phone was rather nice, however she had to push me a lot for more detail in some of my answers. I had prepared answers to expected topics, however the questions I got combined several of these competencies, making it difficult to come up with a good thorough answer on the spot. The remainder of the interview dealt with my knowledge of the company, especially their competitors and products.

Describe a situation where you have had to make a difficult decision quickly and where you have demonstrated ability convince others of your views and decisions.

Be confident, speak loud and clearly and be lively, try to smile whilst talking on the phone as if you were talking to a person in front of you. Your voice can make a big difference. Stop to think if you need time.

I did not get through to the assessment centre stage

The interview for all STP trainee positions take place in Birmingham. They include 4 interviews/assessments, in a 'speed-dating' type setting.

You have 10 minutes at each station, where you are interviewed by 2 people at each. 2 are based on your specialism (Medical Physics in my case), one was general Science and Maths, and the fourth was more questions you'd typically get for any job interview, about your aspirations and motivation to apply for the job as well as a chance to get your personality across.

Some in depth medical physics questions, which without my MSc in Medical Physics would have been very hard (it is not required that you have medical physics experience, only Physics and Maths).

Before the assessment/interview day, numerical, logical and verbal reasoning tests were carried out online, these were very difficult.

Read around the subject you are to specialise in, as well as general scientific knowledge.

Read journal articles / magazines such as New Scientist.

Join up to IPEM / other relevant professional body if offered before/after the interview takes place.

It was very well organised, with each interviewee being given a starting table, and a way to move around to the other 3. Also a bell is rung to identify when each 10 minute interview should be finished. The trainee is then given a 2 minute break while the interviewers make notes.

I was invited to the venue near Fareham to arrive at 8:15am where I was provided with a security badge for the day. After a presentation from the graduate team about working for DSTL we performed a group exercise in which (there were 7 candidates) we had 45 minutes to choose a solution to a worldwide problem, world hunger. We were given a set of solutions and we had to come to an agreement on one of them. Half of us then went off for a break whilst the other half had their interviews. We then switched over (after a security check) and I went for my interview. It lasted just under an hour for which the first ten minutes I was asked to give a short prepared presentation on my final year project. After this I was asked questions on my presentation and then general questions related to the role and my skills and development through university. After the interview was finished I was invited to ask the two interviewers questions that I had and then I was taken back into the main room for sandwiches and refreshments with the other candidates

I was asked simply how I felt if changed as a person throughout university, which was a great question but very difficult to answer.

Don't worry too much. The assessment centre only involves a few other candidates and isn't as high pressure as it can be for other places. The interviewers were very friendly and although I was nervous they did put me at ease very quickly. However if you are interviewing at the portsdown west campus do not walk there from the train station! You run out of footpath and before you know it you're walking up a muddy hill on the side of the road wishing you'd booked a taxi.

The assessment centre was mostly the group excercise as described earlier, although we did have to complete a verbal and numerical reasoning test before the interview was held