Round one
- Take one-minute to prepare
- Find one other person you
DO NOT know…
- At signal, begin (and end…)
- Start with the handshake…
Remember…it’s not a very tall building…
Round one: review
As Associate Dean, give feedback:
- Name 2 – 3 key things you heard
- Could you explain to some else her area of research?
- Rate confidence level
- Rate enthusiasm level
- Rate hand shake
- The art of confident handshakes…
Rating Scale:
3 = Great!
2 = Okay
1 = Needs work!
Could be better
Round two
- Jot down 2 – 3 key messages you want to communicate
- Repeat process with new person
- Still not a very tall building…
For example…
[RRK does her elevator speech with 2 to 3 key points]
Round two: review
As Associate Dean, give feedback:
- Name 2 – 3 key things you heard
- Could you explain to some else her area of research?
- Rate confidence level
- Rate enthusiasm level
- Rate hand shake
- The art of confident handshakes…
Rating Scale:
3 = Great!
2 = Okay,
1 = Needs work!
Could be better
During the campus visit…more words of advice
- When gender matters and when it doesn’t…
- What to wear and how to wear it!
- When to ask questions and what questions to ask…
- Giving a technical presentation vs. teaching a class
Anatomy of a good technical presentation (1)
Introduction - 10 Minutes
- Get them excited
- Why is your work important?
- Background to understand it
Anatomy of a good technical presentation (2)
The
MEAT – 25 minutes
- What you did (OK to sacrifice detail for clarity, not too simplistic)
- What it means
- Summarize as you go
- Only the experts should follow the last 10 minutes of this part of the talk
Anatomy of a good technical presentation (3)
The Implications – 10 minutes
- What does this mean for the future of your field?
- What direction will you take the work?
- Leave everyone with a feeling of excitement about the future
Important details
- Clean slides, No typos, Large font
- Outline easy to follow – help people stay with your talk
- Rehearse for knowledgeable audience
- Not too long or too short
- Reference work of others in the field, especially if they will be in the audience
- Practice answering questions
- Don’t get defensive
- Check out the room and projector ahead of time
- Have a backup of your presentation!!
- Begin by saying, “Good Morning! It’s such a pleasure to be here.”
- At the end, say, “Thank You, I’d be happy to take any questions.”
Questioning activity
Expect the unexpected: “hard” questions
- I don't think you've accounted for the research of Barnes and Bailey. Aren't you familiar with their model? I think it invalidates your main hypothesis.
- Unpublished research in my lab shows exactly the opposite effect. You must not have done the proper controls.
- I believe a simple non linear equation explains all your data. Why have you wasted your time on such a complex model?
- (To the candidate) Well you didn't even account for phenomena x. (Aside to the audience) How can all this research be valid if she didn't account for x?
- How does this differ from the basic model that we teach in sophomore transport?
- It looks like you've done some interesting modeling. Is there an application of this work?
- What a wonderful little application. Is there any theoretical support?
- Those results are clearly unattainable. You must have falsified your data.
- You've done some interesting work, but I don't see how it could be considered engineering. Why do you think you are qualified to teach engineering?
- Your work appears to be a complete replication of Fujimoto's work. Just what is really new here?
Good responses to hard questions
- “That’s a really good question...thank you for asking it.”
- “You make a very good point…I have a couple responses…”
- “We’ve discussed this question a lot in our research group and here’s what I think…”
Final thoughts…
Strategies for Avoiding Interviewing Pitfalls
- Being too collaborative
- Being too “easy” (“Rice is my first choice!”)
- Failing to ask questions about the work of your host
- Focusing too much on social aspects of department/city
Preparing tuesday’s talk
- Who’s your audience?
- How long?
- What’s the setting? (AV needs?)
- What kind of feedback will be given?
- What if you
bomb ?
Questions?
Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ph.D.
Professor, BioengineeringRice University
Sherry E. Woods, Ed.D.
Director of Special ProjectsUniversity of Texas at Austin
