Physicist Interview Questions
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Physicist interview questions shared by candidates
Typically, questions surrounded technical content of the interview talk and also probed the expected area of expertise if this is not identical to the technical talk.
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The interviewers seem to appreciate honesty and healthy discussion of various questions. Research-related questions sometimes do not have pat answers so some discussion is needed. That seemed to work ok. Less
We know from elementary physics that if a point charge is moving in the X direction, in an area where there is a magnetic field in the Z direction, the charge will move in a circle because of the lorentz force. Now, lets say that the charge has zero velocity, and an observer moving in the -X direction is looking at our point charge. He will see the charge moving in the +X direction, inside the magnetic field, in a straight line. How is this possible in light of the lorentz force?
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The answer is that our observer will observe a different field than in the rest frame. We have to transform the electromagnetic tensor in order to know exactly what field the observer will see. In this case the observer will see an additional electric field that will cancel the effect of the lorentz force. Less
What is your salary expectation?
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I had researched the position and said I would appreciate a competitive compensation in lieu of the job responsibilities. (Ideal pay for this job in pharma industry is $110-120K), However I stated that because DFCI is a reputed AND non-profit organization, I am flexible on salary. I had expected them to pay at least 90-100K as that is what is listed on Glassdoor for this position at DFCI. Their eventual offer after much negotiations was MUCH lower than that. Less