Research associate Interview Questions

a) I've never actually had someone refuse to help me when asked, but b) I would try ahead of time to get to know them so that when I need to influence them or need to request assistance, they already have a basic level of comfort with me.

I would answer this question by first stating that it is important to get to know how people are motivated on a personal level first. If they do not report to you then you might not have positional authority to ask them for a deliverable. At a company like Microsoft, I'm sure that there are jobs/roles that require people to get help/collaboration from people outside of their positional authority. To do this, you must first know what motivates a person and proactively make personal "deposits" to build some solid connections so that when you need to make a "withdraw" you have invested enough. Deposits can be made by taking an interest in someone, providing them with help when they need it, or maybe buying them lunch/drinks.

Thinking logically, formulating a plan, and approaching the situation with a level-head

Yes, I used volumetric pipettes in the multiple chemistry labs I had to attend in college. I also used air displacement pipettes in a high school chem class.

I replied that the project was industry-funded and because I was a student at the time the industry I was working for did not share enough proprietary details with me like they did with my advisor who was the first author on the paper. As a result it was easier and much faster for my advisor to write the paper up and add me on as a second author despite the fact that I did all the experimental work that was featured in it. The rest of the interview was excellent and the Professor collected my references and then e-mailed them separately for recommendations. In ~4 weeks time I was hired.

To do lists, calendars, reminders, prioritizing daily, communicate with team.

For research assistant jobs they want you to be able to use a statistical software package to manage data (STATA, R, SAS, SPSS, etc). Some projects use REDCap database.

Find out what the core business is and the statistics surrounding the core.