Research Associate Interview Questions
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Research Associate interview questions shared by candidates
Some of the tasks you'll be required to perform are routine and monotonous. How will you deal with such routine tasks?
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Good answer!
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Mastering routine work allows me to complete tasks effectively in a high throughput manner. Hopefully, this will afford me with free time to learn and master more challenging techniques and better assist the team. Less
How do you influence people who do not report to you? How do you get them to do things even though they don't have to or want to?
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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. Less
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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. Less
The professor quizzed me on several technical aspects of a journal paper I was a co-author of. Most of them were manageable. He asked me what exactly my contribution was in that paper and why I was not first author on it.
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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. Less
How do you manage your time effectively?
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To do lists, calendars, reminders, prioritizing daily, communicate with team.
How would you go about doing research on a potential customer?
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Find out what the core business is and the statistics surrounding the core.