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.

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.

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

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.

They're looking for access, excel and word mostly. There is an IT department however so creating access programs isn't necessary as long as you know how to use it once a database is created.