双语|如何寻找、申请和选择博士后职位-面试篇（二）

对于想做博士后的学者，如何寻找、申请及选择博士后职位，这位美国神经科学家给出了提示和建议。知识人网小编采用双语对照的形式分别叙述。本篇为面试篇（二）。

The Visit - chats with the PI

考察 - 与导师的交流

It's time to talk to the PI. This tends to happen at the end of your visit. Some times an offer may even be extended in this meeting, although oftentimes the PI will wait until they've heard feedback from other lab members on how the rest of your visit had gone before extending an offer to you. Think of this as the "tough questions" meeting. They're not really tough, but some of them may be intimidating to ask. Just remember, you're highly skilled at this stage and will likely be underpaid (sigh), so you have every right to ask direct questions and advocate for yourself. Just like above, I will list a bunch of questions here that you might want to bring up in your conversation. But, let's start with what you should be prepared to be asked about too.

是时候与导师交流了。这通常发生在你的考察结束时。有时，甚至可能会在这次会议中就发出offer，虽然通常情况下，导师会等到收到其他实验室成员对你的考察情况反馈后再发出offer。我将此视为“棘手问题”会议。问题并不是真的很难，但其中一些可能会让人望而生畏。请记住，你在这个阶段的技能已经很高，然而可能工资会被低估（叹息），因此你有权直接提问并为自己辩护。就像上面一样，我将在这里列出一些你可能希望在谈话中提出的问题。但是，先让我们从你也应该准备好需要回答的问题开始。

Questions you should be prepared to answer

你应该准备好需要回答的问题

(these may not be asked directly like how I'm wrting them, but be ready to answer the spirit of the question)

（这些问题可能不会像我写的那样直接问，但请准备好回答问题的精神）

• Describe your scientific findings in your PhD and why it's important to the field. Be able to put it in context of what's known and show that you're excited about it. Even if it's not directly relevant to the work of the lab you're interviewing in.

• 描述你在博士学位期间的科学发现以及对该领域的重要性。要能够将其置于已知情况的背景下，并表明你对此感到兴奋。即使它与您正在面试的实验室的工作没有直接关系。

• Why are you interested in our group? They will expect you to be able to articulate what put their lab on your radar. Hopefully, some version of this answer was already in your initial email to the PI, but this is an opportunity to really emphasize your background and future interests and how this lab fits within that context.

• 你为什么对我们的团队感兴趣？他们会期望你能够清楚地说明是什么让他们的实验室引起你的注意。希望你给导师的最初电子邮件中已经提供了此答案的某个版本，但这是一个真正强调你的背景和未来兴趣，以及这个实验室如何适应该背景的机会。

• Do you have a research project in mind? I was asked this in all my interviews. My answer to all was "I don't have projects in mind, I have interests. My hope is that I will take the time to brainstorm a project and try my hand at different things soon after joining." This answer was in line with what I wanted to do, it may not work for you. If you have a clear idea of what you want to work on, say that. Additionally, you may find that some PIs expect you to know exactly what you want to do and even propose a short research statement on it. I didn't want that so I avoided it.

• 你有没有研究项目的想法？在我所有的面试中都被问到了这个问题。我给出的答案是，“我脑子里没有项目，我有的是兴趣。我希望我能花时间集思广益一个项目，并在加入后尽快开始尝试不同的事情”。这个答案符合我的需求，也许对你来说不适用。如果你清楚的知道你要想做什么，就说出来。此外，你可能会发现，一些导师希望你确切地知道自己想做什么，甚至就此提出简短的研究计划。我不想这样做，所以我避免了这种情况。

• What are your research interests? What questions motivate you? What are you passionate about solving? This is important because you're not interviewing for a technician or student position. You need to show your ability to synthesize ideas, be curious, think critically, and have some vision. At this point in your PhD training, you're ready to do this.

•你的研究兴趣是什么？什么问题激励着你？你热衷于解决什么问题？这很重要，因为你不是在面试技术员或学生职位。你需要展示你综合想法的能力，保持好奇心、批判性思考、并且还有一些愿景。在你博士培训的这个点上，你已经准备好做这件事了。

• What are your core technical skills? This is about what strengths you bring to the lab.

•你的核心技术技能是什么？这是关于你为实验室带来的优势。

• At the end of this postdoc, what do you hope to have achieved? What are your career goals?

• 在博士后结束时，你希望取得什么成就？你的职业目标是什么？

• When can you start?

• 你什么时候可以开始？

Questions to ask prospective PI

向潜在导师提出的问题

(you'll notice some of these are repeated from above. that's because it's useful to get the PI and trainee perspective on these issues)

（你会注意到其中一些问题与上面重复。这是因为了解导师和实习生对这些问题的看法很有用）

Lab Culture

实验室文化

• What is the structure of responsibilities in the lab?

• 实验室的职责结构是怎样的？

• How often do conflicts arise? How are they resolved?

• 冲突多久发生一次？如何解决？

• There are techniques your lab has that I'm not familiar with, will there be people available to train me on them?

• 如果我不熟悉你们实验室的某些技术，会有人可以给我提供培训吗？

PI's Training and Mentoring Philosophy

导师的培训和指导理念

• What’s it like working with this PI?

• 与这位导师合作感受如何？

• What is your availability like?

• 你的空闲时间如何安排？

• What are your expectations of postdocs? How often is there a data report?

• 导师对博士后有什么期望？多久要一次数据报告？

• How much control will I have over the design and execution of my projects?

• 我对项目设计和执行有多少控制权？

• What happens if it looks like my project is reaching a dead-end, at what point do we pull the plug? What happens next? What happens to the data generated?

• 如果我的项目看起来走到死胡同，我们什么时候放弃？接下来会发生什么？生成的数据会怎样？

• I see the lab publishes a lot of papers in journals X, Y, and Z. What is your publishing philosophy. Does a project have to reach a certain level of 'impact' for us to start preparing a manuscript?

• 我看到实验室在X、Y和Z期刊上发表了许多论文。你的出版理念是什么？一个项目是否必须达到一定程度的“影响”才能让我们开始准备手稿？

• How are conversations surrounding authorship and credit had? This is especially important for labs that publish large collaborative projects with long author lists.

• 围绕作者身份和信用的讨论如何？这对于发布具有长作者列表的大型协作项目的实验室尤其重要。

• What is your philosophy for when a postdoc leaves to start a faculty position? What can I take with me (ideas, transgenic lines, newly developed tech, etc.)? Do you still write grants and publish on the same topics after I leave?

• 当博士后离开去做教职时，你的理念是什么？我可以带走什么（想法、转基因品系、新开发的技术等）？我离开后，你是否仍然撰写资助并发布相同主题的文章？

• It's important to me and my professional goals to be doing [something with no direct connection to your research] during my postdoc. This means time away from the bench. It won't dominate my time but it is important nonetheless. How do you feel about that? I asked this question to everyone I interviewed with, and in my case the 'something' was DEI service and advocacy. For you, that might be teaching or something else.

• 在博士后期间从事 [与研究无直接关系的事情] 对我和我的职业目标来说很重要。这意味着离开实验台的时间，这不会占用我的太多时间，但它对我来说非常重要。你对此怎么看？我在面试时向每个人提出了这个问题，在我而言，“某事”是DEI服务和倡导。对你来说，那可能是教学或其他事情。

• I plan to write at least X number of fellowships during my postdoc, because even if the lab doesn't need the money and even if I don't get them, it's a skill I would like to work on. How do you feel about that?

• 我计划在博士后期间申请至少X个奖学金，因为即使实验室不需要这笔钱，即使我没有得到奖学金，这也是一个我想培养的一项技能。你对此怎么看？

Resources

资源

• What's the funding portfolio for the lab look like?

• 实验室的资金组合情况如何？

• Let's say you I need to buy a new piece of equipment or a reagent, what's that process like?

• 如果我需要购买一台新设备或试剂，这个过程是什么样的？

• What are the core facilities available to your lab?

• 你的实验室有哪些核心设施？

• How are decisions about establishing new collaborations made?

• 如何做出与其他机构建立新合作关系的决定？

• How often will I have funds from the lab to travel to conferences and present my work?

• 我多久能从实验室获得资金来参加会议和展示我的工作？

Stability

稳定性

• Where do you see the lab's scientific direction going in the next 5 and the next 10 years?

• 你认为实验室未来的5年和10年的科学方向会向哪儿发展？

• Do you have any plans of moving the lab or changing careers over the next 5 years?

• 你在未来的5年内有没有搬迁实验室或改行的计划？

I'll be honest, I asked every single one of these questions to people I interviewed with. I asked them because I genuinely cared for the answers, but also because they served as a litmus indicator for me - to see whether the interviewer respects me enough to engage transparently rather than being offended by very fair (even if unusual) questions. I guess I just decided that if a PI was offended by any of these questions, then I wouldn't really want to work with them anyway. So, we all benefit.

老实说，我在面试时向每个人提出了这些问题。我这么做是因为我真的关心这些答案，但也因为这些问题可以作为我的试金石，看看面试官是否足够尊重我，以透明的方式进行交流，而不是被这些非常公平（即使不寻常）的问题冒犯。我想我只是决定，如果一个导师被这些问题中的任何一个冒犯了，那我无论如何都不会真的想与他合作。因此，我们都受益。

Final Thoughts

最后的思考

• In general, have in your mind three references - including your current PI - ready to go. They don't need to have letters ready (though it's great if they do), but you may be asked by your prospective PI for those references at any point. It can be right after the cold email, or after the visit and before an offer is made. So in general have a mental note of who you'd ask to send letters.

• 一般来说，在脑海中准备好三个参考人 - 包括你当前的导师 - 准备就绪。他们不需要准备好信函（虽然最好是这样），但你潜在的导师可能会随时要求你提供这些参考。它可以在冷邮件之后，或者在面试之后和发出offer之前。因此，一般来说，在心里要记住你会请谁发信。

• Do not discourage yourself from applying to a famous lab whose work you admire solely out of fear that you're "not good enough". You're often wrong about that. Academia (and just life, really) already beats into us that we're not good enough, so let's not also be accomplices to doing that to ourselves too. Reflect on how far you've come now that you're nearing the end of your PhD, and realize how much you're capable of if you were in the right environment for your postdoc.

•不要因为担心自己“不够好”而放弃申请你所欣赏其工作的著名实验室。这一点你经常是错的。学术界（这就是生活，真的）已经让我们意识到我们不够好，所以我们也不要成为对自己做这种事情的帮凶。反思一下你现在已取得了多大的进步，你已接近博士学位的尾声了，并意识到如果你在合适环境中进行博士后研究，你能做多少事情。

• Many of the questions I listed in the Interview sectionof this article do not have a right or wrong answer. The goal is for you to get all the information you need to make the best informed decision possible given your goals and values.

• 我在本文的“面试”部分列出的许多问题都没有正确或错误的答案。目的是让你获得尽可能多的信息，以便根据你的目标和价值观做出最明智的决定。

• Nothing here is comprehensive, but I did try to write down as many things as I could think of.

• 这篇文章并不全面，但我确实尝试写下我能想到的尽可能多的事情。

• Because of how long this article is, you might be left with the impression that this stage is rather overwhelming. It's not! It was actually pretty exciting for me and is for many others. It's full of feelings of potential and rich scientific conversations. While this article is long, you might find that a lot of this is already intuitive to you.

• 由于这篇文章篇幅较长，你可能会觉得这个阶段相当有压力。并不是！这实际上对我来说非常令人兴奋，对其他许多人也是如此。它是充满潜力和丰富的科学对话。虽然本文很长，但你可能会发现很多内容对你来说已经很直观了。

• This article has no information on negotiations for salary, relocation costs, benefits, etc. but I strongly encourage you to engage in those conversations before accepting an offer.

• 这篇文章没有涉及薪资、搬迁费用、福利等方面的谈判信息，但我强烈建议你在接受offer之前进行这些谈判对话。

• When it comes time to make your decision, reflect again on your goals and be honest with yourself. Talk to people around you and seek advice from your mentors.

• 当做出决定时，请再次反思你的目标，诚实待己。与周围的人交谈，并寻求导师的建议。