Job
Well, I had my first interview on Friday. It took them about two weeks to get back to me! I was really anxious about the interview, so I trimmed my scraggly beard but didn’t know what to do with my even worse hair besides a little trim in the back. I couldn’t decide what clothes to wear but eventually decided on a teal button down shirt I got form Charles with simple black pants. But because I was bicycling, I had to bring a backpack with them in it, so they got wrinkled.
The interview was very casual and went so well that she offered me the job up front even before interviewing her other candidates! She said that she expects to hear from me if I accept or not early next week. I was kind of flabbergasted and didn’t know what to say so just nonchalantly kept my cool. I was so prepared to go to several interviews without getting the job that I didn’t know how to react.
The job is a Research Assistant at Boston University (BU) that pays just under $30k/year for 35-40 hours a week. I’d spend most of my time doing statistics on the computer and finding test subjects. I have to come up with advertisements, post them around, do phone interviews, and schedule appointments. Then I’ll give an hour-long test of IQ, anxiety, PTSD, depression, etc. The subjects come in for another set of tests and then are scheduled for the MRI brain scanner. I help run the scanner, and then the subjects are done. Next I enter all the psychological test results into the computer and combine them with the scanner results, which will take a long time. Then I do the statistical analysis. This is the scary part for me-I like statistics and learned a lot of methods at Oberlin, but my skills are pretty rusty. My statistical ability is what she was most enthusiastic about and basically the reason she hired me. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some help from other BU profs if I run into trouble. Also, the job comes with all the BU benefits (gym, classes, health care, and dental).
The lab is run by Marlene Oscar-Berman, who is the BU Director of the Laboratory of Neuropsychology and the Director of the Behavioral Neuroscience Ph.D. Program. She seemed very comfortable and friendly when she was interviewing me, and her assistant also said she was a great boss. There are only three other people I’ll be working with: her assistant who is doing the psychological testing now, a grad student, and a computer guy. So I’m worried I will be lonely spending my whole day on the computer in a small room. It’s also pretty far away: 30 minutes by bike and over an hour by T. Probably around 30 minutes by car if there’s easy parking.
The research is about alcoholism, emotional dysfunction, and brain structure. I read a few of her papers, and she is a good writer. The material definitely seems interesting. Not perfectly what I would want (pure cognitive research), but close enough. She said in the interview that there’s a possibility of doing MEG research as well as the fMRI and MRI, which would be great. I’m drawn by the hard data of anatomy and like that she’s combining it with psychological measures.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to say yes…I’ll call up the MIT jobs I’m waiting to hear back from on Monday morning and if they don’t give me an interview I’ll tell her I accept the job. What do you think?
The interview was very casual and went so well that she offered me the job up front even before interviewing her other candidates! She said that she expects to hear from me if I accept or not early next week. I was kind of flabbergasted and didn’t know what to say so just nonchalantly kept my cool. I was so prepared to go to several interviews without getting the job that I didn’t know how to react.
The job is a Research Assistant at Boston University (BU) that pays just under $30k/year for 35-40 hours a week. I’d spend most of my time doing statistics on the computer and finding test subjects. I have to come up with advertisements, post them around, do phone interviews, and schedule appointments. Then I’ll give an hour-long test of IQ, anxiety, PTSD, depression, etc. The subjects come in for another set of tests and then are scheduled for the MRI brain scanner. I help run the scanner, and then the subjects are done. Next I enter all the psychological test results into the computer and combine them with the scanner results, which will take a long time. Then I do the statistical analysis. This is the scary part for me-I like statistics and learned a lot of methods at Oberlin, but my skills are pretty rusty. My statistical ability is what she was most enthusiastic about and basically the reason she hired me. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some help from other BU profs if I run into trouble. Also, the job comes with all the BU benefits (gym, classes, health care, and dental).
The lab is run by Marlene Oscar-Berman, who is the BU Director of the Laboratory of Neuropsychology and the Director of the Behavioral Neuroscience Ph.D. Program. She seemed very comfortable and friendly when she was interviewing me, and her assistant also said she was a great boss. There are only three other people I’ll be working with: her assistant who is doing the psychological testing now, a grad student, and a computer guy. So I’m worried I will be lonely spending my whole day on the computer in a small room. It’s also pretty far away: 30 minutes by bike and over an hour by T. Probably around 30 minutes by car if there’s easy parking.
The research is about alcoholism, emotional dysfunction, and brain structure. I read a few of her papers, and she is a good writer. The material definitely seems interesting. Not perfectly what I would want (pure cognitive research), but close enough. She said in the interview that there’s a possibility of doing MEG research as well as the fMRI and MRI, which would be great. I’m drawn by the hard data of anatomy and like that she’s combining it with psychological measures.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to say yes…I’ll call up the MIT jobs I’m waiting to hear back from on Monday morning and if they don’t give me an interview I’ll tell her I accept the job. What do you think?