Stowers Institute For Medical Research Interview Questions
& Process

I had my in-person interviews for the second round, meeting with three Principal Investigators. They were nice and happy to tell me about their work. The current PhD students seemed friendly and like working there.

I went through 3 interviews with different PIs at Stowers. The first two interviews were tough, and I thought I wouldn't want to work there even if they offered me a job because they seemed too intense and focused solely on work with no balance. The third interview went much better, and I ended up accepting the position. I think the interview process is pretty standard; each PI had a test or a list of technical questions. I paid attention to how they reacted when I stumbled: did they help me out, did they give up on me, or did they let me talk it through instead of getting impatient and giving me the answer to move on. It's super important to know yourself and the kind of environment where you can work best BEFORE you go into an interview.

I met with the PI of the lab I was interested in joining. I also got to meet with other investigators in the department and the heads of core facilities. I gave a 30-minute seminar about my graduate research. The travel and accommodation were covered. I was picked up and dropped off in a limousine and stayed in on-campus suites that were very nice.

I had individual meetings with various people in the group, including the group lead, research scientists, and a group member. I also had to present my past work that aligned with the interviewers' research interests. For me, this involved discussing some of my research projects in data mining and next-generation sequencing.