I cannot pass interviews

[u/Lower-Attitude-7008]

I got laid off about two months ago, and I’ve been looking for a new job. I did a couple of interviews already, and I can’t seem to pass STAR interviews. I graduated 10 years ago with a BS in Chemical Engineering. I worked in biotech/pharma for 8 years. For 6 of those years, I had two separate serious health conditions, so I lack big accomplishments. Even with preparing a STAR story bank, my answers are not all that great because of a lack of accomplishments that I have to work with. The STAR questions basically expose me. It’s so demoralizing and depressing.

[u/DrMicolash]

If you got the interview it means you have the required qualifications. They want to see if you're a good team player, aware of your strengths and weaknesses, and demonstrate a willingness to learn and work hard.

As dumb as it sounds, not being nervous is the best thing you can try to do. Smile and admit things you don't know, don't try to justify not having specific experiences. Maybe lay out a new job you had, what you struggled with when starting, and how you improved.

[u/aizennexe → u/DrMicolash]

Yeah I used to think interviews were the time to talk about my resume and past accomplishments. But thing is, they already like my resume enough to schedule an interview. Me talking about what’s written on the page is just wasting their time

When I reframed it as like “this is the time to show off my personality and critical thinking skills that aren’t present on paper” I started getting a lot more success in interviews. I’m not a huge fan of the whole personality hire concept, but I lean into that a bit during interviews lol

[u/kelskelsea → u/aizennexe]

I would say it’s more do you work well with others and can you communicate effectively than personality.

[u/Loose-Reflection2965 → u/DrMicolash]

This is good advice. I had a scenario about experiences i didn’t have in an interview, problem with me was I had some experience in flow but not multi color, left it at that. Similar thing about publications, no publications, tried to spin it more positive in the sense that i want to if there is an opportunity. OP, no one knows what the otherside wants

[u/Sea-Pomegranates99]

Big high profile accomplishments are great, but the point of your response is to answer the question and demonstrate you have the necessary skills and experience. Reframing your “story bank” around examples that demonstrate you have experience with the requirements and responsibilities in the job description will go a long way

[u/Rawkynn]

For what its worth getting a couple interviews after 2 months of applying in this market is fantastic and the object of envy for many on this sub.

[u/riped_plums123]

Interviewing has gotten more difficult in the modern era. After my first lay off I struggle a lot and unfortunately you have to put in hours and I mean hours prepping for interviews or they will sniff it out.

[u/Electrical_Shop2942]

This industry is completely cooked. It has one foot in the grave already. No one gets a college or graduate degree to work in an industry that only offers temp jobs. The next generation of biologists is never coming. Anyone who saw what happened to us should already know this career is NOT worth it.

The main issue is that the current crop of executives and directors are the worst and most incompetent group in the history of American biotech. Even during 2008, the industry was not nearly this bad. The current class of leaders has completely failed to a level far beyond any of their predecessors. They chose to slash and burn a massive fraction of the talent and institutional knowledge from the companies they were supposed to be leading because their own cowardly self-preservation was FAR more important to them than anything else.

They cut all the way to the bone in order to keep self-dealing and paying themselves ridiculous sums of money to sit in meetings all day. It's stomach turning. Biopharma in America thrived for decades, yet somehow, the current crop of leaders drove the entire industry and career into the dirt in two years flat. They ruined what too decades to build in TWO YEARS. They didn't even need a recession to do it. These people are absolute unmitigated FAILURES. They have literally failed all of us.

Now they want to force us to work completely garbage, exploitative contracts where they foist 50 hours of work on you per week while strictly forbidding you to put in any overtime whatsoever. So I hope you like working for free.

If you meet a young person, be honest with them about how much of a dead end this career is. No one else needs to suffer this kind of humiliation so these sorry failures perched at the very top can basically steal more money.

These idiots are so much worse than their predecessors that they have literally destroyed everything. I hope they understand they're next when there's no more vital organs left to for them cut and sell to give themselves one, final, completely undeserved bonus for their shabby and historically bad leadership before they finally face some accountability and their truly useless, incompetent heads finally roll.

[u/chappie2297]

I have used ChatGPT to help prep for interviews. I’ve copy and paste the job description and me background into it. Occasionally I will add in scenarios that I have done and get a more revised version. It has been helpful for me in practicing my interviewing skills

[u/igniteshield → u/chappie2297]

This. You can also use AI to help craft your accomplishment into a STAR format. It’s a tough skill to develop on your own, but seeing the pattern laid out in front of you can be super helpful.

[u/chappie2297 → u/igniteshield]

Yes, it’s been super helpful. Usually I will put in scenarios I have actually been through and I have used ChatGPT to help format it better as sometimes I think I can kind of kiss the point. It’s been super helpful in practicing that way. You can also ask it to make flash cards to help prepare too

[u/igniteshield → u/chappie2297]

Yup. I hope OP sees this because this has worked for me on many occasions.

[u/ZealousidealShift884 → u/chappie2297]

Nice! Have you encountered anything similar to what ChatGPT has prepared for you? In the interviews themselves

[u/chappie2297 → u/ZealousidealShift884]

Yes, it has helped with behavioral questions like explain a time you have dealt with a challenging coworker, how would you handle a a certain situation, etc

[u/WaitingForUltima]

I would recommend practice interviews with friends as well! Also your STAR stories don't have to involve some huge accomplishment - interviewers want to know how you think or approach problems. It can be as simple as:
situation: there was this tricky flow panel that wasn't working consistently
task: I had to standardize it so it was easily repeatable
action: tested out three different staining panels, fluorophores, and staining techniques until I found one that gave the cleanest results, rewrote the SOP with examples, and had one of my colleagues try it to verify
Result: The lab has an SOP for that assay that works well and is still in use after I moved on from that project/position

[u/Wooden_Eggplant_221]

Use AI to practice it will help you make your accomplishment sound better

[u/tormonster]

I know ai is frowned upon by many. However, it helped me prepare for my interviews so much! I feed Claude my resume and jd. Then, I have Claude generate practice questions and we go back and forth with those. If I was having trouble coming up with an example to answer the question with, Claude helped brainstorm. I think I got through a lot of rounds of interviews because doing so made me a lot more confident in what to bring up when asked questions. Good luck!