Why PhDs fail job interviews and how to fix it with Angela Priest
40 min
Do you walk into job interviews like it’s your dissertation defense, ready to justify every gap on your CV? In this episode of PostPhDirections, I sit down with my co-founder Angela Priest, COO of Alma.Me, who has spent more than 20 years as a hiring manager and the last three years preparing PhDs for industry interviews. Angela sees the same patterns over and over: PhDs treat the interview like a test, spend their time explaining what they don’t know, and polish away their personality. She shares what hiring managers actually assess, and how one PhD went from 10 to 15 interviews without an offer to two offers within two weeks by changing how she showed up. Angela’s message is clear: an interview is not a test of everything you know. It’s a conversation, and the hiring manager is asking one question: would I enjoy working with you? We talk about: Why treating an interview like a dissertation defense makes you come across as defensiveThree ways to answer a question when you don’t know the answerWhy body language that doesn’t match your words breaks trust in the first five minutesWhat to do when you freeze or blank on a word mid-interviewHow to prepare with 3 to 5 stories instead of memorized answersIf you’re a PhD who keeps landing interviews but not offers, this conversation will change how you walk into the next one. Connect with Angela Priest on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/angela-s-priestLearn more about Alma.Me and our Job Accelerator Program: www.alma.meFollow Elena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-hoffer-/ and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenahoffer_phdIf you found this helpful, share it with a fellow researcher who has an interview coming up, and please leave us a review. It’s the easiest way to help other PhDs find this podcast. 💙
