Medical scientists conduct research to improve human health. Their duties include studying diseases, designing clinical trials, analyzing data, and publishing findings.
If you have an interview for a medical scientist role expect questions assessing your research experience scientific knowledge, analytical abilities, communication skills, and more.
This guide has examples of how to answer the 21 most common interview questions for medical scientists. It will help you get the job.
Research Experience
Hiring managers want to understand your previous research experience. Expect questions like:
Q1 What research projects have you been involved in during your career?
Tips: Share examples demonstrating transferable skills for the role.
Sample Answer: In my previous lab assistant role, I worked on a 2-year clinical trial investigating the effects of a novel cholesterol drug. My responsibilities included recruiting participants, collecting blood samples, and performing data analysis. This exposed me to the end-to-end clinical trial process.
Q2: Describe the steps involved in a typical research project from initial idea to publishing findings.
Tips: Show your systematic approach to conducting scientific research.
Sample Answer: First, I identify a novel research concept through studies and discussions with colleagues. After formulating a hypothesis, I design experiments to test my theory and seek funding. Next, I collect and analyze data rigorously. Finally, I compile my research into a paper and go through the peer review process prior to publishing in a journal.
Q3: Tell me about a research publication you contributed to. What was your role?
Tips: Pick an example demonstrating analytical skills. Discuss your specific contributions.
Sample Answer: As a research assistant, I helped author a paper investigating heart disease predictors. I designed the clinical study protocol and was responsible for statistical analysis of the data. I also helped write the methods and results sections describing our experimental findings prior to submission for publication.
Scientific Knowledge
Employers look for deep scientific knowledge relevant to the role. Example questions include:
Q4: Explain what occurs at the cellular level when a virus infects a human host.
Tips: Show your understanding of microbiology and infectious diseases.
Sample Answer: When a virus infects a cell, it introduces its genetic material and essentially hijacks the host cell’s machinery to replicate itself, while preventing the cell from performing its normal functions. This process ultimately kills the host cell and allows the virus to spread to infect other cells in the body.
Q5: What laboratory techniques are you familiar with from previous roles?
Tips: Tailor your answer to the techniques required for the job.
Sample Answer: Throughout my research career, I’ve become proficient in many lab techniques like PCR, cell culturing, immunoassays, chromatography, and mass spectrometry. Many of these skills directly translate to the techniques I would need to perform in this role.
Q6: Describe the basic principles of the scientific method. How do you apply this process?
Tips: Convey your understanding of systematic experimentation.
Sample Answer: The scientific method involves making an observation, forming a hypothesis, designing experiments to test that hypothesis, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. I leverage this process across all my research to validate or disprove theories with evidence-based experimentation.
Analytical Skills
Strong analytical abilities are crucial for medical scientists. Expect interviewers to ask questions like:
Q7: How do you ensure experiment findings are statistically significant?
Tips: Discuss concepts like P values, confidence intervals, controls, replicates.
Sample Answer: I leverage tools like t-tests, ANOVA, and regression modeling to determine statistical significance. I look for things like a P value under 0.05, narrow confidence intervals, and sufficient sample sizes and replicates. These measures validate my findings are highly unlikely due to chance alone.
Q8: Tell me about a time you analyzed complex data sets. What tools did you use?
Tips: Share a specific example demonstrating your data skills.
Sample Answer: In a previous cancer research project, I used visualization and statistical tools to analyze mRNA expression data from microarray experiments. By clustering, filtering, and comparing expression patterns, I identified genes implicated in tumor metastasis for further investigation.
Q9: How do you stay organized when handling large amounts of research data?
Tips: Discuss data management best practices you follow.
Sample Answer: Organization is crucial when managing large datasets. I ensure raw data are recorded accurately with metadata like experiment details and dates. Files are structured in standard formats and properly labeled for clarity. Strict data governance, version control, and backup policies prevent errors and data loss.
Communication Abilities
Medical scientists collaborate in teams and share findings through writing and presentations. Expect questions assessing communication skills:
Q10: How do you communicate complex scientific concepts to colleagues and stakeholders from non-technical backgrounds?
Tips: Discuss simplifying language, using visuals/analogies, inviting questions.
Sample Answer: Making complex research clear to various audiences is important. I avoid technical jargon, use easy-to-understand analogies, and visuals like diagrams and flowcharts to explain concepts simply. Encouraging questions helps ensure my points are clear.
Q11: Tell me about a time you had to present research findings to leadership or investors. How did you prepare?
Tips: Share a specific example demonstrating public speaking skills.
Sample Answer: When presenting a project update to our research sponsors, I prepared by creating slides summarizing key technical details and conclusions in an easy-to-digest manner. I focused on data stories and emphasized real-world applications to make concepts compelling to non-scientists. My preparation paid off, resulting in funding continuation.
Q12: Medical research can be subject to misinterpretation by the public. How do you responsibly communicate findings?
Tips: Discuss conveying limitations, avoiding sensationalism, transparency.
Sample Answer: I take care to honestly convey study limitations, sample sizes, and confidence levels when communicating research to avoid misrepresentation. Staying objective and transparent without sensationalizing helps accurately inform the public and gain their appropriate trust.
Teamwork and Leadership
Collaborating with cross-functional teams is integral for medical scientists. Expect interviewers to ask questions like:
Q13: Describe a time you struggled working with a colleague. How did you handle it?
Tips: Share an example demonstrating conflict resolution skills.
Sample Answer: Early in my career, I had an experienced colleague who was set in their ways and resistant to new ideas. Through empathetic listening and finding compromise, we incorporated approaches from both our perspectives. This experience taught me how to align with team members who have different working styles.
Q14: How would your colleagues describe your strengths as part of a research team?
Tips: Focus on relevant strengths like collaboration, mentorship, accountability.
Sample Answer: My colleagues would describe me as a collaborative team player who values their diverse perspectives. I support and mentor junior scientists to develop their skills. They also know me as someone who sees projects through and holds myself and teammates accountable to high standards.
Q15: Have you ever had to coordinate research efforts across multiple lab groups? What did you learn from that experience?
Tips: Demonstrate project coordination and leadership abilities.
Sample Answer: Yes, I led efforts across facilities in different cities to standardize protocols and datasets for a large multi-site study. This experience taught me the importance of clear communication and documentation so all teams are aligned. It also enhanced my skills coordinating cross-functional collaboration.
Passion and Ethics
Employers seek scientists who are truly passionate about furthering discoveries and bettering human health. Example questions:
Q16: What most excites you about medical and scientific research?
Tips: Share what specifically motivates you about the field.
Sample Answer: What excites me most is the potential to uncover new knowledge that tangibly improves people’s health and quality of life. Contributing innovations that may one day become breakthrough treatments or cures is an incredibly rewarding mission that keeps me engaged and driven.
Q17: When conducting experiments with human or animal subjects, how do you ensure ethical practices?
Tips: Discuss concepts like informed consent, IRB review, humane treatment.
Sample Answer: Ethics are paramount when human or animal lives are involved. I adhere to informed consent, perform minimal harm, and provide humane treatment. Oversight procedures like IRB proposal reviews, monitoring, and transparency measures also enforce compliance to ethical research standards.
Q18: How do you stay motivated through potentially years-long research projects that may fail?
Tips: Share your persistence and commitment to advancing science.
Sample Answer: Research can often face setbacks and dead ends after months or years of work. Still, I stay motivated knowing these projects contribute pieces to the puzzle even if they don’t achieve hoped-for outcomes. I focus on iteratively building knowledge that someday may lead to key discoveries.
Preparing strong responses in these areas will help demonstrate you have the right blend of scientific acumen, analytical skills, communication abilities, and core values to excel as a medical scientist.
Questions to Ask the Interviewer
Beyond responding to interview questions,
Asking potential employers tough questions ensures you’ll find the best fit for you
Shawn Wierzbowski founded Intro, a medical technologist recruitment company, in the fall of 2019. He founded the company as there was a clear need for a recruitment company that focused solely on the field of clinical laboratory science to help connect labs and lab professionals with permanent opportunities. Shawn’s last two years with Intro have provided him a unique view of the clinical industry both from the perspective of clinical laboratory scientists and hiring labs.
When your phone rings, it’s a recruiter from a lab you just applied to calling to set up an interview. Excited, you schedule the interview. When you walk into the lab that morning, you feel nervous. As you start to answer questions, the feeling gets worse. After about 30 minutes, it’s over, and you leave to wait for the lab to call you back.
That’s how interviews used to go, but now labs are desperate to hire qualified people, giving you some power in the interview. It’s important to ask tough questions of the labs that are interviewing you in order to find the best fit for you.
Here are four questions that I recommend clinical laboratory scientists (CLSs) ask at every interview:
Ask, “My professional goal is __[insert your goal]__. Will I have the opportunity to do that here?”
Every laboratory professional has different career goals. Goals range from moving into quality assurance or management, changing shifts, gaining higher compensation, and so much more. Ask the people who work at the lab about current CLSs who have reached the same goals as you and learn about the tools they have available.
You can get a good idea of which company will help you get where you want to go in your career by asking this question to several of them.
