People are the most important aspect of any organization. To build and maintain a high-performing team, lab managers need to hire the right people who bring needed skills, talents, and expertise.
But how can a lab manager be confident they’re choosing the right candidates—people who will strengthen the team, not just check technical boxes? It starts with a thoughtful, deliberate hiring process. From writing the job description to conducting interviews, each step offers an opportunity to spot the traits that matter most. The following sections walk through how to make those moments count.
Job description
The first step in the hiring process is to craft a job description that communicates the expectations of the lab around technical skills, level of experience, leadership, and work process. The job description is a big net intended to attract a variety of candidates a who meet the basic needs of the lab.
Resume review
There are a variety of things to look for in potential candidates. While technical skills is important, it is often the easiest trait to find among candidates. More difficult attributes include things like communication skills, critical thinking, creativity, flexibility, teamwork, and leadership. The best resumes often have significant accomplishments noted from their educational and work experience. People who can effectively identify and describe their accomplishments are better candidates than those who simply write about work activities.
Phone screening
A phone screen is an effective way to review candidates before inviting them for a more formal interview. The phone screen is a good opportunity to review the resume, probe about why they want the position, understand their employment history, and field their questions. An effective phone screen can be completed in 20-30 minutes. A good rule of thumb is to identify the top 10 candidates from the resume pool for the phone screen with the goal of identifying the top three for interviews.
Interviewing
Interviews are an opportunity to get to know the top candidates. Interviews can be conducted in-person or through a video call. The key is to establish some rapport with the candidates and try to picture how they can improve the existing team. Those improvements could be technical or driven through other strengths and talents.
The best hiring guidance I’ve seen comes from Herb Kelleher, the CEO of Southwest Airlines. He says, “Hire for attitude, train for skill.” Lab leaders can readily change the knowledge and proficiency of their scientists, but they can’t change who they are.
So constitutes the right attitude? A combination of maturity, personal accountability, intrinsic motivation, growth mindset, passion for the work, and emotional intelligence will distinguish the very best candidates.
Interviews are essentially a conversation directed through questions. The manager needs to probe the attitude of the candidate with specific questions, and the candidate needs to learn about the opportunity by asking their questions. It is important to include the questions the candidates ask when evaluating their interviews. Many labs value curiosity, so a candidate with no questions does not fulfil that need. The best interviews are not oral exams but mutually beneficial conversations where the discussion is interesting and everyone is learning something.
There are a variety of useful interview questions. Lab managers with significant experience in hiring have probably developed scores of questions that they can use during any interview. Here are some examples of different types of interview questions that can be helpful in understanding the attitude of different candidates.
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Behavioral questions
Behavioral questions start with “tell me a time that” and explore how the candidate has behaved previously in different situations. Create the questions around scenarios that are important to the lab and the lab community. Some examples are:
- Tell me a time that you had conflict with a colleague and how you resolved it?
- Tell me a time that you had too much to do and how you decided what to do next?
- Tell me a time that you made an important mistake at work and how you repaired it?
- Tell me a time you had a great new idea and how you pursued it?
- Tell me a time you asked for help at work and how it turned out?
- Tell me a time at work you had to make a key decision without enough information and how you made it?
- Tell me a time that you did the right thing, even if it went against the wishes of those around you, and how it turned out?
Priority questions
Priority questions probe the accomplishments and goals of the candidate. These questions help identify what they think is important and provide insight into how they see themselves and their expectations. Some examples are:
- What is an accomplishment of which you are very proud?
- In this position, what do you want to accomplish?
- What do you want to learn next?
- What are three key aspects of your personality that make you the best candidate for this position?
- What was something you loved in your last position?
- What is a significant challenge you have overcome?
Values questions
Values questions probe the values, motivations, and needs of the candidate. They provide insight into how they will interact with others, what strengths they bring, and how they might demonstrate leadership in the lab. Some examples are:
- What leadership activities do you engage in outside of work?
- What is an example of the benefits of your creativity?
- What do you look for in a great teammate?
- What kind of flexibility do you seek?
- How good is good enough for your work output?
- How do you approach safety at work?
Depending on the lab, interviews may be done by individuals or small teams. It is important to include enough people to protect against individual blind spots and to use a consistent set of questions across the interviews for a specific position.
Gilded resume
It is important to beware of the “gilded resume,” or the candidate who appears to be the best scientist for the role on paper. We once interviewed a new PhD candidate from a top-tier school who had the perfect resume, technical skills we needed, over a dozen publications, clear scientific creativity, and a glowing recommendation from his advisor. After the interviews, the male scientists in the lab were excited about him. However, the female scientists were concerned. He treated the men very differently from the women, whom he openly disrespected. No amount of technical skill would be worth introducing a toxic personality into the lab. His attitude was completely wrong for our team.
Offer
It is helpful to view hiring like the high jump event. Set the bar height, and any candidate that clears the bar is a good candidate. It doesn’t matter how high they clear the bar. It is also important not to compromise on the lab’s needs. If no candidate clears the bar, it is time to start again. If a suitable person is identified, work with line management and HR to issue an offer.
Hiring new staff, and retaining them, is a primary responsibility of lab management. The lab must have the right team to produce the results that the stakeholders demand. Errors in hiring can have disastrous impacts on morale, performance, and the long-term success of the lab
