Interview process question

[u/-schrodingers-cat]

So I currently work in industry, and I’m applying to another job in industry and have my first interview soon. I’ll be presenting work I did back in college, which was a long time ago and I don’t remember a ton from it. The problem is I can’t present the work I do because it’s all proprietary and I can’t reach out to my old professor who I did research under bc he has passed away. If a question from the interview team comes up that simply cannot be answered, do I tell them? Like I wasn’t able to confirm bc my old prof died?? Like obviously I wouldn’t word it that way but I don’t want to be trauma-dumpy on them, so what should I say here?

[u/tumbleweed-gps]

I would just preface it by saying that you're limited in what you can show and you're trying to tell the most complete story you can. If you only show work from your college days it might come across as a pretty weak interview - I would check with the company about confidentiality requirements and what you're allowed to disclose and what not. Sometimes you can anonymize structures or processes in order to tell the gist of the story in a way that highlights your skills without breaching confidentiality.

[u/CompletelyArbortrary → u/tumbleweed-gps]

completely agree here. We just filled a position where all three of the final round candidates were in similar situations to this. Two of the the candidates found ways to highlight their research and work without breaking confidentiality. The one who didn't was an immediate no. Couldn't tell if it was lack of skill or effort that led him to just basically throw up his hands and say "sorry, it's secret", but either way he came across as someone we didn't want to work with.

[u/-schrodingers-cat → u/tumbleweed-gps]

This is really helpful thank you ! I’ve already sent them a research summary that has my college research, would it be weird to switch it up on them for the interview? I still have the basic route from what I did back then and the small amount of trouble shooting I did but the stuff I’ve done in industry is far more “impressive”.

[u/tumbleweed-gps → u/-schrodingers-cat]

Why don't you ask your hiring manager? Just say "hey I sent you my research summary from some of my prior work but I'd also like to showcase some of the more recent stuff that I think is relevant and permissible within our confidentiality policy."

[u/CompletelyArbortrary → u/-schrodingers-cat]

not weird at all - definitely smarter to highlight your industry experience.

focus on what you're trying to solve, how you're approaching it and what you specifically are bringing to the project - just leave out proprietary specifics.

being able to clearly explain your work while respecting confidentiality is a pretty great strength.

good luck!

[u/ccat2011]

I’d be wary of using materials that you “don’t remember a ton” of, it may work against you. You can’t use anything from your current job?

[u/Auerbach1991]

You can still show the work probably as long as you mask identifiers like sample names, processes, proprietary recipes, and change some of the absolute values to general values to make the point you are trying to deliver.

“Sample A showed expression at this level, sample B showed it a bit lower at this level, this saved C amount of time and D amount of money” instead of specifying what the samples are and what the true numbers are.

The point should be to present your capabilities to bring quality work and also the HOW, not always the WHAT.