how to defend yourself and your project in front of … · • read your final project text and ask...

HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF AND YOUR PROJECT IN FRONT OF

A JURY?Conny Aerts

Tutorial Francqui Symposium, 5 December 2013

Sunday 1 December 13

RESPECT THE INSTRUCTIONS I: WRITTEN PART

• Read very carefully the application rules and the instructions for the project proposal to be submitted; read them again after you have finished and check

• Respect all of them, even if you find them silly: you are not obliged to apply for funding or for a job... avoid abuse of funding agency and/or of jury members

• Stay within the page limits: don’t fool around with the stylefile, don’t fill up the very last blanc space, remember that committee members have huge piles of applications to read and evaluate... text not too short and not too long

dare to introduce a pauze in the text

referees love it!


TIPS ON THE CONTENTS:BE INNOVATIVE & ORIGINAL

• What is the ground-breaking aspect of this proposal? Why? Give the state-of-the-art to set the scene of the proposal.

• Make sure you are fully aware of the literature in the field, be balanced and up-to-date in the references that you list. Always give sources of figures, ask permission to use them if subject to copyright.

• What does your project have to offer to other fields? How? When?• Is the project feasible? Comment! Experiments?

Do not hide but discuss important dependencies.Are you a PI of crucial observations? e.g., ESO LP...Give a risk assessment and a back-up plan.

• Is the project timely? both from viewpoint of the topic and for you as scientist• Why you? and not someone else? highlight your assets in a clear way without

being arrogant; never mention bad things about your competitors.


TIPS ON THE CONTENTS:KEEP IT SIMPLE

• Simple figures or tables are very welcome, in particular illustrative context diagrams to explain complex methodology or connections between various work packages

Avoid complicated and busy diagrams : referees have limited time/proposal

X,Z,M, !,"ov

STELLAR MODEL FOR SPECIFIED INPUT PHYSICS

THEORETICAL PULSATION MODE

PROPERTIES

TIME SERIES OBSERVATIONS

OBSERVED PULSATION MODE

PROPERTIES

!2

STELLAR EVOLUTION

CODE

PULSATION CODE

MODE IDENTIFICATION

FREQUENCY ANALYSIS


• Assume that the jury is multidisciplinary; quite often only short-listed or 2nd-stageapplicants get evaluated by experts in that particular field.

• Deliver the text in the correct format and well within time : take some reserve, as webservers may go down, you might have a PC crash, your kids or yourself may get ill or have an accident at the last minute, etc.

• Find an appealing and nice-sounding acronym for the project.• Keep in mind that several jury members will print in B&W !....• Do not expect referees to go and read papers or screen websites; assume they

have no time for that, so make your proposal all-encompassing.• Read your final project text and ask yourself : on what grounds can the committee

kill this proposal? ...task of the jury is to kill 90% of mostly excellent proposals...

TIPS ON THE CONTENTS:AVOID LAST-MINUTE


Be yourself !Dress confortably

Prepare yourself well in advance, so that you feel confortable with your act.

Rehersal in front of mirror!

The jury might not be what you had anticipated/hoped

for... don’t let it disturbe you

An interview can be somewhat intimidating...


RESPECT THE INSTRUCTIONS II: ORAL PART

• Read very carefully what is expected from you during an oral defence/interview:

• a presentation of yourself ? As scientist or as PI of this particular project?• a presentation of your project ? or of other visions on an academic career?• a lecture to deliver to students ? If so, check what kind of students & format.• the development and presentation of a case/situation at work ? ....

• Deliver the talk/interview on beforehand for the correct device as requested(PDF? personal laptop? which type of files are allowed? Need/allowed handouts?...)Avoid being perturbed when technology lets you down: be prepared !!it is your problem, not the one of the jury... don’t complain to the jury !

• Make sure the audience is listening to you! Talk to the committee membersrather than to the blackboard...


TIPS FOR THE INTERVIEW:KEEP IT SIMPLE

• Follow the relevant tips given by Don Kurtz in his presentation also for interview.• Avoid complicated slides with too many colours: 15% of your audience is colour-blind• Avoid movies that might fail or do not work on obliged device to use... • Use a strong voice! Make an effort for this interview.• Don’t use a pointer when you are too nervous for it.


TIPS FOR THE INTERVIEW:DO AS YOU ARE ASKED

• Let the chair(wo)man of the panel take the word :

• usually you get instructions from the panel chair• sometimes, the panel members introduce themselves: nodd and smile at them• do not take the word until you are offered to do so by the chair• if you have a blunt panel that is silent: start yourself after a few seconds...

• Introduce yourself and deliver the talk/task as requested.• NEVER run over time! Clock your presentation within a minute.• Make sure the audience is listening to you and does not get distracted!

You are more important than your slides... • Anticipate too much or too little light in the room, as well as a lousy beamer :

use appropriate colours & background in the slides• If you are not enthousiastic, how do you expect the jury to be?...


TIPS FOR THE INTERVIEW:ANSWER & TO-THE-POINT

• For the questions-and-answers part:• never interrupt a jury member before his/her questions are asked• if jury members start to discuss among themselves, just let them

(the clock is ticking in your advantage)• have some appropriate questions ready from your side to the jury,

but only ask them if explicitly asked to do so• You will be asked unanticipated questions, not on the science topic alone:

• what is the weakest point of the proposal/project? Improvement?...• give your weakest point as scientist: how will you improve that?• give your weakest point as a manager of a team of young scientists• you might be presented with an emergency situation in office within your

team and be asked how to solve it: answer something!• If you get an inappropriate or private question: hard.... try to answer firmly,

appropriately, and politely without being too distracted or intimidated by it.


how to defend yourself and your project in front of … · • read your final project text and ask...

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