Noor Nabilah is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Universiti Sains Malaysia and is looking for new job opportunities. She asks several questions of the interviewer regarding team culture, work-from-home flexibility, immediate projects, and performance reviews. Noor offers to coach hobbies, mentor students interested in research or education, and help bring in more grant funding. She believes traveling abroad would help her develop new skills through access to advanced equipment and training, as well as help her personal and professional growth through expanding her networks. Noor chose to work at MSU due to its good research environment and opportunities for hospital collaborations. Her 5-year goals include utilizing innovative teaching methods, developing student creativity and thinking

1. Introduce yourself
• My name is Noor Nabilah,
• Thank you for having me for the interview.
• I am the fifth child from 6 in my family.
• My hobbies is reading fictions and traveling. On weekend, usually I
teach online classes for primary school students.
• Currently, I am a contractual postdoctoral fellow in Universiti Sains
Malaysia, and I am searching for the job opportunities that can help
me improve my professional skills.

2. Q for interviewer?
• I’d like to know more, what the team’s like and the company culture.
• Do you offer a flexible work-from-home time?
• What are the most immediate projects that need to be addressed?
• What is the performance review process like here? How often would I
be formally reviewed?
• What does a usual week look like in this postdoctoral position in your
team?

3. Contribution
• Coaching on hobbies
• Mentor for student that have academic interest in research or
education.
• Grant application, try to bring more resources.

4. Why go abroad?
• Malay proverb: the further you travel, the greater the knowledge you will earn
• Developing new skills:
It would give me the opportunity to observe and learn new procedures and practices with the
advanced research equipments there. I will probably have access to more development and
training opportunities, such as workshops and short courses. I am hoping that I can take all of these
new skills back home and use them to open up an even wider research area here.
• Personal development:
Going abroad means going out of my comfort zone. Nothing helps you grow as a person like
interrupting your safe and comfortable routine.
• Better career opportunities and prospects:
There is a greater range of career opportunities open outside my home market. While working
abroad, I’ll be collaborating with locals and expats from other countries, expanding my research
networks. It is possible to have networks online but of course it’s a completely different experience to
meeting people in real life.

5. Why MSU
• Good environment
• Have hospitals for collaborations in research
• Recommended by my ex team mates.

6. Goal as academicians/ 5 years plan
utilise my knowledge teaching method such as team learning and e-learning.”
“Develop and promote creativity and thinking skills that increase the
performance of the students.”
To develop a new line of research or approach that will have a broad impact on
relevant field
To build collaboration with external organisations To engage with the public and
promote my research to external audiences