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I applied for a postdoc position in Denmark and was invited to an interview. The interview includes a ten minute presentation "of yourself and your research" targeted towards master students (the entire interview is 30 minutes). Presenting my research is expected and not a problem. But what does it mean to give a presentation of myself in such a context?

I have met one of the interviewers during a conference and discussed the position briefly, but the other is not familiar to me. The interview is through Skype and I assume no master students will ever be exposed to it, in case that matters.

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    Some good ideas have been contributed; but you know, you can also ask your host. Jun 22, 2017 at 5:41
  • @aparente001 Why not build an answer around your comment, so people will see it and can vote it?
    – Tommi
    Jun 22, 2017 at 10:40

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I can only guess, but from my own experience I think the phrasing "present yourself and your research" is an informal way of saying:

  • Briefly introduce yourself, including your career/professional development and your research interests,
  • thereafter devote the major part of your short talk to explaining the research that you want to pursue at the institution at which you are applying.

Good luck. The hearing for my current postdoc job was also via Skype, but it was much longer.

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    At my institution we call the first part a brief intellectual history. Most people basically focus on how they got interested in their current research focus.
    – Dawn
    Jun 21, 2017 at 22:14
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That sounds like something HR added.

In other contexts I'd advise you to spend some time discussing your love for tennis and 18th century poetry, but in this scenario you want to focus on your academic achievements. Just lead with a sentence like 'Ever since I was a child, I've loved the idea of quarks...and so I'm excited today to fulfill that childhood dream and talk to you about my novel work in subatomic particles...'

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