Meeting Abstract
The post-doctoral training period is a critical career stage for researchers in the life sciences. Unfortunately, many scientists from under-represented groups leave academia before entering this career stage. One potential explanation for this trend could be inequality and bias during the interview process, a process that is highly unregulated at the post-doctoral stage as compared to graduate student and faculty interviews. We designed and implemented a nationwide survey of post-doctoral researchers working in the life sciences to examine the types of interviews they experienced and to test whether interview styles were associated with demographic characteristics of the candidates. We found evidence of biases in interview formats that were linked to the sex and race of the applicant, the sex of the principal investigator (PI), and the applicants’ prior relationship to the PI. These results suggest that biased interviews in the life sciences may be contributing to the under-representation of women and other minority groups at the post-doctoral and faculty career stages. Implementing a standardized interview process for all post-doctoral applicants could prevent biases and increase the representation of women and other minority groups in senior career stages of the life sciences.
