Applied through the website for a lab tech position, waited for a couple of weeks no response from the HR. Directly contacted the PI and scheduled an interview. In the first haf of of the interview, discussed my background and experience and the latter half, simple questions on common biological techniques PCR, DNA electrophoresis Fly pushing, maintenance etc, some computational skills perl etc

There was initially a phone call interview which was later followed up with an on-site interview. It took probably about a month for the entire interview process. Everybody during the on-site interview were really laid back. The diversity of the researchers was very impressive as many of them came from all over the world. During the on-site interview not much emphasis was placed on how fast-paced and little training (less than 6-months) would be involved for the job. This would later result in my termination with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. I still have a lot of respect for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as I am still getting paid while I look for a new job and my supervisor allowed me to use him as a permanent reference as well as keeping my termination a secret from the rest of the lab such as making it look like I quitted my job rather than being terminated. Of course my termination was nothing personal as it was just not being able to learn and perform my job quick enough. It was expected that I would hit the ground running when I started the job which I was not aware of. It is almost like they didn't even give me a chance since I just graduated from college and had little research experience. This probably is what you should expect from a very prestigious research insitution. Overall I just didn't know what I was getting myself into. Due to the economy I accepted my first job offer which was Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Make sure to ask questions about training and if the job is fast-paced!