Getting into contact about job oppurtunities or applying for a position in the Brenk lab

Some advice on how to increase your chances for a reply when contacting us for job opportunities or getting a position in the Brenk lab.

Published: (Updated: )

The do's and don'ts when asking about job opportunities. The image is only for illustrate purpose. All important information is in the text.
The do's and don'ts when asking for job opportunities. (And yes, this image was generated with the help of AI, this is why Email is misspelled.) Photo: Copilot

Inquiries about job opportunities

People are welcome to contact us about job opportunities. To increase your chances of a reply, please consider the following points.

  1. Briefly describe your motivation and what you would bring to the lab.
  2. Just asking a large language model to apply for a position by turning our research statement into a motivation letter is not creative and will most likely diminish your changes for a reply.*
  3. Including an updated CV is a good idea. If the research interests in the CV and the motivation letter do not fit, your application will not appear solid.
  4. To demonstrate the interest in our research group, it makes sense to research the name of the group leader and to use this in your letter.
  5. Make sure that the information you provide is correct and fits to our group. We will normally not reply to E-mails if your research interest don't fit, if your research background is not suitable or if you make formal mistakes (naming a different university than ours, wanting to go to a different country than Norway, ...).

 

* As group leader, I get at least weakly E-Mails that look like this:

Dear Professor Brenk,

I hope this message finds you well. My name is [Your Name], and I am very interested in the research conducted by your group at the University of Bergen, particularly in the areas of structure-based drug design and computational approaches to fragment-based drug discovery.

I am writing to inquire whether there are any current or upcoming PhD positions available within your group. Your work on applying molecular modeling and virtual screening to identify novel ligands for challenging targets aligns closely with my research interests and career goals. I am eager to contribute to projects that combine computational chemistry with innovative strategies for drug development.

Please let me know if there are opportunities to apply, or if you would recommend any next steps. I would be happy to provide my CV, academic transcripts, and further details about my background upon request.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Contact Information]

 

It takes me not even 5 minutes to generate such an E-Mail using a large language model. Why should I bother to take the time to reply to such a generic E-Mail if the sender does not put in any effort to write the E-Mail? I rather get an E-Mail which is not polished, but where I can see that the applicant has an genuine interest in our research. Then I am also happy to put in an effort to reply.

Applying for a position in the Brenk lab

To increase your changes of success

  • tailor your motivation letter to the advertised position
  • make clear how you fit to the position and what you bring to the project
  • Avoid generic statements generated by you or AI tools
  • Make sure your submit all the required documents.