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Common Interview Questions

This document provides examples of common interview questions asked in forensic science job interviews. The questions cover topics such as educational background, work experience, motivations for pursuing forensic science, descriptions of ideal work environments and colleagues, conflict resolution, strengths and weaknesses, career goals, and forensic science concepts including quality assurance and control, chain of custody, presumptive and confirmatory tests, DNA analysis, analytical instrumentation, computer forensics, and forensic science acronyms. Interviewers will ask questions to evaluate a candidate's qualifications for the position and suitability for the field and workplace culture.

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219 views5 pages

Common Interview Questions

This document provides examples of common interview questions asked in forensic science job interviews. The questions cover topics such as educational background, work experience, motivations for pursuing forensic science, descriptions of ideal work environments and colleagues, conflict resolution, strengths and weaknesses, career goals, and forensic science concepts including quality assurance and control, chain of custody, presumptive and confirmatory tests, DNA analysis, analytical instrumentation, computer forensics, and forensic science acronyms. Interviewers will ask questions to evaluate a candidate's qualifications for the position and suitability for the field and workplace culture.

Uploaded by

support
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Some Common Interview Questions

General Interview Questions:

Tell us about your educational background and your experience.

What part of your past experiences and education background do you believe would
make you an ideal candidate for this position?

Why do you believe you should be selected for this job position?

Why do you want to work for our organization?

Describe your ideal supervisor.

Describe your ideal work environment.

Describe your ideal co-worker.

What is your motto?

If we ask you to describe yourself in one word, what would it be and why?

If we ask your co-worker/classmates/friends/supervisor to describe you in one word, what


do you think it would be?

How would your friends/co-workers/classmates/supervisor describe you?

Tell us about a situation in your past experience where there was a conflict between you
and a co-worker; how did you handle the situation and what was the outcome?

What are your strengths?

What are your weaknesses?

What are your career goals for the future/where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

Finally, now that we’ve asked you so many questions, do you have any questions for us?

Describe your most rewarding work experience and your worst work experience and tell
us why they are the most rewarding and worst experiences.

Marshall University Forensic Science Program Seminar—Fall 2006 Page 1 of 5 Clark Jaw
General Forensic Science-related Questions:

What is Forensic Science?

What is Quality Assurance?

If you are a QA Manager for a lab, what would you do to make sure that your lab
achieves the goals of QA?

What is Quality Control? Why is it important?

Why would you like to be a Forensic Scientist/why would you like to work in Forensic
_______?

What is a proficiency test?

What is a competency test?

What is the chain of custody? Why is it important?

What is a presumptive test? Can you give an example of one?

What is a confirmatory test? Can you give an example of one?

In your opinion, what is the most horrible thing a Forensic Scientist can ever do?

You received a piece of evidence and before you did anything with it you noticed that
there was a big rip on the bag and part of the evidence on the inside could be seen
through the rip. What should you do?

If you see that one of your co-workers is falsifying data in the lab, how would you handle
the situation?

You are working in the lab and you think you might have switched/contaminated two of
the samples. What should you do?

Marshall University Forensic Science Program Seminar—Fall 2006 Page 2 of 5 Clark Jaw
DNA-related Questions:

If you are a college professor lecturing to your students in a molecular biology class, how
would you describe to them/what would you tell them about the process of going from a
biological stain (such as semen) to a DNA profile.

A 37-year old man was found stabbed to death in his apartment. The body was found
laying face-down, with the right arm hanging off the edge of the sofa in the living room.
Assuming that you can only collect 3 samples from this crime scene to be processed,
which of the following 3 samples would you collect choose?

Blood spatter on the wall


Blood from the bloody footprints leading from the living room to the outside of the
apartment
Blood on the front of the victim’s shirt
Oral swab samples from the victim’s mouth
Blood on the back of the victim’s shirt
Blood on the victim’s hand
Swabbing of the handle of the knife supposedly used to stab the victim
Swabbing of the blade of the knife supposedly used to stab the victim
A piece of hair on the victim’s shirt near one of the stab wounds
Blood found on the kitchen floor

What is PCR? Please describe the process and the materials involved.

Chemistry-related Questions:

You were given a small bag containing some unknown white powder to analyze. How
would you go about analyzing it? Please describe the steps you would take and the
instrumentations you would use. Please take into consideration the fact that you are only
allowed to consume a limited amount of sample for your analysis.

Please choose one of the following analytical instruments/systems/methods and describe


how it works:
GCMS
HPLC
CE
FTIR
ATR
SEC
***Look at the ABC Classification of analysis methods***

Can you give an example of an analysis method for unknown white powders that is
destructive? Can you give an example of one that is nondestructive?

Marshall University Forensic Science Program Seminar—Fall 2006 Page 3 of 5 Clark Jaw
Computer-related Questions:

Please describe the general structure of a hard drive.

What is a message-digest? Why is it important in Forensic Science?

You were called in to help investigate a case involving underground distribution of child
pornography through an Internet message group based in _______(whatever city you’re
in). The suspect was allegedly the host of the message group and had disseminated
through this group for the past 3 months over 1,350 pictures depicting naked children
involved in sexual situations. You were informed by law enforcement authorities after
their initial survey of the suspect’s house that the apartment contained the following
items:

Computer monitor Digital camera without memory card


Rolex watch Television
DVD-RW player Suspect’s clothes and shoes
Cell phone VCR
A footlocker filled with notebooks Flatbed scanner
Inkjet printer Network Router
Computer tower-with no hard drive Burned CD-ROM discs in trash can
Xbox game console

Assuming law enforcement authorities can only take 3 items to be examined in their
Computer Crimes unit, which items should they take? In other words, which 3 items
have the MOST probative value to this case?

Marshall University Forensic Science Program Seminar—Fall 2006 Page 4 of 5 Clark Jaw
It’s good to know what these initials stand for (not an exhaustive list):

AABB

AAFS

ABC

ABI

ASCLD

ASCLD-LAB

CBD-IAI

FEPAC

FRN

IAI

MAAFS

MAFS

TWG

SWG

Marshall University Forensic Science Program Seminar—Fall 2006 Page 5 of 5 Clark Jaw

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