Dear $FirstName $LastName:
thank you very much for your application for a $PositionType position at our lab, which has been received and saved as Application $AppNr. We are glad that you are so interested in the fields of Machine Learning, Robotics and Biomimetic Motor Control.
As our group is tightly knit family with researchers coming from all over the world, we only invite a small number of new researchers to join our ranks and will make sure that everybody in the group is happy with the chosen persons. We also look mainly into the ability to do research and do not necessarily want you to fit perfectly to the current projects' requirements. If we make you an offer, we are sure that we can further your career substantially and probably more than competing labs.
About our process. Our application process consists of five stages described below. To ensure that we are not biased by appearance, all meetings are normally done via Skype or Google Hangout.
1. Pre-Screening: Your application will be evaluated based on your research statement, publications and curriculum vitae.
2. Making Contact: Based on the impression during pre-screening, we will suggest two lab members to get in touch. They will check whether this good impression holds up. These interviews will be one-on-one conversations and are supposed to be statistically independent.
3. Technical and Personal Interviews: There will be several technical interviews where we check whether you have the abilities to perform research in the domains machine learning, robotics and biomimetic motor control. We will also check your strengths and weaknesses. These interviews will be one-on-one conversations and are supposed to be statistically independent.
4. Meet the Family: Every lab member is part of our joint decision on admitting new members. Hence, you get to meet all members in Skype meetings both in one-on-one conversations and group meetings. Interviews will focus on both your abilities, how you fit in the group, how your future could develop, etc. Note: It is your responsibility to ensure that you meet up with at least five lab members.
5. Decision: The whole lab meets, discusses you and conducts a clear vote. IAS does not hire anyone not clearly supported by their lab members.
Reaching Stage 5 is an accomplishment by itself! Generally, we will always try to do our best to create positions for excellent scientists even if we do not have grants yet to support them, but we will rather send the money back to the funding agency than to hire one person who does not fit our family.
So far, so good - we hope the interviews will show that you are fit with our topics and the family.
Best wishes, -Jan Peters
PS: For a position at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tuebingen, please directly email Mara Cascianelli <mara.cascianelli@tuebingen.mpg.de> instead and let me know.
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Prof. Dr. Jan Peters, Fachgebiet Intelligente Autonome Systeme Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Hochschulstr. 10, 64289 Darmstadt
Senior Research Scientist, Head of the Robot Learning Group Dept. Schoelkopf, Max-Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Spemannstrasse 38, Rm 223, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany
www: http://www.ias.tu-darmstadt.de, email: peters@ias.tu-darmstadt.de
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