The PhD interview

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One day you wonder if you will ever get a call for a PhD interview after sending those applications. The next day you are preparing for three different interviews and you wish you just had a little more time. That is what happened to me last week, and I’d like to share my PhD interview experiences with you.

So far I’ve had six formal interviews. Every interview was sort of similar, but also different. There were always things I didn’t prepare for, but every interview was an experience I’ve learned from.

When I was preparing for my first interview I realised I was actually not very interested in the topic, but I decided to go for the interview anyway, because I had no idea what a PhD interview would be like. The interview took place in one of the offices in the building where three men in suits were waiting for me. The first part of the interview was surprisingly informal; they asked me about my research experience and seemed truly interested in all my thesis and internship experiences. Now I think I’ve spend way too much time talking about my experiences and motivation. When they asked why I am interested in their project I didn’t have a good answer that wouldn’t contradict my previous motivation. But then I didn’t really want to get selected for this PhD, so no big loss there. Apart from that I realised I actually didn’t really know much about their project beforehand, even though I thought I prepared well enough.

So for my next interview I tried to not only read about the research group’s main focus and the professor’s background (try to find recent reviews, they usually give a nice overview of their main interests), but also read more about the project details in the literature, and I tried to come up with my own ideas. The literature was interesting and I had a few thoughts about the project. The interview was different from the first. First of all, I knew there would be two selection rounds; one interview round, and one round where 2 or 3 selected candidates would have to present their thesis/internship work. On the day of the interview I had a chat with the professor. Instead of asking questions he started off by explaining the goal of the project. After he finished explaining I told him about my ideas. I didn’t really think it through though. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but I should have anticipated on more detailed questioning from his side.. which I didn’t. And that probably made me look stupid. Okay, lesson learned. Next I had a talk with 2 PhD candidates who were already working for him. This is something I really liked, because it is good to meet the people who might be your future colleagues. They can also tell you more about what the group is like and what it’s like to work with the professor. Another thing I didn’t really think through before going for this interview, so I never asked.. Anyway, I wasn’t selected for the second round.

My third interview took place right after I got the rejection from the previous one, so I wasn’t feeling too good about myself. This interview was not at a university, like the other two, but at an institute. There were two people interviewing me, one of them was introduced as the co-promotor. The promotor for this project was not working at the institute itself and was also not there during the first interview. Honestly, I got a bit confused about what the role of each of them would be within my project, but I felt too stupid to ask what a promotor or a co-promotor exactly is, so I didn’t. I should have, and I should have asked more questions about the project as well. Even after I was selected for the second round and after I gave a presentation for four people, I didn’t ask many questions. I felt like it was a test and they have to like me, but now I would say it is just as important for you to like them. There has to be a match, and it has to be there both ways. So find out as much as you can about your supervisors and how much they can actually help you in the lab, about the people you will be working with the most, about the techniques they are familiar with and about the project goals. You should understand the project well enough to come up with questions and develop your own ideas.

My fourth, fifth and sixth interview were all connected. I applied for one PhD position within a bigger project (Marie Curie) with 15 PhD positions. You can only apply for Marie Curie positions outside of the country where you are staying, so most likely all their interviews will be Skype interviews. This requires a different kind of preparation. I bought a headset, changed to a more professional skype name, moved stuff around in my room because I didn’t want them to see my bed in the background. I even stuck notes to my laptop screen, because I figured they couldn’t see that anyway. For the project application I had to write a 3 page proposal, mainly to demonstrate my writing skills. I felt like I was well prepared regarding the project details. I even contacted the professor who would be supervising the project to find out more about the project, because there were only 5 lines in the job description. He send me some of their papers, and that really helped me, but I found out that this project was really outside of my comfort zone (but inside my interest zone). I was also prepared for the standard questions like; tell us about your experience, what are your strengths and weaknesses, what is your future career goal, why are you interested in this project, why should we hire you, etc. But they didn’t ask about my experience. Instead they started asking detailed questions about the proposal I wrote. Questions I know they knew the answer to. I tend to black out it such situations.. It feels too much like a test. But I managed. What I really hated about this interview is that there was almost no time for my questions. I had many, but there was time for only two of them sadly. A few days later I received a rejection by email, but they asked if I was interested to give two more interviews for related positions within the same project. I guess I made a good impression anyway!

The next two interviews took place within a week after I received that email. There was very little time to prepare. Both supervisors sent me papers to read, 7 in total. I spent all my time preparing for the interviews by reading those papers and trying to quickly understand the projects. Sadly one of the first questions in one of the interviews was ‘Tell us about your experience’. Obviously a question I can answer, but because I focused so much on the projects, my own experiences suddenly seemed less important somehow. They also happen to be most interested in my bachelor thesis work, which feels like it happened ages ago. I couldn't recall the details. Next they asked me to summarise the papers they sent. Papers they have written themselves. This was really not the moment to have a black out. I think I lost half of my English vocabulary during that interview. I felt like a complete idiot. But I did one smart thing before the interview and that is download a MP3 Skype recorder, because I know I sometimes panic and don’t listen to what the other person says. I could listen to the interview again and I found out that I have to slow down! Whenever I answer a question I skip the first few steps in the explanation that are obvious to me, but not to them. That made my answers sound really incoherent. I would say I really improved for the last Skype interview, but not enough, because I didn't get any of the PhD positions.

Today I had a meeting with a professor after I sent an open application. I spoke to her on the phone last week (after all the Skype interviews) and I knew exactly what to say. I gave a short summary about my experience and my interests within 2 minutes and without hesitation, and she invited me to meet in person and also meet a few people in her research group. Hopefully this will be fruitful. To be continued!

I'm curious to know about your success stories and experiences from which you've really learned a lot. Post your do's and don'ts below!