giuseppe44 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I'm having my first interview tomorrow for a PhD in biomedical engineering. It's gonna be a 15 minute skype call. I have no idea what to expect and how I should prepare myself. I'm very confident talking about my research but that's all. Any example of questions they could ask? It will help me prepare myself. thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vene Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Here's my advice, worry less about what they will ask you and instead prepare some questions to ask them. That's the best way to show you're interested and engaged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FantasticalDevPsych Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I second this advice especially as I had my first Skype chat last week! The advice I received beforehand (from several profs) was to be comfortable talking about your research (like a thesis or something) and general research interests and to prepare some questions to ask them! I said a little about my interests but mostly ended up asking questions to the prof! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giuseppe44 Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubberubber Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 15 min. is pretty short for an interview (in my experience- I might be wrong). The most important thing to know is who will be interviewing you. I it your POI? Another prof. at the department? An administrative? If it's a professor- I'd come prepared with maybe 1 or 2 questions about their research, and if it's an admin then 1-2 questions about the program. In any case, I think it's very important to talk about why this particular program interest you and what are the programs unique advantages to you (whether you're asked about it directly or not). I think it's a good way to basically talk about why you are the best fit for the program without being too obvious about it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giuseppe44 Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 I was very informal actually, the guy just wanted to chat with me and get to know me. It went very well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrestoga Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Here's my advice, worry less about what they will ask you and instead prepare some questions to ask them. That's the best way to show you're interested and engaged. I second this advice especially as I had my first Skype chat last week! The advice I received beforehand (from several profs) was to be comfortable talking about your research (like a thesis or something) and general research interests and to prepare some questions to ask them! I said a little about my interests but mostly ended up asking questions to the prof! 15 min. is pretty short for an interview (in my experience- I might be wrong). The most important thing to know is who will be interviewing you. I it your POI? Another prof. at the department? An administrative? If it's a professor- I'd come prepared with maybe 1 or 2 questions about their research, and if it's an admin then 1-2 questions about the program. In any case, I think it's very important to talk about why this particular program interest you and what are the programs unique advantages to you (whether you're asked about it directly or not). I think it's a good way to basically talk about why you are the best fit for the program without being too obvious about it... Hello, I see that you three recommend that we should ask questions to professors about their research. Can you give some examples of questions to ask to a professor? What level of depth should be the question? specific to a particular topic in a paper? or in general about their research? Best, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vene Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I didn't ask much for questions about their research, I focused more on the program and mentorship style as that is what mattered most to me. I've found that I'm content to work on a wide variety of different scientific questions and it didn't matter much to me if somebody's interest in a protein was in its expression or its function. What did matter to me is that I'd have somebody I'd be happy working under and that the program was a fit for my career goals. I wanted to get a feel for the program and the university, not just an individual. Naturally, you are free to ask about their research, but every professor I talked to was perfectly content to just talk at great length on their current projects and I found I got better information if I could delay that for as long as I could. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrestoga Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I didn't ask much for questions about their research, I focused more on the program and mentorship style as that is what mattered most to me. I've found that I'm content to work on a wide variety of different scientific questions and it didn't matter much to me if somebody's interest in a protein was in its expression or its function. What did matter to me is that I'd have somebody I'd be happy working under and that the program was a fit for my career goals. I wanted to get a feel for the program and the university, not just an individual. Naturally, you are free to ask about their research, but every professor I talked to was perfectly content to just talk at great length on their current projects and I found I got better information if I could delay that for as long as I could. Hi, Thanks for the ideas! I have some other questions: What questions do you ask for mentorship style? and how many mentorship style exists? Best, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FantasticalDevPsych Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I actually specifically asked what is your mentorship style and also asked questions about they prefer to run the lab (in my field, that's important). I also asked about the type of training I would receive in the program as well as how are undergrads involved. I didn't ask too much about research as they explained their current research to me but only asked questions when I was curious about an aspect of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubberubber Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I asked mainly about research. Things like "what do you think you'll (and/ or your lab will be) focusing on for the next 5 years?", "How do you see your theory on X related to phenomena Y?" and we also discussed various research ideas that I have. I waspretty specific and wanted to let the POI know that I'm very familiar with their work so I even mentioned specific articles that I found interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbdd2 Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 It is important to have questions for them. Show them youve done some background work and you've taken some time to research the department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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