Phone interview questions

[jennyfd]

Do you know what will they ask in phone interview?

[Business2Biology]

Do you know what will they ask in phone interview?

The above is pretty generic and potentially not extraordinarily relevant for phone interviews with a PI.

My experience (YMMV) varied tremendously. I had a mess of phone "interviews" which were about 90% of the PI enthusiing about his/her research and me muttering moderately (?) intelligent things. These calls were extremely valuable for getting a sense of the person - what fun to work in his/her lab, etc - but not so much of an interview.

Then I had a call which pulled the rug out from under my feet; it was a proper interview! The PI spoke very little about his research, and only in passing as it related to the flow of questions and conversation. From what my shell-shocked mind recalls (from back in November):

- Tell me about yourself? (above post got that one right)

- Why do you want a PhD?

- What do you imagine the process of getting a PhD to be like?

- Why do you feel that you would do well at this?

The most important thing, I realize now, is to be yourself. Easy to say, but I am firmly convinced that this is the only winning strategy. When done right, as an interview, these people want to get a sense of WHO YOU ARE! They are not necessarily looking for the person who will blow into their lab and hit the ground running, already knowing everything. If that were the case, why do you need them?!

Hope this helps