Skype interview/talk?

[jesse7771]

Was contacted by a professor from a school I applied to (UVa) (for Fall hes talking about starting in the spring semester??) he said that I was a "good fit" for his lab. We are suppose to "talk" on Skype this Thursday and I'm wondering if this is gonna be like a technical thing where he springs questions on me and grills me for an hour to see if I'm qualified or if its literally a talk about the opportunity. Does anyone here have any thoughts on what this will be?

Also if he wants someone for spring and I cant do it this spring will I loose this oppertunity? (working at a company making really good bonuses for the next few months to save for graduate school)

[jesse7771]

It might sound weird that Im worried about that but some places (companies) will drop alot of questions on you when your not expecting it... (Texas Inst. is a good ex.)

[beccamayworth]

I think they're most likely just going to ask you about your research experience, what you expect to be doing at the lab, etc.

 

From my experience they didn't ask any specific technical questions, but we talked a lot about research and I think they were trying to see how well I could explain my work, how knowledgeable of the field I was, etc. (But then again I'm in a completely different field, so... I don't know). 

[shadowclaw]

I had a Skype interview back in October. Most of the interview was asking me about where I went to school, research experiences, my experience in gis, stats, and programming (which were skills the POI was specifically looking for), what kinds of questions I'd like to pursue, and a little bit about coursework and how I got into biology and birds. The rest was spent listening to him describe through different projects going on in the lab, plus time at the end for questions.

Oh, and at the end he told me to apply and gave me an overview of the application timeline. So basically, you can expect to be asked about some relevant coursework, research experience, and ideas for research in the lab. I found that it was more of an expanded discussion of my CV and things we had already went over in emails rather than unexpected questions.

[jesse7771]

^^ Pretty much what you guys said it would be! We talked about my research and projects I worked on, no specific technical questions though he did stump me with, "what would you do if you were given infinite funding and 10 years to work on any problem?" It looks like I will be going to UVa in about a month as he said he wanted me to start (1 month from now) spring and couldn't guarantee me that I would get funding if I wait till fall (have to compete with ALOT more applicants)

[beccamayworth]

Congrats!!!