advices for interview

[giuseppe44]

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. 

[Vene]

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.

[FantasticalDevPsych]

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!

[giuseppe44]

Thanks!

[Chubberubber]

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...  

[giuseppe44]

I was very informal actually, the guy just wanted to chat with me and get to know me. It went very well!

[andrestoga]

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,

[Vene]

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.

[andrestoga]

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,

[FantasticalDevPsych]

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.

[Chubberubber]

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.

[bbdd2]

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.