Screwed Up an Interview

[BigThomason51]

Hey guys,

I had a phone interview the other day to a very good research institute.  I came prepared with my research, made sure I had studied well, however, nerves got the best of me and I wasn't able to answer some basic follow up questions for my research.  The guy was very nice, and he didn't seem like it was a big deal, but man I feel really bad about it.

The worst part is, I'm already coming into the app process with a very low undergraduate gpa, so it seems like this was the final straw. 

Has anybody else experienced something similar?  

 

[Psyentist]

What did you screw up question wise?

[cuteDr22]

Was this your first interview?  

[BigThomason51]

On 1/31/2017 at 9:50 AM, biowligist said:

What did you screw up question wise?

Is more like I explained my research, then they asked some questions about the process, and my answers were very fiddled and sounded a bit unsure.  This happened for almost all of my research questions, besides 1 or 2.  Perhaps I am being hard on myself, but it just sucks because these are questions I absolutely knew the answer to and I had rehearsed.   (And obviously, this is my research so I should know it.) 

Edited February 2, 2017 by BigThomason51

[BigThomason51]

2 hours ago, cuteDr22 said:

Was this your first interview?  

Yep!  First interview.  

I might be being too hard on myself here, but it just sucks knowing you could've done better on your answers, and now you're stuck waiting for follow up answers.

[cuteDr22]

i was not happy with my first interview either. It's too bad that one of my top choices was my first interview.  Good luck in the future! Maybe you will be surprIsed.

[vnatch]

On a related note...

I had my first interview last week, and I found that I had a hard time balancing giving firm and definitive answers while also being honest. I'm in a pretty non-mainstream field, so the truth is that a lot of questions professors asked me simply haven't been studied or aren't known for sure yet. So at first I sort of explained it that way, but midway through I would usually get worried about sounding uninformed so I would then give my own hypothesis or idea of what is happening. Has anyone else run into this problem?

[Epigenetics]

On 2/2/2017 at 7:14 PM, vnatch said:

On a related note...

I had my first interview last week, and I found that I had a hard time balancing giving firm and definitive answers while also being honest. I'm in a pretty non-mainstream field, so the truth is that a lot of questions professors asked me simply haven't been studied or aren't known for sure yet. So at first I sort of explained it that way, but midway through I would usually get worried about sounding uninformed so I would then give my own hypothesis or idea of what is happening. Has anyone else run into this problem?

I think that's called science. You shouldn't be giving firm or definite answers if you're on the cutting edge, and that's fine.

[BlueNahlchee]

On 2/2/2017 at 8:11 AM, BigThomason51 said:

Is more like I explained my research, then they asked some questions about the process, and my answers were very fiddled and sounded a bit unsure.  This happened for almost all of my research questions, besides 1 or 2.  Perhaps I am being hard on myself, but it just sucks because these are questions I absolutely knew the answer to and I had rehearsed.   (And obviously, this is my research so I should know it.) 

I've definitely done that too, so I know what you mean   though I feel that it usually does not disqualify you from being considered for the lab you are applying for (unless you were talking about random nonsense or irrelevant stuff, which I'm sure you didn't haha).  

[MCF10A]

Based on my experience it shouldn't be a big deal. I thought I screwed up 2 interviews at 2 schools because I didn't answer the follow-up questions about my own research well. I felt really bad, but I ended up receiving very positive emails from those two interviewers and got into both schools. Thing are usually better than we thought, so don't worry too much!