Phone Interview

[Marshall]

I have a phone interview on thursday and I'm already a nervous wreck. The interview is by a professor who emailed me and told me he was interested in having me work in his lab with him.

I've gone and looked up questions to expect when interviewing with a committee but what should I expect from this type of interview with an actual potential advisor/professor?

The department I've applied to is Geology if that helps.

If anything, calm my nerves. This is the first news I've heard back from any of my schools since the deadline on Feb 1.

Edited February 16, 2010 by Marshall

[nh88]

Relax, you have a great advantage on a phone interview! You can have your notes with you and just be in a comfortable setting in your home or wherever.

I had a phone interview in early January, in a different field.

I was asked to first justify why I wanted to pursue a PhD. Be ready for this question, this should be very easy. Just make sure you are coherent. Try practicing this with a friend/family member. Also make sure that you do not contradict your statement of intent.

I was then asked to describe my research experience to date.

Finally, I was asked to clarify within my field where exactly I see myself performing research.

After the questions, I was asked if I had any questions. Make sure you have questions. I think this is a very important part of the interview. I asked about the process in the admissions cycle, as well as the process upon admission. I also asked my potential adviser to describe some of the research that I might become involved with. Ask about the environment etc etc.

Basically, the sense I got was this was a tool for the school to mainly verify my personality as well as verify what I wrote in my statement of intent.