PhD Interview Advice

[Bumbl]

I have a PhD interview coming up in a couple of weeks (this is for a place on the course, not for funding)

It will be with my prospective supervisor, who I have already emailed a few times and sent my proposal to.

Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to prepare or what to expect?

I'm not 100% sure what the context for this is, in other words why it's not linked to funding, but in general I'm looking for a mix of excellent academic ability (which is partly displayed on your application), enthusiasm and some awareness/knowledge of the likely challenges in the field.

Also, if and how the pandemic will affect your projected timetable and project.

Don't undersell yourself, I had a PhD student who was brilliant, but really underplayed herself (yes she was female) and it came over quite wishy washy in interview, and if I hadn't paid close attention to her grades, I wouldn't have ranked her as the excellent candidate she turned out to be.

Ah thank you so much for your reply.

What I mean is, it's just an initial interview for a place at the university, and then I would apply for funding after. So this is just a meeting with the potential supervisors based solely on my proposed project.

I will work on being more direct and 'showing myself off'. I'm always scared of coming across as arrogant but that's my own problem.

Challenges in the field is something I'll think more about.

Would you expect an applicant to have in depth knowledge of your work?

If you know who is interviewing you, I would definitely make time to look through their work, read a couple of papers, see where they are headed research-wise, it'll make you feel more secure even if you don't work any of that into your answers.

What field/ area? I’m humanities (so candidates propose their own topics). In that first chat I’m looking for:

• able to talk about their proposed project in an articulate way
• some knowledge of the field/ context and able to say something about how their proposed project is an ‘original contribution’
• to say why they want to work with me/ why my expertise is relevant
• to seem like a good ‘supervisory fit’. Ie do I think we can work together? Are they able to take on board feedback or input from me? Etc

I do a lot of screening before we even get to first chat stage (usually a bit of back-and-forth on their proposal to see how they take on board feedback, how they’re able to develop ideas, etc)

Yes it's Humanities - Languages.

I have sent her my proposal and she gave an initial response that she would be happy to supervise a project like mine, then as I said I would be applying for separate funding she gave more in-depth (emailed) feedback about tailoring my proposal for the funding bodies.

The interview is with her, and a language specific supervisor who I have not spoken to before, so I guess it will be a good opportunity to meet and see how we even get on!

Thank you for your advice.

Hi, I would also suggest thinking about the potential impact/ contribution of your project (which I know someone else mentioned already). I thought at the time that my PhD interview had been a disaster because I wasn't really very strong in the technical questions. Apparently though, it was how I talked about my motivation and desired impact/ contribution that helped me to be successful. Good luck! I hope it goes well

Thank you so much!

All really useful, I will think about those points and how best to articulate them.