Do I have a chance against PhD students for this job? Advice please

[GreyWriter]

Hello everyone, I hope it is okay that I post here

I applied for a role at a quite highly ranked university in London. The role is non-academic and is an Insight Analyst role - I want it so much and have been kind of obsessively checking over my application, the job description etc. I found out the previous post holder was a PhD student with 3 years relevant experience, I have 2 but probably have more technical skills with Python and SQL that could benefit my application. I am just wondering if anyone has experience in applying (or recruiting) for this sort of thing and may be able to advise if I would get a fair shot at interview if most of the other applicants have PhDs? It's a big jump to assume most of the applicants are PhD students, they might not be but I imagine the job does attract some of these kinds of students.

Just to add I meet all of the essential criteria and touched on the desirable criteria in my application as well.

Thanks in advance any advice would really calm my nerves! 😓

Edit to add: I have a BA and a Masters btw, no PhD obviously - BA is unrelated to the job and Masters is semi related!

Sorry just wanted to also add that the previous post holder was a PhD student in the faulty I am applying for, and so I guess I am concerned about the rhetoric of universities "preferring to hire their own" to be true. Neither my undergrad or masters is from the university I applied to so that is where the overthinking has come from! Thanks in advance everyone xxx

Sorry I have no insight into the kind of role you're applying for, hopefully someone else will come along who can comment on that. I just wanted to respond to your 2nd post though. I can't say I have found this to be true. I think there might be a benefit to having previous experience of working in a university, so you understand its inner workings, but at least for academic roles most people hired in my department are outside recruits. I've recently hired a postdoc and research assistant. In both cases there were internal candidates, and I knew their strengths but also their weaknesses. I knew there were plenty of instances where they missed deadlines, didn't show initiative, despite whatever they might claim in their cover letter. Sure, sometimes there's a brilliant internal candidate who we love to keep, but there are also many mediocre ones!

Hey @Alaimo thank you so much for this - I appreciate the inside knowledge and I think I am getting in my head about it but your message has really calmed me down, thank you. I didn't even consider the fact that an internal candidate would be known to the department and so previous track record could go against them!

There’s absolutely no way to tell with these kind of roles.
Internal candidates are sometimes a legal ‘priority’ if they’re staff and coming to the end of their fixed term funding - continuation of contracts is prioritised if they meet the essential requirements. Otherwise it’s often a level playing field and whoever fits best with what needs doing (and can convince the panel of this!) gets the role.

Hey @Pepperama thanks so much for this, that was really useful to know! I just got an email that I unfortunately haven't been shortlisted for the position. I am a bit sad but mostly relieved that I now know the outcome, and after some research I believe my cover letter was much too short and didn't provide specific examples for each of the essential criteria so I believe that was likely what made my application unsuccessful! Anyway, onwards and upwards, and thanks for the useful feedback on my question 💗

Ah yes, that’s a really common area. You really need to go through and briefly comment on each essential. Don’t leave panel members to guess from your CV whether or how much you meet the criteria, we expect applicants to spell it out to us. Better luck next time!

Bit late to the party, and sorry you didn't get the role. But a PhD won't make any difference. It's your experience that counts, and it sounds as if you unfortunately didn't outline that clearly.

I'd add that I wouldn't expect Python skills in such a role, poss SQL, if large datasets are in the role. But I'd expect more than just raw data analysis - you need to say what that data means for your institution, and its competitors - ie do the Insight bit!