I had an interview for a PhD scholarship with a panel of two interviewers. I started off feeling confident, and they even commented on my smile and enthusiasm. I then gave a brief overview of my research topic, basically summarised my proposal. However, when the questions came up (two technical questions), I did my best to answer based on the reading that I’ve done and my knowledge, bearing in mind, there's limited info on this. One of the interviewers, though, was very critical, impolite and "shouty". He said that my findings would have little significance to the field, which left me confused because if that was his opinion, why would they have invited me to the interview in the first place? he also mentioned that my research would probably only be published in one or two papers, which he considered to be a poor outcome. I tried to explain that there are other potential directions my research could take in the future, either by me or future researchers. He asked about a particular focus area, which I explained and highlighted the lack of existing research. He went on to criticise my methodology, saying he wasn't too sure about it. Despite all this, in the end, he did acknowledge that I defended my responses well. I just don’t understand why there was so much criticism if they felt my research wasn’t strong enough. The interview was supposed to last 30 minutes, but they were five minutes late, and it ended up lasting 45 minutes. Looking back, I feel quite deflated and wonder if I came across as less knowledgeable than I am, especially since it’s a field I have first-hand experience in. I also practiced a lot and prepared for questions that I didn't even get. After the first stumble in addressing the question, I felt very anxious and it was pretty much a blur from there.