Doing a PhD interview is scary for all of us for both the interviewer and person that is being interviewed. I would argue that you should be yourself during the interview, but you really should think about a couple of questions that come up during the interview process.
Tell me about yourself?: What I realized that people were not really looking for your hobbies and interests. What they are more interested in is why you actually want to do research in the thing that you are planning on researching.
For example, if you are thinking about doing a PhD in chemistry, you might want to talk about how you always wondered how oil refineries worked. If you are interested in doing a PhD in entrepreneurship or innovation, you might want to talk about your interests in watching Shark Tank, and why you always saw investors take on a role in investing. You might want to investigate the role of emotions on investment decisions.
Tell me about yourself is always focused on the research. It’s rarely focused on things that are not important to the career.
Here is another important question: What are your research interests? What we are asking you is whether you read some of our work, or the work of notable scholars. Ideally, you should read an article or two from the people that are interviewing you. I wish I would have known this, so I would have had a much more fun experience with my interview. Simply by reading a few articles will make you about 95% better than all of the other candidates.
You can even point out that you really liked their research, and that you were thinking of extending their research idea but including other variables or a new setting. What we are looking for is someone that is going to be sharp and thought about research already.
What I would like to do is go into the interview confident and comfortable.
Check out:
Would You Make A Good Professor?
• Would You Make A Good Professor?
PhD Motivation Tips: How To Stay Motivated During Grad School
• PhD Motivation Tips: How To Stay Moti...
How To Do Academic And Industry Collaboration: Innovating For Universities And Professors
• How To Make UniversityIndustry Colla...
What Are The Hardest PhD Programs?
• What Are The Hardest PhD Programs?
Do Professors Take Credit For Their Students Work? And, How To Deal With It.
• Do Professors Take Credit For Their S...
What Is it Like To Be A Dad As A Professor? (In A Business School)
• What Is it Like To Be A Dad As A Prof...
Is The Future Of University Dead?
• Is The Future Of University Dead?
How To Write About Future Work In A Research Paper? Simple Tricks For Research Recommendations
• How To Write About Future Work In A R...
How To Build Confidence As A PhD: Having A Lack Of Confidence In Grad School
• How To Build Confidence As A PhD: Hav...
***
David Maslach is a research professor of entrepreneurship, innovation, and business strategy, I discuss topics, such as behavioral science, strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and apply these to my new peer proofreading and editing platform. Topics include the sharing economy, altruism, investing in technology, starting a business, and bounded rationality. My favorite videos pertain to incentives, goal setting, and learning from failure to drive behaviors such as weight loss, stopping telemarketers, creating novel technologies, and creating new movements.
https://r3ciprocity.com: Peer proofreading and editing platform
A new platform where you can earn credits by editing other people's documents. Use these credits to have your own work edited. If you do a good enough job, you can convert these credits to money.
The goal of the platform is to get people to 'pay it forward' and help other people out by creating incentives for people to give back.
Check out https://www.r3ciprocity.com
Please subscribe to the Youtube channel:
/ @r3ciprocityteam