Good day. I am just wondering what do prospective supervisor sees before calling someone for PhD studentship interview? Results? Work experience? etc. What would you do to increase your chance of getting an interview and ultimately obtaining a PhD position. Cheers

When I applied for my phd, they asked me to fill in an application form, as well as sending my CV and a cover letter.

The application form had a few basic questions, such as:
Why do you want to do a PhD?
Why do you want to do a PhD at XXX university?
What experience do you have that will be relevant?

They are looking for enthusiasm, some degree of knowledge of the subject area, and some relevant experience, whether through your undergrad degree, a masters or perhaps some work experience. My advice would be to make sure your CV is as good as it can be (get someone else to look at if for you, or make use of your uni's careers service). It should be concise, logical and relevant to the PhD you are applying for. eg. if your degree is in biochemistry and the PhD is in imuunology, pick out and highlight any immunology modules you may have studied as part of your course and describe any techniques you are familiar with, to show that you have tailored your CV specifically and are not just applying for anything that comes your way!

As for the cover letter, again, make sure someone else reads it before you send it out. It should clearly lay out why you want to do that specific PhD, and what you have done that makes you the perfect candidate. eg. you could write something along the lines of 'My extensive computing experience, coupled with the laboratory skills gained during my undergraduate and Master's degrees, render me the ideal candidate for this studentship', and give specific examples of where this experience comes from.

For me personally, I think the fact that my application form and CV were good are what got me the interview. And I'm not bragging - it was mostly through other people's help! Having a concise, easy to read application goes a long way towards making a good first impression, particularly if there are lots of applicants with similar amounts of qualifications/experience - a strong application will really make you stand out, so no spelling or grammatical mistakes.

Of course, your results and experience are important too - I had a 2:1 at undergrad, a distinction in my Masters, and a year's work experience which helped me to stand out against the other candidates who were fresh from their undergrad studies (not that I think you can't get a PhD straight from undergrad - lots of people do, but they tend to have firsts). It wasn't part of my original plan to do a PhD, hence why I left uni and worked for a bit, but it worked out quite well in the end as I was lucky that the PhD and my qualifications and experience matched up perfectly, so it was easy for me to 'sell' my skills to the interviewer.

Hope some of this helps!