Hi all,

I’ve recently been invited to an interview for a phd project (psychology). I have to give a 5 minute presentation on either a neuroscience topic I am interested in OR a piece of research I have recently completed. I have decided upon the research project as neuroscience is so vast I don’t want to get lost while preparing for the presentation when I also have the general phd subject to explore and brush up on...not to mention the funding organisation, the university and the panel members! All this in 9 days so if I present my own research project I figured I’d be able to focus more quickly and prepare thoroughly for the 10 to 15 minutes question session that will follow the presentation.

So! My question is...with only 5 minutes to present my research (it was a small scale grounded theory (qual.) piece of research) what should I be focusing on? My feelings are that I should provide just enough background lit that they see my rationale for the research but don’t waste too much time on it as it is an area most academics will know enough to follow the general idea. I also feel I should only briefly mention the methodology and then really focus on my data analysis and interpretation of the data and highlight my ability to think critically regarding research design, results and future exploration.

Am I right in this approach? I think I’ve gotten my interview on the basis of my research skills (masters qualification pending and 3 years data analysis for public sector) and enthusiasm rather than the relevancy of my history to the phd topic. Should I mention any problems I encountered during my project and how I overcame them or should I just stick to the standard format of intro, methods, results, discussion?

Any help as soon as possible would be great as this is the first academic interview I’ve had and I really want to make a good impression and showcase my ability.

Hi Ashklea

Sounds good to me what you propose. I would leave potential problems etc for the questions and answers bit. With only five minutes to present I think you have to focus on what your project achieved. Also, but I suppose this depends on the panel and the nature of the PhD you are applying for, it might be worth mentioning how GT positively affected your study, ie you followed the analytical trail from your data etc.

Best of luck

A

Hey! I recently had to do a 5 minute presentation for an academic job interview, and you're really looking at only about 3-4 slides max. So I would very briefly outline the rationale and the methodology (in about 1 minute!) and concentrate on the results and conclusions (including implications of the research and possibilities for future research). I really don't think you'll have time for anything else- and probably they are just more interested in seeing you stand up and present than hearing all the details of your project, other wise there wouldn't have been the option of talking about something else. If they want more details, they'll ask afterwards anyway! Good luck! KB