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.