Hi there,

Following the good advice of some of you guys on this forum, I made a lab visit and now have an interview this week! After the numerous rejections, I really really need to do well on this interview and I would really appreciate if anyone can give me some good advice on interview questions what may come up and whats the best way to respond. The question that for some reason worries me is what my career aspirations are - the problem is I know I want to do research but is it good enough to simply say that following a phd, i want to follow an academic career route in which i do a post doc, then look for a research role because in reality i dont really know exactly - i want to do clinical/translational research but this is not a patient centred phd i have applied for. Would they like to hear that i want to go into clinical research? If I say i want an academic research career on the bench but want to eventually progress to a position where I am leading my own group, conducting my own research - does that sound silly? I really dont have a clue what to say to this question.

Any advice asap would be appreciated.

Hi Natalia

Congrats on getting that interview!

To be honest, as far as the 'What are your aspirations/where do you want to be in 5 years time?' type questions go, I wouldn't worry too much. If you want to work in research then say so, but don't get anxious about the finer details. The reality is that during a PhD you will find aspects that you thought would be interesting maybe aren't, and little side questions may become fascinating. So you can't possibly know yet exactly what kind of research you'd want to do post-PhD! The important thing is to show that you have a commitment to and aptitude for research, and that you will use the time to develop your skills with that in mind.

Based on my own interview experiences, I would say make sure you can comfortably talk about your research experiences - the things you've learnt, the strengths and weakness, what you enjoyed etc. This is probably the most important thing. I've had 4 PhD interviews in my time and they were all very different, but I'm pretty sure all of them wanted to know about my research experience. The most recent one (for the project I am doing) started with 'Talk me through your CV' which was a very broad way of inviting me to explain my background, highlighting the relevant bits and acknowledging the weaknesses without getting bogged down in them.

Good luck!