If someine has a face to face interview would that person be at an advantage relative to someone that has a telephone interview? Has anyone done a telephone interview and was successful? Any advice.

From my own experience, face to face interview has a lot of advantages, interaction is very important. it also depends on the type of the research u doing. Researchers in marketing for example use a lot of telephone interviews.

I agree with kas. I did a phone interview ~week ago. Although you can have cheat sheets with you and all...you don't feel much in control as you can't read body language (which would guide you a lot), you can't connect and if accents play poker on you, you can't read lips. Worse if you are in Africa like me, connectivity might me an issue. They gave the slot to someone they'd seen face-to-face and none of us who'd been 'seen' on phone!

When I was applying for my studentship...they had face to face interviews for uk residents and phone interviews for everyone outside of the UK. I had a phone interview and got the studentship, so they can be successful. I don't think they can discrimate based on interview type, otherwise why offer 2 types!

I was reading, a few weeks ago, a message from someone who was also doing a tele interview and someone mentioned that a tele interview was just to complete the application process...it didn't matter because they already knew who they were going to give the studentship to. So what's the point then to interview persons if you are not interested in them? Don't you think it is a waste of time? Do an interview really determine who gets the place?

J, how did you deal with the interview? Any advice. How did you connect with the interviewers? What sorts of quest did they ask? Was your project science based?

My project is in computing. It's a while since I did it but they just asked questions bout "why I want to do a PhD?", "What do I understand by doing a PhD?", "What sort of skills are useful?"...then alot about my BSc project! Hope this helps.

You never know who you are up against Joel as if the position has been decided already the interview is just a formality. If the uni decided they have someone in mind for the position already but might have to advertise for whatever reason eg. equality, publicity etc... there's not much anyone can do! If it was a job they would have to go through with the whole interview process to meet equality/employment laws but I'm sure about the position with PhDs!

opps ... it's meant to say I'm not sure about PhDs! It's worth a try anyway as people change their minds and hedge their bets all the time and positions need to get filled! I would say it happens more often in prestigious unis as they seem to have a very closed network and therefore harder to get into! They also have more people applying so can pick and choose who they want!