Hi,

I have a few PHD interviews this year, and have often been asked about what I would hope to do after completion of a PhD. At the moment I'm only worried about finding a PhD and so have not thought that far ahead! So I always get stuck on that question,because at the moment tbh I do not have a specific idea. I know that I would like to continue in research, but its difficult to know what opportunities would be available in the future. Can anyone give me ideas or thoughts about this?

thanks

Not really advice on what you could do but more advice on what you can say when asked.

I always say that my hope is that once I am finished with my PhD I will get a Post-Doc position somewhere to further my research abilities and to work my way towards obtaining a lectureship at a University, as I want to continue studying in my current field and would like to control/drive my own research. I say this because this is actually what I hope to eventually achieve. You could add that your aren't sure what will happen in the future so your current plans may change but currently this is what you are hoping to achieve.

You could always look at what opportunities are available right now and use that as the basis of your answer, even if things do change at least for the moment it is relevant.

Hope this helps.

Hi Tom,

I think this is one of those questions where there's not necessarily a "perfect" answer. Obviously, if you were to say something like "stack shelves", then they might think that there'd be no point in offering it to you when someone else could make more use of it. Valid (imo) answers would be things like academia, research, industry, or things more subject-specific. Perhaps they would look favourably on someone looking to stay in the subject area, but as long as it's something which would make use of your PhD, either in terms of the specific techniques used, or just in terms of the intellectual development, I don't think you can go far wrong.

Just say what you have put here: you want to continue in research and obviously you can't say doing exactly what because you don't know what opportunities there will be. Mention the field of the PhD place and say to build further on that or maybe you will branch out in to research on 'insert other areas of interest you have here'.

At my interview I was told most of their students move into industry and I should expect that path was most likely for me. However, I said I wanted to do research and stay in academia, and that is still my plan.
You can't know what will crop up in a few years and they will know that too - they just need to know you are doing this with a direction rather than something to do instead of a job.