Studentship Interview

M

I am waiting for the telephone interview and so nervous! The worst thing now is I can't even recall the time difference between UK and my country :(

J

I'm sure you will be fine :) Just try to stay calm!

What area is the PhD in?

M

It's in Built Environment. I managed to get my time right! The interview is at 10:40 UK time, at first I was not sure whether we are ahead or behind UK.

J

Not long to go then!

I am starting mine in october but went through the interview process earlier this year. They are definately not out to get you like i thought originally. I was very nervous and just talked nonsense for ages but the sup calmed me down :)

M

Thanks for the encouragement, I'm feeling calm already.

J

You're welcome.

Let us know how it goes

M

It went really bad:-(
Telephone interview is the worst form of interview, all they did was pick on weaknesses from ur application and ur not even given enough time to explain how are you going to mitigate them!

J

Oh :( I'm sorry to hear that.

There must have been some positivity from them surely.....

E

Did they tell you the outcome yet? If not, don't give up hope, sometimes it turns out not to have been as bad as you thought.

I do hate telephone interviews though, had to have one for one of my PhD applications as the supervisor was out of the country at the time, and found it very difficult and awkward. It's much easier to relate to someone face-to-face, I think, on the telephone with someone you don't know it's very difficult to build a rapport and for the conversation to flow properly. Or maybe that's just me, I've always disliked using the phone generally.

M

They have not told me the outcome yet but I could just feel it! Can you imagine being interviewed by four people in less than 15 minutes. The next person would start to ask even before I finished answering the other one ending up not hearing the question as I was still talking. There was no icebreaker or what so ever. One of the question was that since the research I did for my Masters (which is the only research I ever did) was lab based and in my proposal I'm now proposing to do questionnaire type how will I manage it.
It was as if they had already decided and I just asked myself why did they waste my and their time by shortlisting me if they see that I can't make it. I don't think I will ever put myself through that again! On the other hand I have already been accepted by another uni but without funding. I just think I should organise funding for that one from my country and if that fails I just defer it until I get funding.

B

so did you hear back?

M

They said I will hear from them in couple of weeks. On their website they will notify the candidates in June or July but I've already written it off currently I'm trying to concentrate on my plan B.

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