Hi everyone!

Ended up here while searching for tricks to get a PhD... but what I know deep down inside is that there are no tricks, is purely luck! I've been trying to get a PhD since I finish my MSc (so 6 years ago). I managed to get research assist. positions on and off for the last 4 years in the UK, so this allowed me to get a really good CV with publications, presentations, teaching and a lot of research experience. Right now, I have more experience in my area that any PhD student I know. However, I think I applied for around 30 positions throughout these years and only got interviewed for 2 of them. 2 of the positions I applied for, I know the candidates that were chosen instead of me and I know that both of them have less experience than me, they were fresh out of the Masters, no publications, no "real" research done ever. And on one of these applications, actually 3 of the candidates had indisputably better CVs than the person that got it.

So, how do you explain this? There are a huge amount of factors playing into who is chosen for a PhD position, that people will never admit. For example, politics inside the departments, that at some point might want to favour certain supervisors or certain research topics. Another thing I noticed is that sometimes a 15min interview can count more than 4 years of research experience. If by any reason they don't like your face, your accent, you don't give exactly the response they want to hear, you're out. On the other hand, I noticed that people that don't know the difference between their head and feet but look great and can be very charming when speaking, get positions very easily. It's not really about chosing the best candidate possible, it's much more than that.

The solution? Just keep trying until you get all the factors in your favor! :)