@TreeofLife: Yes, I'll keep applying. Thanks for the motivation.

Self funding is not feasible for me. Looking only for scholarships/grants or sponsored opportunities.

What would you suggest regarding looking for research assistant opportunities in parallel?

Hi Everyone,

I did my M.Tech (HCI) in 2012 and have been working since then. 1 research paper in 2012, nothing post that. Academic experience in image processing during the MTech thesis. Job domain is digital advertising via programmatic buying.
I am looking to pursue PhD in education technologies/ intelligent tutoring systems or Intelligent systems but do not have any academic or professional experience around it.

I am an Indian and looking primarily for European universities. Applied this year at 6 of them, received 3 rejection while writing this post. Result for the rest is awaited but pretty much sure it is going to be the same.

So, given the above situation I am looking to retry next year with better preparation and so need advice as to how to approach about this. Additionally could there be an alternate way to start, i.e., say a research assistant or going for part time? But I am not sure how this works.

Looking for guidance.