Interview with a vam-PI
Our 14th and 15th book winners are Julia Nicholas and Becka Watry, both current PhD students! Be sure to enter the book giveaway for your chance to win a copy of A Field Guide to Grad School! More details below (at the end of the post). Now, onto the good stuff! (BTW, I’m probably dating myself with the pun I’m trying to make in the post title, so if you understand it, awesome!)
It’s January, which means that many students are receiving invitations to interview at their programs of interest. So, today I’m going to share some questions that I think you should be able to answer as a prospective PhD student, especially when meeting with potential advisors. As always, note that you may receive conflicting advice from others, which is to be expected (people often have strong opinions about these things). There may also be important nuance that I miss for your specific discipline. Lastly, note that it’s totally normal if you haven’t yet heard from any of the programs to which you applied. It seems that there’s a trend toward “first-round” interviews, which serve as a filter of sorts before programs make their final interview (or admission) offers.
You will likely meet with a range of people in your prospective programs when interviewing—faculty, students, postdocs, staff. How you approach these conversations, and the goals you have for these conversations, may differ. Here, I just focus on questions that I think you should be able to answer when meeting with potential advisors. Although I cannot tell you how you should respond for yourself, I can offer my thoughts and some tips.
Tell me a bit about yourself. To kick off a conversation, you may be asked to share a bit about yourself. Although this is a simple question, remaining concise can be tricky. So, have a few things that you’d like to highlight about yourself, including where you’re from, where you’ve completed training, and things you do for fun outside of academic settings. The key is to remember that you’re telling a story about yourself throughout the interview. You want to make a specific impression, so don’t feel compelled to share every last detail about yourself when responding to this or any of the other questions.
Describe how your prior research experiences have prepared you for doctoral studies. Here, you have the opportunity to not only showcase your skills but also highlight your unique contributions to projects. When doing so, you may wish to begin with those experiences most closely aligned with what you ultimately want to do as a doctoral student. So, rather than work through your experiences chronologically, consider identifying those skills and contributions that you’d like highlighted and then creating a story around them.
Why do you want to pursue doctoral studies in [area of interest]? This sort of question offers you the opportunity to demonstrate that you’ve thought deeply about why you want to pursue your questions of interest through the lens of your discipline of interest. Are you drawn to theories organizing how people think about your topic of interest? Are there dominant methods that you’d like to use to pursue your questions of interest?
Why do you want to pursue doctoral studies at [institution]? Here is where you can show that you’ve done your due diligence. Not only do you need to have a good understanding of your potential advisor’s work but you also need to know what an institution has to offer. Are there additional certificates you’d like to earn? Are there centers on campus with which you’d like to be affiliated? Does the institution’s mission or any of their initiatives resonate with you? Do you see an opportunity for you to uniquely contribute to the intellectual landscape of a program?
How do you see your interests intersecting with those of [potential advisor]? When responding to this question, you are essentially telling your potential advisor why you want to work with them and why you think they offer the best fit for you given your joint interests. Again, you need to do a bit of homework to answer this question. Read recent papers, review lab and program websites, perform some Google searches. Then, reflect on your own interests and see where, given your interests, there are opportunities to forge new lines of work together. Your goal is to signal that you are prepared to be an independent thinker and propose your own ideas that you will jointly pursue with your potential advisor.
What are you primary questions of interest? You need to be able to concisely state your broad questions of interest (but not so broad that it seems you have no idea what you actually want to do). Workshop how you frame your primary questions with your mentor(s), if possible. This is something you have already done to some extent in your academic statement (but it’s totally fine to continue revising your thinking, especially when doing so clarifies your interests and ideas).
What could a first-year project look like with [potential advisor]? Some potential advisors will want to discuss what a first joint project could look like. So, come prepared with some ideas for (modest) projects that you could pursue to get your feet wet as a first-year student. You might even be able to find examples of first-year projects on a program’s website.
What do you see as your strengths and weaknesses? I don’t really like this question, but it gets asked. If I were asked to respond to this question, I would frame my strengths as things that I have a lot of experience with and a demonstrated track recording of excelling in. Then, I would frame weaknesses as opportunities for growth or improvement. After all, there are only so many hours in a day. I can’t expect to be (nor expected to be) expert in everything (and as a trainee, you should have ample opportunity to grow in many ways!).
Where else are you applying and where else do you have interviews? Now, I really dislike these questions, but they get asked. So, when responding, I would say something like, “Of course, I’ve applied to several programs because I’m very eager to pursue doctoral studies, but I’m especially excited about visiting [institution] today because [describe why you’re excited]. So, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to ask you a bit more about [program] and talk more about the work we could do together.”
What questions do you have for me? Always come prepared with questions. If you have access to a copy of A Field Guide to Grad School by Dr. Jessica Calarco, you’ll find lots of great questions starting on page 51. Some of my favorites include asking about the short- and long-term research agendas of labs, how progress toward milestones is measured within programs, mentorship and communication styles of potential advisors, student funding and research support, and where students go after graduating (it’s really good when graduates are securing a range of positions—both academic and non-academic).
Some final thoughts.
Put your blinders on and run your own race.
Say only what you want to say. Don’t feel compelled to share more than you’re comfortable sharing.
It’s ok to ask for a moment to think. You don’t need to have the answers right away!
It’s ok to say, “I’m going to start that over again.” If you find yourself tripping over words, take a breath and start over.
Write your responses down and practice! Now that many interviews are conducted virtually, consider keeping a document with responses open during meetings. The goal isn’t to memorize your responses, but rather have them there to check that you’re saying what you want to say.
Interviews aren’t one-way You’re interviewing your potential advisors (and programs) as well.
Have fun! Interviews are stressful. Be sure to take time to celebrate making it this far.
How to reach me: You are always welcome to email me (letstalkgradschool@gmail.com) or find me on Twitter @tweetsbymidge.
Let’s give away some books: Readers located in the United States and Canada are eligible to enter the book giveaway to receive a copy of A Field Guide to Grad School by Dr. Jessica Calarco. To do so, complete this survey and note that you only have to complete it once to be entered in all subsequent giveaways! I do hope to expand the reach of the giveaway; however, at the moment, the shipping costs are too great to scale. If you’d like to talk about ways your institution could secure an electronic (or hard) copy, please let me know.
Until next time!
Margaret
Does anyone have thoughts on "pre-admissions" events for PhD applicants? How connected are they to actual admissions? I'm sure it's a good sign to be invited, but not sure how excited I should be.