Need help preparing for an interview

[Haorong Wu]

Hi. I am going to apply to a physics Ph.D. program at UBC, and I just received an interview invitation from a professor after I contacted him. I have never taken part in any interview, so I am pretty worried about how to prepare for it. There are tons of websites teaching me how to prepare. Still, I think it may be best also to seek advice here since I believe you may have more experience in physics than me.

I will prepare a speech about my research work in my M.Sc. program, dig into a related paper from the professor's group, and list my motivations for Ph.D. What else should I prepare?

Thanks ahead.

 

[jedishrfu]

While waiting for responses from folks who've given or taken a PhD program interview, I found this helpful blog on the process:

https://blog.accepted.com/ten-tips-phd-interview/

Here’s what you need to be prepared to discuss at your PhD Interview:

    1)  Your PhD goals

    2)  Why this PhD program

    3)  Your research interests

    4)  Important issues in your field

    5)  Your PhD resume and statement of purpose

    6)  Relevant grant projects

    7)  Teaching/mentoring experiences

    8)  Your fit with your target PhD program

    9)  Questions about the PhD program

    10) Life as a PhD student

 

[Haorong Wu]

@jedishrfu Thanks! This helps a lot and the website is useful.

 

[jedishrfu]

I’d look at your interview like a job interview. The interviewer looks at what you provided in your application, in any papers you submitted, in your transcripts for any gaps or anomalies and may test your knowledge of certain skills.

Interviewers are trying to decide how you might fit in with the team. As an example, a senior grad student with a critical skill is leaving so the interviewer needs to reorganize the team a bit assigning someone the seniors work and then finding someone join and take up the slack.

Review what you sent in and think like an interviewer. You could also ask one of your profs to help you prepare with a mock interview.

As an example, if you took time off between jobs then the interviewer might want to know why and so you should have a good answer. If you had a problem in some course they want to know why. if you switched majors along the way they might want to know why.

Just think of simple answers for these gaps that don’t elicit unnecessary additional questions.

Ive done interviews for students applying for summer internships at the lab and this is how we handled the interviews.

ONE KEY POINT: it’s okay to ask questions about the PhD program, the work environment, computing facilities, hardware/software tools used and other relevant questions.

Make your interview a dialog where they are interviewing you and you are interviewing them.