The PhD Shortlisting and Interview Process

All #PhD recruitment approaches vary by professor, but there are some common themes that are fairly typical throughout.

In my newest #HackingAcademia video I shed some light on the #PhD candidate shortlisting and interview process we currently use, in the hope to demystify it for potential PhD candidates.

Some key points I cover include:

⭐ that what we're looking for is just as much about fit and match to research in our group as it is to the particular individual involved, and we're always appreciative of the time candidates put in

⭐ the huge number of applications we (and any lab with an international profile) get per year, and the practical necessities that forces upon us to be able to effectively manage them and shortlist - we do look at and consider just about every single applicant

⭐ what CVs etc... look like to us at a 30,000 ft view, and the irony that increasing professionalism means it's harder to distinguish the best fit candidates from CVs alone (not that you should ever do that anyway!)

⭐ our two stage interview process for shortlisted candidates (including the occasional referee check, not mentioned in the video), consisting of

⭐ interview 1: "getting to know you" - tell us a bit about your background, what drew you to considering a PhD, what motivated you to apply to our lab specifically, what you understand the PhD process to be, and any questions you have about PhD life, and then

⭐ interview 2: technical knowledge and understanding, covering aspects of coding, computer vision, data structures, mathematics, combined with a "first year of your PhD crammed into 20 mins" mini-research study (in our topic area of Visual Place Recognition)

⭐ in the tech interview, you're not expected to know everything, we provide extra support and scaffolding as needed (our aim is not to stress you out).

⭐ we're particularly interested in you communicating what you're thinking as you work through some of the questions and challenges, even if you don't get it out at the end - in part, because this mimicks the whole student-supervisor dynamic in a PhD, which is so important

⭐ practicalities: interview processes are just as much about risk mitigation (in both directions) - not just about finding the absolute best candidate, although that's also the aim - just not the sole one.

⭐ practicalities: we know good talent will likely apply to lots of labs, and have multiple options

As mentioned in the video, we're constantly tinkering at our shortlisting and interview process - this is some of what we do currently, but it's a continually evolving process.

Thanks especially to Tobias Fischer and Janet Danaher - we've tag teamed developing and refining the whole shortlisting and interview process.

Apologies for the jerky selfie cam - I'd been meaning to shoot this for months but there's no time like the present.

🖥️ YouTube video link: https://youtu.be/_IWrpSu3hIE

#academic #research #jobs #phds #graduate #hiring #jobinterview #careers #careeradvice #university #undergraduate #HDR