Phone Interviews

[neuropsyance]

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I just got an email from a POI today asking to set up a phone interview with me for next week. I was wondering if most schools do this prior to an in-person interview? Or will this be the actual interview?

neuropsyance

 

[buzzworm]

Someone had a similar question a couple weeks ago. Consensus was that phone interviews are usually like pre-interview filters, so if this goes well it will lead to an in-person interview. I'm not sure whether most schools do this, but it's definitely not uncommon.

Congrats and good luck!

 

[AlaskanJustin]

Someone had a similar question a couple weeks ago. Consensus was that phone interviews are usually like pre-interview filters, so if this goes well it will lead to an in-person interview. I'm not sure whether most schools do this, but it's definitely not uncommon.

Congrats and good luck!

if you look at past threads there were one or two schools that had only phone interviews, then after acceptance did an orientation type thing.... either way be prepared? gl

 

[242598]

I've got 2 of these scheduled so far and I'm a bit nervous because my last phone interview (back in 2007 when I was looking for a post-college job) didn't go well. I think I find the lack of face-to-face interaction tricky. I'm preparing a list of the things I like about the schools (i.e. why I applied), general questions for the PIs, and I've read some of their recent papers.

Anything else I should do?

 

[buzzworm]

I've got 2 of these scheduled so far and I'm a bit nervous because my last phone interview (back in 2007 when I was looking for a post-college job) didn't go well. I think I find the lack of face-to-face interaction tricky. I'm preparing a list of the things I like about the schools (i.e. why I applied), general questions for the PIs, and I've read some of their recent papers.

Anything else I should do?

They'll probably be asking about you too, so make sure you can talk comfortably about your own research/clinical/academic experience. One nice thing about phone interviews is that you can have a page of notes sitting in front of you as you talk.

 

[242598]

They'll probably be asking about you too, so make sure you can talk comfortably about your own research/clinical/academic experience. One nice thing about phone interviews is that you can have a page of notes sitting in front of you as you talk.

Oooh yes, that would be important too I guess 😀

Both of the interviews are scheduled this week, so I'll try to pass along any useful info I pick up. Yikes!

 

[neuropsyance]

Oooh yes, that would be important too I guess 😀

Both of the interviews are scheduled this week, so I'll try to pass along any useful info I pick up. Yikes!

Mine is going to be next week so please let me know if you think of anything!

 

[childpsych479]

I had a phone interview last week. I posted about how to prepare for a phone interview on the 2009-2010 Clinical Application Thread. I got one response on there (I believe from PsychPhDStudent) and followed this advice. It was helpful to have some direction and overall I feel I was prepared for the questions I was asked.

My POI explained that the phone interview was for screening purposes and that after he finished talking with all of the applicants he'd be extending invitations for interviews on campus.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[LGPsychology]

I had a phone interview last week. I posted about how to prepare for a phone interview on the 2009-2010 Clinical Application Thread. I got one response on there (I believe from PsychPhDStudent) and followed this advice. It was helpful to have some direction and overall I feel I was prepared for the questions I was asked.

My POI explained that the phone interview was for screening purposes and that after he finished talking with all of the applicants he'd be extending invitations for interviews on campus.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Exact same thing with me (interviewed last week, told me it was screening, etc.).

 

[242598]

.

 

[PsychPhDone]

I had a phone interview last week. I posted about how to prepare for a phone interview on the 2009-2010 Clinical Application Thread. I got one response on there (I believe from PsychPhDStudent) and followed this advice. It was helpful to have some direction and overall I feel I was prepared for the questions I was asked.

My POI explained that the phone interview was for screening purposes and that after he finished talking with all of the applicants he'd be extending invitations for interviews on campus.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Glad I was able to help. 🙂 It's a stressful time so feel free to keep asking questions on the forum and through PM if you need to. The current grad students are gunning for you!

 

[BuckeyeAlum]

1. Make sure you keep your phone charged! I was once surprised by a phone interview for my clinical internship. I was on campus at my undergrad school and about as far away from my house as possible. Halfway through the interview, my phone died! I had to walk all the way back home, plug my phone in, and complete the interview! Soooo stressful...but it ended up working out just fine. 🙂

2. Re. typos - I borrowed certain phrases and sentences from SOP to SOP. While I was referencing one that I had already submitted, I saw that I had omitted a word (!) and pretty much wrote off that school. Wouldn't you know - they were the first ones to call me for an interview! Crazy.

 

[PhDToBe]

i had a phone interview today. i don't know if it was a pre-interview screening because the poi didn't say, but it did result in an on-site interview.. i really don't think i did that well.

these are what were discussed to help anyone out:

-first he asked if i had any questions (and of course i had 5 that were not answered on the website) ready to say

- then he asked about my research interests and i told him briefly about my research experiences, too

- then he asked me to tell him something that wasn't apparent on my app materials...and i froze and proceeded to tell him about two things that were on my resume/p.s., lol. and he clarified that he wanted to know about my personality (intro/extrovert) etc...

- he asked what books i liked because i mentioned that i liked to read at some point

- then he invited me, and gave me a warning about the other profs and grad students asking me a lot about research and knowing what i want to do my thesis on


i survived, but it was very intimidating...

and i had the website open, my ps, my resume, something i have worked on, and a document with questios to ask, brief research interests, his research interests, what i like about the program/what i have to offer it, and what to say in case i had to leave a msge 🙂

 

[multicultpsyc]

I've had two phone interviews so far. The first was with my POI who is unable to be at the in-person interviews. The second was with my POI at a program that doesn't do interviews and does informal phone interviews. I feel like they both went well, but I wish there was a way to know... 😕

 

[242598]

I had my second of 2 phone interviews yesterday and it was tough. My POI started by saying something like "Hi, how are you? I'm great. So I see that you mentioned in an email 6 months ago that you examined data from [misc. assessment], what did you find?" And then we talked about stats for 15 minutes. It was intense but I'll be speaking with some other people from the school, so I don't think I'm totally out of the running yet.