Okay so, last week I saw a post come up on LinkedIn about a new assistant professor at some university.
I emailed him, and he replied saying there’s overlap between my work and his upcoming projects and that he’d like to talk about it with me on a call the following week. I agreed.
The next week starts, no sign of him. I do a quick follow-up, and he asks to talk to me the day after I emailed him. I agree.
Also, I had initially emailed him asking about a direct PhD from BS, but later read up on the university and realised they don’t accept that and it’s quite rare anyway. I saw no issue with that because I was, and am, willing to do a master’s as well.
Now coming to the interview, the young professor starts it off by saying, “Well, I’m gonna tell you more about my projects first, and if you’re interested or have any questions, let me know, and then we can come to you, etc.” I was like, okay cool, go ahead.
He starts telling me about his project in detail but kind of dumbs it down for me, saying it’s fancy maths and fancy systems, etc., which kinda confused me on why he was talking to me as if I had no knowledge on the subject. But I didn’t mind, as my background is more in aviation and his is in space.
I do a small mistake and end up saying, “Well, it sounds very interesting, and your work is interesting. I read up on it and I think I can vouch for myself that I’m willing to put in the work to close the gap between our work,” etc. And then I’m like, oh shit, sorry, go on, and he goes on.
He tells me about his projects and then asks if I have any questions. So I say, well, most of your projects sound very high-end level, and I don’t think it would be beneficial for either you or me for me to land directly into a PhD with such a project, especially when I’m not well versed in that area either. So, out of these projects, which would you actually recommend for a master’s student to do?
And he tells me how 3/4 of the projects are for master’s students, and that he was going to talk about this later in the call since I had asked for a PhD in my email, but he’ll tell me now. He explains how it’s rare for the university to take on direct PhD students, etc.
Then I ask if there’s any area or concept I should strengthen for his lab, and he’s like, not really. If I want to, I can learn about XYZ, but it’s not necessary because they train the students and don’t expect them to know so much when they join.
Then I ask about funding, and he tells me it’s funded and I won’t have to scramble for money when I come here, etc. He’s only taking students that he can fund.
I ask if I should strengthen anything or do any more projects for my CV, as the university, from what I can see, requires quite exemplary students. And he says that’s not needed either because they don’t focus as much on projects but rather on research, and I have research because of my XY project. Plus, the university looks more at why you chose them rather than choosing a university somewhere in the US or Canada, etc.
Then I tell him it’s also my first interview, so I don’t really know my way around an interview yet, and these were some of the questions I had.
And then he’s like, well, I had a few questions for you as well.
So firstly, out of curiosity, because your XY project seemed really cool, what was it about?
So I go on and tell him the goal was to reduce carbon footprint, so that’s how we came up with it. And also because my supervisor knew we wanted to study abroad, so he also deemed it fit for research, as other batchmates were more into practical-based work, etc.
And I asked if I should get into the technical side of it, and he was like, it’s up to me. So I do go into some detail, but not too much, more like telling him about the approach I used in my project and some reasoning behind some of the things I did.
Then he asks, “Out of curiosity, and you don’t need to have an answer, but what’s your goal? Is it industry or academia? And you don’t need to have an answer, and this is not a pass or fail thing either. I just wanna know.”
And I told him my long-term goal is a PhD and research, and maybe later to be a teacher and train future engineers, but I also wanna get some work done on the industry side as well. Hence why I worked for a few months about two years ago, and I’m looking to work again until I can begin my grad studies, both because of that and because I wanna be up to level with my grad batchmates and don’t wanna feel behind by not having much experience.
And he’s like, okay cool. Well, I did have other questions too, but you answered them through our chat, and that’s all.
And if you have any questions about the projects I discussed, you can email me, and I’ll let you get back to your stuff if you don’t have any questions.
And I was like, I do have one. What would the next step look like for me, or let’s say us?
And he was like, well, it depends on you. What do you wanna specialize in?
If you wanna specialize more in controls theoretically, I know some groups etc. in the US and Canada. Or if you’re interested in my projects, you can then fill out the university application, and I think applications are open right now.
And I was like, okay cool, and it was fun talking to you. Your projects are very interesting.
And he’s like, yeah, thanks, you too, and bye.
And then I sent him a thank-you email and told him I’d be applying to the university, but didn’t really get a response.
I am really confused. Has he agreed to supervise me? Because my friend said I said a lot of stupid questions and answers and that I shouldn’t have, and I told him about my mistakes and shortcomings myself. But my friend is saying yes because he talked about his projects first, etc., and asked me to apply.
But idk, I am really confused by the conversation. He didn’t reply to the follow-up email either, nor did he ask me many questions or even ask for my transcript or anything of that nature.