Hi,
In the most of my interviews for PhD they asked me "explain what you want to do after the PhD if you have a story", usually I told I would like to be a postdoc but I think my answer was disappointing for them (I felt so), what you replied like you are smart enough if you were me?
Thank you for any comment
You need to give an answer that shows your motivation for working in science. Talk about the scientific questions that interest you and/or what your career goals are. At this stage, I would expect students to have some rough idea of where they see themselves in 5-10 years. What you should avoid is give the impression that you just happened to end up doing a PhD because you had good grades and that a PhD was simply the next degree to take at university.
On the other hand, don't fake your motivation and prepare canned answers. If you're unsure or don't know what you want to do, take the time to think about it. You don't want to commit down a path that's not for you.
Sincerely and honestly publishing in nature is my dream (might be a childish dream) what seems very unlikely now based on my knowledge. I want to be a PhD to obtain required skills and qualifications for the next steps. I can't illustrate how much is sad and suffering being rejected because of lack of publications and skills.
Okay " I want to be a PhD to obtain required skills and qualifications for the next steps. " What are the next steps? What are you trying to achieve? If you want the degree because you think it comes with an easy day-job, no lab will want that person on their team. If you want the degree because it is a status symbol to prove your worth to your family, again, no lab will want that person on their team. A good lab needs motivated people who are interested in their research problems independently. It should focus on what you read at home for fun already, so as to double the value of that time.
We can all sympathize with your feelings as all of us have experienced rejection at some stage whether for a position, a grant application and more commonly a paper. That should not stop you from trying. However, whereas lack of publication is normally not an obstacle to get into a PhD program, lack of some critical skills is. In most places, being a PhD student involves a certain degree of autonomy which means you're expected to already have reached a certain level of knowledge and skills. So if this is your problem, you should definitely work on it, maybe consider getting into some other university program that will give you the knowledge and skills you need. There is also the matter of your motivation: you want to do a PhD for the next step but what is this next step for you ? You make it sound just like the thing I mentioned to avoid. Don't do a PhD because that's what's needed to do a postdoc and don't do a postdoc just because that's what people do after a PhD. Think about where you see yourself in 10 years. Do you want to follow an academic career path however hard it might be or are you more interested in the industry side of science ? Ask yourself what kind of project or type of work you see yourself doing.
Start a company, sell it for billions (or at least 100s of millions) and retire before turning 40.
I think I'll go slightly batshit crazy, grow a beard, hide in the woods (in Iceland, if you care) and catch up on literature. Followed by a postdoc and getting a nice corner office from which I can yell at students while getting frustrated by yet another grant application that didn't get funded. I'll probably have some kids and get in debt for buying a house. I'll learn a few more programming languages.
I would say that "I would like to join team which is involve in making good science, deep research, high quality." That is my goal for the future, although I ma not PhD yet. Postdoc? I think that will come with time based on the scientific achievements.
Best, Agata
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When you ask a kid "what you want to be when you grow up?", you generally expect (and get) answers like police officer, lawyer, astronaut, physician, etc. You don't expect "I want to be a 6th grader" or a "I want to be a high school student".
Of course, you don't want to tell just about your final goal, but also the steps you see necessary to reach them. Remember, they are asking about a story.
you are definitely right, actually all I want this is, I want to feel I am useful in this immense world; what I can't feel yet....