The inter-personal dynamics during the interview of a prospective graduate student can be very entertaining. All that we have is 15 minutes to test the suitability of a candidate for higher studies but we, the selection panel committee members, seem to find every way to spend that time other than doing just that.
The panel members being academics come with various shapes and sizes of egos. Some don't like it if the students understands their question and starts proceeding with the solution without any hand holding from them! So, they move the target immediately or force the student into taking an approach which is the 'scenic way' to the destination. You see we love to mentor people, even if they don't need the (tor)mentoring.
"Are you sure?" as a response to a correct step by the interviewee is a sure way of destabilising his/her progress towards the correct solution. I have never understood why one can't just say "okay, proceed" or consider the option of saying nothing at all.
Nothing brings out more the inter-collegial under-currents than the entry of a promising candidate. Some of the panel members see this as an opportunity to take a dig at each other's research interest. "Oh! You want to work XYZ area? Isn't that too old-fashioned?" And then proceed to hog the questioning time. It has rarely worked in their favour but then.........
More often than not of course it is the interviewee who is so out of depth that the whole interview process reduces to a game of taboo in which the panel members provide all the clues to get that one word that they want to hear about a given problem. It can be quite a comic relief.
The panel members being academics come with various shapes and sizes of egos. Some don't like it if the students understands their question and starts proceeding with the solution without any hand holding from them! So, they move the target immediately or force the student into taking an approach which is the 'scenic way' to the destination. You see we love to mentor people, even if they don't need the (tor)mentoring.
"Are you sure?" as a response to a correct step by the interviewee is a sure way of destabilising his/her progress towards the correct solution. I have never understood why one can't just say "okay, proceed" or consider the option of saying nothing at all.
Nothing brings out more the inter-collegial under-currents than the entry of a promising candidate. Some of the panel members see this as an opportunity to take a dig at each other's research interest. "Oh! You want to work XYZ area? Isn't that too old-fashioned?" And then proceed to hog the questioning time. It has rarely worked in their favour but then.........
More often than not of course it is the interviewee who is so out of depth that the whole interview process reduces to a game of taboo in which the panel members provide all the clues to get that one word that they want to hear about a given problem. It can be quite a comic relief.
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