How to SELL YOURSELF to a potential research supervisor. Most get it wrong — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00people make decisions based on emotion
2. 0:02and then they rationalize that choice
3. 0:03using facts and that's exactly the same
4. 0:05approach you need to take if you want to
5. 0:07convince a research supervisor to take
6. 0:09you on as a student now here's the thing
7. 0:12is that a lot of people whenever they
8. 0:14lead whenever they try to kind of sell
9. 0:16someone on something whenever they try
10. 0:17to convince someone on something they
11. 0:19use facts and figures it's our kind of
12. 0:21go-to default position but let me tell
13. 0:23you this it does not work most of the
14. 0:26time i have received when i was a
15. 0:28researcher plenty of emails from people
16. 0:31trying to convince me to take them on as
17. 0:33masters phd students and they all led
18. 0:35the same way they all said here is like
19. 0:38an information dump of stuff that i've
20. 0:40done
21. 0:41do you want to employ me no no i don't
22. 0:44want to implore you and that's because
23. 0:45you haven't used emotion to your benefit
24. 0:48the number one way that you can sort of
25. 0:51like build the emotional response in a
26. 0:53person that you want to
27. 0:56take you on as a phd student is to show
28. 0:59a genuine interest in their work showing
29. 1:02a genuine interest in the research
30. 1:04they're doing by looking at their papers
31. 1:06their students work their conference
32. 1:08presentations everything you can get a
33. 1:10hold of is the number one way of making
34. 1:13them feel like you really care about
35. 1:15their work and here's a little trick is
36. 1:18that if you are trying to sell someone
37. 1:21on something in this case you to become
38. 1:23their phd student when you meet up with
39. 1:25them when you speak to them they should
40. 1:28be doing the majority of the talk and
41. 1:30it's something i learned very early on
42. 1:32in my entrepreneurial life is that
43. 1:34actually i could sell things far better
44. 1:37if the person was that i was trying to
45. 1:39sell to was talking the most the way you
46. 1:41do that simple ask questions when you're
47. 1:45trying to sort of like sell yourself to
48. 1:46a research supervisor we always want to
49. 1:49go in with facts and figures and
50. 1:50evidence wait wait wait that comes way
51. 1:53later the first thing you want to do is
52. 1:55start to build up a rapport make it seem
53. 1:57like you really care about this research
54. 2:00and maybe you do really care about this
55. 2:02research so go in and ask questions
56. 2:05specific questions based on what you
57. 2:07read about their work they will happily
58. 2:09talk about their research they very
59. 2:11rarely get to do this and academics life
60. 2:14is normally paperwork and kissing the
61. 2:16university's arse now you they have an
62. 2:19opportunity to tell you about their
63. 2:21research we are always looking to build
64. 2:23up an emotional response in them so
65. 2:26every time you get in contact they go ah
66. 2:28this is that person i love speaking to
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77. 2:52a little word of warning before you do
78. 2:54anything do not do the generic email
79. 2:57blast i've had plenty of them my
80. 3:00ex-colleagues had plenty of them if you
81. 3:03are trying to sell yourself or get a
82. 3:05research position the first thing you
83. 3:07should not do is do a massive research
84. 3:11blast like i'm talking about a generic
85. 3:13email that you send out because it is
86. 3:16low effort and low effort you can smell
87. 3:20a million miles away as a researcher as
88. 3:24a researcher remember that you've
89. 3:25trained yourself to become sort of like
90. 3:28the ultimate detector and the
91. 3:31moment that wafts across your emails you
92. 3:34can smell it and it leaves a lingering
93. 3:37stench that
94. 3:39is not the emotion we want to sort of
95. 3:41like build up in our potential research
96. 3:43supervisors so stay clear from dear
97. 3:46professor stapleton or dear whoever or
98. 3:50dear professor hi like just
99. 3:53go a little bit further if you are if
100. 3:55you have to reach out with email
101. 3:57initially go a little bit further than a
102. 3:59generic email blast you want to sort of
103. 4:02like show that you have um you have
104. 4:05looked at their research to the point
105. 4:07where you can name specific papers or
106. 4:10name specific students work or name
107. 4:12specific conferences that you know
108. 4:14you've talked to it sounds a bit creepy
109. 4:16but just sort of like showing that
110. 4:18you've gone above and beyond to really
111. 4:20kind of like make an impact goes a huge
112. 4:23way because like i said we can smell a
113. 4:27cheetah or a low effort kind of reach
114. 4:30out from a mile away so don't be that
115. 4:33person go deeper
116. 4:36if you're reaching out to a potential
117. 4:37research supervisor don't expect
118. 4:40everything at once don't expect to get
119. 4:42that hole-in-one from one email it'll
120. 4:45take a little bit of time now the thing
121. 4:47is is this relationship as it builds you
122. 4:50can ask for opportunities any
123. 4:52opportunity that comes up in their lab
124. 4:55the thing is is that a lot of phd
125. 4:57research supervisors don't necessarily
126. 4:58have the money right there and then to
127. 5:00get you on as a research student but
128. 5:04things change things change quickly in
129. 5:06academia due to who's got money who's
130. 5:09got grant money the
131. 5:10institutional money the money from the
132. 5:13university the grant money from the
133. 5:14government all that changes pretty
134. 5:16quickly so asking for opportunities
135. 5:19means that yeah you may go and work in
136. 5:21their lab for a little bit over a summer
137. 5:23scholarship and then after you've kind
138. 5:25of got your foot in the door that may
139. 5:26lead to other opportunities and in fact
140. 5:28you may even decide that that research
141. 5:30supervisor isn't the one for you after
142. 5:32going there but here's the thing is that
143. 5:34getting your foot in the door goes a
144. 5:36huge way to being that known person it's
145. 5:39about the sunk cost fallacy for the
146. 5:42research supervisor where they've sunk
147. 5:44effort into training you up no matter
148. 5:47what opportunity you've done they've
149. 5:49spent time training you up and they want
150. 5:51to continue that why would they go with
151. 5:52someone else if they spent a while
152. 5:54getting you used to the lab getting you
153. 5:56inducted getting you you know all of the
154. 5:58rubbish uni admin stuff which is like a
155. 6:01uni uh email address and an office and a
156. 6:03laptop and whatever it is so the
157. 6:06smallest opportunity can lead to the
158. 6:09thing that you want which is a phd
159. 6:10scholarship so do ask early
160. 6:14once you've built up that initial
161. 6:15emotional reaction to say hey are there
162. 6:17any opportunities to work with you and
163. 6:19you'll be surprised there'll be
164. 6:20something on the horizon almost
165. 6:23certainly
166. 6:24when you reach out to your potential
167. 6:26research supervisor you need to
168. 6:28understand what their biggest motivation
169. 6:31is that you can help with that is
170. 6:34publications publications published in
171. 6:37peer-reviewed journals that is what
172. 6:39keeps their career afloat and gives them
173. 6:42academic kudos with all of the other
174. 6:44researchers in the field showing to the
175. 6:46potential research supervisor that you
176. 6:48know how important publications are is
177. 6:51so important you know that it's not just
178. 6:54important to tell other people in the
179. 6:56field what you're doing it is also
180. 6:58because their career and your career
181. 7:00eventually will be judged on the number
182. 7:02of publications you can pump out and the
183. 7:04amount of money you can bring in so
184. 7:06you'll be well ahead of any other
185. 7:08student who sort of like followed the
186. 7:10path of least resistance doesn't really
187. 7:12understand the academic game if you can
188. 7:14say well i know and i understand how
189. 7:16important publications are and i'd love
190. 7:19to start working you know right away on
191. 7:21getting publications and within a first
192. 7:23year i'd like to you know do all these
193. 7:24things that is a nice exciting buzz
194. 7:27remember going back to that emotional
195. 7:29state that nice exciting buzz that you
196. 7:32can sort of like build up in the
197. 7:35research supervisor and you'll be well
198. 7:38ahead if they can really understand that
199. 7:41you know how important publications are
200. 7:43and you'll help them boost their career
201. 7:46the last thing that's so very important
202. 7:48and it's often the thing we lead with is
203. 7:51evidence now i want to go back to the
204. 7:53first thing i said in this video which
205. 7:55is people make decisions based on
206. 7:57emotions and they rationalize that
207. 7:59decision using evidence and in fact
208. 8:01evidence is one of the last things that
209. 8:03you should include in a in a reach-out
210. 8:05email or as you're building that
211. 8:06relationship you should mention that you
212. 8:09have got research experience you should
213. 8:11reach out to people that can give you a
214. 8:13great reference you know
215. 8:16connections within academia especially
216. 8:18within particular fields are very sort
217. 8:20of close and
218. 8:22if you can get one of their colleagues
219. 8:24or one of their friends to recommend you
220. 8:26that goes a really really long way to
221. 8:28saying this is the person you should get
222. 8:30in your lab any websites you have built
223. 8:33i like having a personal website my
224. 8:36personal website has changed it has
225. 8:38morphed over the years that i've had it
226. 8:40but in the early stages of looking for a
227. 8:42phd yours may look yours may just be
228. 8:45like a simple
229. 8:46bio page about what you love the sort of
230. 8:48things you like doing and you can tailor
231. 8:50that to the sort of research that you
232. 8:53want to do in there for the phd research
233. 8:55supervisor all of this acts as evidence
234. 8:58acts as kind of that
235. 8:59rational touch point so they can back up
236. 9:01what they felt when they first met you
237. 9:04make sure that evidence is there but
238. 9:05don't lead with it that is the biggest
239. 9:07mistake i see people do and it just puts
240. 9:10people off because they're not
241. 9:12interested in facts and figures they
242. 9:14want to feel something they're people
243. 9:16believe it or not so there we have it
244. 9:18that is how you sell yourself to a
245. 9:20potential research supervisor let me
246. 9:22know in the comments what you would add
247. 9:24and also go check out
248. 9:26academiainsider.com that's my
249. 9:28project where i've got my ebooks the
250. 9:30ultimate academic writing toolkit as
251. 9:32well as the phd survival guide and the
252. 9:34insider forum where we help each other
253. 9:36become better academics and i'll see you
254. 9:39in the next video