Master Your Interview Essential Tips for Erasmus Mundus Interview Preparation

Hello everyone welcome to another video and in this video I will share about my interview experience and how you can prepare for your interview which you have been shortlisted for in the Erasmus Mundus programs. So this video is for everyone but since I have experience related to my program so it will be little different from what you will experience but some of the tips are general for everyone so let's get started. So the most important part of any interview is your introduction so you will be given around 90 seconds or two minutes to introduce yourself and I will be going through my notes as well so that I can give you more information as well. So you will be given approximately 90 to 120 seconds for your introduction so start very confidently make it crisp you can even make notes and prepare before the interview and so you should include about your degree your experience which you have related to this program then you can talk about your initiatives the impact you have created and just mentioning the experience won't help you have to explain how you have created an impact through this experience briefly in this introduction and then you can talk about some extracurricular activities which you have done related to this program and if you have some time left you can talk about other experience which might not be directly linked with this program but it's always to give a good impression you can give some significant work you have done in another field as well so that would be your introduction and in almost every interview you will be asked about your introduction and make sure your first impression is really good since that can make and break the situation. So the next thing which you might be asked why did you choose this program so to answer this question you need to be very honest that why you chose this program don't make up anything tell exactly why you chose it and you can make your points again before the interview think about it take your time make your bullet points and once you have brainstormed you should have the answer on of why you chose this program so explain it confidently don't drag your answers but make it precise and to the point. So in my program there were two tracks so I was asked about which track did I choose and why and then I was also asked about the countries which are involved in my program. So this is a very important point so if you are going into a program and a program's interview the whole website of your program should be on your fingertips so one of the senior the previous cohort member told me that the website should be in your head before the interview and you should go through the website like 10-20 times and you should be having a very clear picture about the program the goals the universities involved the course content involved so make sure you skim through the website again and again before the interview. So they asked me about the countries and universities involved in my interview since I had the practice and I had them in my mind very clearly I named them confidently then you could be asked about the impact you would be creating on your home country. So this question is kind of generic but you must have this question answered before the interview so make sure you think about how you can create an impact in your country or in the in the region or in the globe global world as well so you should know how this program would create value and make you a better member of the society or member or citizen of your country or the region you are coming from. Apart from this another thing so since my program is related to sports so I talked about how this program would elevate the sports industry in my country which is Pakistan similarly you can think about how your degree will help your country after you graduate from this program yeah so you would be asked about the thesis question of your program if your program includes one most probably you would have one then you can they can ask about your internship plans and stuff like that so another important thing which you can take note of right now is the motivation questions or the motivation letter you submitted during the application so so their questions would be most probably revolving around those lines as well so if they have asked you about something specific in that then they would be asking questions related to that as well I haven't heard from anyone in which they have asked questions which are which were very technical or very knowledge based it's mostly about your enthusiasm about this program how you can create impact about your past experience so whatever is mentioned in your motivation letter whatever is in your cv it must be on your fingertips and you should be very very confident about whatever you are saying and there are some other general tips which I received as well from some other friends which was show genuine enthusiasm during the interview dress very formal don't make it very formal but keep it as to a certain level of formal and make sure your internet and everything is sorted and tested your voice your video quality is all good because these small details can improve your overall application okay so another thing which you can do is you can go through all the four or five universities or three or four websites universities involved in your program you can go through their programs and how those universities are doing so you can like go through and have an idea about what's best about those universities and why are you motivated about going to a certain university so if you like a certain university you can talk about that and mention why you like that university so that could be one of the things which you can do and then I would recommend you should also go through the programs partners and companies involved that can really elevate your application and then you can speak about how you can play your role in that specific industry or specific company if you want to join one of them so you can like talk about that as well apart from this you can go through their LinkedIn so for example I went through the LinkedIn profile of my program I connected with different professors I went through what were the events that were held during the past year of this program and I thought of some questions as well so and one thing I would like to mention here is this that at the end of your interview you will be asked if you have any questions so make use of this part of the interview don't ask very obvious questions or very irrelevant questions make sure your question is logical and it should basically show that you are very enthusiastic about this program and you are willing to actually you're actually looking forward to this program so make sure you make your questions very to the point and it should be impactful as well so these are so these were some of the tips which I had other part from this which is my personal opinion my personal opinion is interview is just a smaller part of your application because I have seen people doing really good in interviews but still not making it to the final list I don't know the reasons but maybe their applications were lacking in some ways so make sure if you haven't submitted your application yet so make sure your application is done really good and make the most of it because once you have submitted you cannot do anything and even if you give a very good interview the thing which you have done in your application cannot be changed so I think maybe the marksheet have the equal weightage but your application if your application is lacking your interview might not save you but I wish you all the best and if you have any other questions feel free to ask. Thank you.