One-on-one personalised ERC (Stg, CoG, Adv) Interview preparation training

We care about the individuals that we support - each one of them different - and for each, we offer a personal and individually tailored journey of ERC grant interview preparation.

Preparing for an ERC grant interview is a challenging and time consuming process - on top of the everyday challenges of academic life. Our focus is on making this process as enjoyable and as stress free as possible - for all individuals that we work with.

We are highly experienced working with all panels and domains and all areas of research.

A hallmark of the way in which we work with applicants is the numerous interactions throughout the support process - allowing for a fully personalised trajectory for each applicant that we support.

This support is for those who have already been invited to interview. If a researcher would like to enhance their existing interview skills outside of currently being invited to present, or have been invited for a job interview, we offer a job and grant interview training course.

Additional to this, we also offer a specialised form of interview training catering to researchers who are either nervous about presenting at interview, have had a bad experience with presenting at interview before, struggle with answering questions or being put on the spot, and/or find the interview experience overwhelming or daunting (for anyone interested in this form of support, please specify this when making contact with us).

Whilst we adjust our support to each individual (e.g. career level and interview skills), the support is directed towards candidates who:

• Want to prepare for interview in a way that is as stress free as possible, and yet comprehensive to fully prepare for interview.

• Want to receive personalised one-on-one and in-depth support with numerous interactions, supporting and guiding you throughout the preparation process.

• Want to be able to deliver a clear and powerful presentation.

• Want to be prepared for any type of question (including unexpected and potentially irritating questions).

• Want to be able to answer all questions in a clear, direct and informative manner.

When to start working with with us

• We generally start working with researchers as soon as possible once they are invited to interview, so that they can optimise their preparation, and allow the preparation process to be as enjoyable as possible, without undue pressure. 

• However, we can also begin work with researchers closer the interview date, depending on our availability (at times our earlier researchers are finished with their interview support and we are able to open up a few new support places).

• We also have a limited number of truncated interview support places available with each interview round. The format is similar to the full support, but consists of e.g. three sessions instead of 5-6 sessions

Format of the support:

• Our support is provided in 5-6 online one-on-one private training/coaching/presentation/mentoring sessions. 

• We provide the candidate with specific ‘homework’ research/tasks to help them with their interview preparation (e.g. including, but not limited to: missing elements/details within the proposal, critically assess the weaker areas of the proposal and how to prepare for questions on these at interview).

• We also ask candidates to undertake numerous other practice sessions (including online sessions) within/outside his/her Institute/Faculty etc. to optimise their preparation.

• Outside of the training sessions, we interact with the candidate via email for questions, queries, and review queries etc.

For EU based clients, all online trainings sessions with us are generally held between 7.00am and 11.45am CET or CEST, where we schedule sessions at times to suit the individual. For researchers located elsewhere, we work with them to arrange the most suitable training session times for their schedule. 

Researchers will be working with either Fire Sanders or Willem Bouma, both highly qualified and highly experienced senior trainers. with experience working across all panels and areas of research.

As part of our support, applicants that we support will also receive:

• Strategic advice and assistance in the development of presentation content, and in-depth preparation for the question and answer component of the interview.

• Critical review and feedback on the presentation delivery (identification of potential weaknesses/advice on how to remedy them). We critically read all proposals and give thorough feedback on weaknesses and issues that we find.

• Feedback on potential areas of concerns (criticism) from reviewers in order to better prepare for the Q&A session.

• 'Homework' tasks to better prepare for all potential Questions that may be faced at the ERC interview, minimising the chance that the applicant receives an unexpected question at interview that they are not prepared for.

• Q&A Practice sessions, including a list of critical and in-depth questions based on our assessment of the proposal and it's weaknesses.

• Presentation, communication, interview and life skills coaching.

• Mentoring and personal development coaching.