Postgraduate Studies in the Netherlands: As (search, interview, registration)

Like many articles of this kind, this one is based on personal experience and does not pretend to special objectivity. Nevertheless, it seems to me that such information may be useful to a potential piglet P., which I, until recently, was. It is useful from the point of view that the work is labor-intensive, but it is quite feasible.

Oh, by the way. My graduate school was okay, but the search process was still the same regardless of the area, and the researchers were going to go to AI ...
Another note: the method below, apart from Holland, is also suitable for many other European countries, but in the end it turned out that she went there, so it’s most accurate about her.

Job Search

Search graduate school can, as I heard, in a variety of ways. For example, having a topic of interest you can simply send letters to professors, suddenly looking at them. But I didn’t have such a thing, so I was just looking for a job. There are several job portals where the “employer” (professor / project team / university) posts a vacancy describing the study, the requirements and the conditions provided.

Here are a few sites that I used:
www.academictransfer.com - Dutch;
ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/jobs/index , www.nature.com/naturejobs/science - all of Europe.
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You can still go through the sites of the university, there are also posting jobs. About the effectiveness I can not say.

What do you need

From papers - translation of a diploma of higher education (master's level, but my specialty also rolled) with an attachment with a decoding of the grades. Estimates, of course, the profile should be ok. Well, zagran. the passport is still (after they are hired, more documents may be required, but more on that below).

Language is very necessary. In Holland, English is enough, but, for example, in Germany and / or German. It was the case that I was denied a pair of their vacancies with the wording “German-speaking students are needed”.
Sometimes, the language is asked to confirm some certificate. Both IELTS and TOEFL are usually suitable.

It will take a resume. Here, as it is more convenient for someone, the universal can be sent to all or altered to the needs of each professor. The second is probably more effective, but in a hurry. I pretty soon scored and wrote all the features associated with a particular job in a motivational letter. Also note that I was not ashamed to indicate in the resume and completed online courses on Coursera. Of course, if you have something better to say, you can refrain from this.
Very cool if you have a publication. They often want to see. I did not have.
Motivation letter. About him below.

In many vacancies there is a restriction that the date of the end of the uni no more than 4 years, is separated from the date of the beginning of the study. That is not much finished.

The rest is more individual from job to job.

Motivation letter

Very important thing. In the first couple of months, my motivation letter was two sentences, like hello, take me. So do not.
Then I began to write in more detail, and in the end it had something like this plan:
- greeting;
- I want to work for you because ... (corresponded individually for each employer)
- a list of my abilities in accordance with the section "requirements" in the vacancy;
- a brief historical reference about me (sometimes thrown away);
- “I am waiting for an answer, like the nightingale of summer.”

Usually requires a letter to the page. I often squeezed more out of myself and could not, but if you can, then wherever you do not limit, dare, will not be superfluous. I know a girl who dashed off three or four pages of motivational letter to a Dutch magistracy (about ideas for master's work). Have taken.

Job interviews

Here someone has a pendant. If you are confident in yourself - you can not prepare. Every time I wrote to myself imaginary questions and answers, and to the last I read for several days in a row to practice the language.
The first interview or by phone or Skype. Skype was worse, but it turns out waving your arms can also help.
In fact, they do not differ from the workers, so we must prepare for them as well.

How was my search process

After graduating in February 2012, I began to look for a graduate school in Holland. In fact, the main goal was postgraduate study in the field of artificial intelligence, because it's awesome. But I looked at all the vacancies, I answered all the interesting and suitable ones.
In the first few months I sent on request once a couple of weeks. With a motivational letter in two lines. Well, work, in my free time I want to smarter, not to get tired, so it was not going very well. What is nice, most often responded to applications. What is less pleasant is always rejection.
By November, the motivation letter had grown to half a page.
I also decided to consider other options, magistracy, for example. With a trump card, you can ask for graduate students and masters. But it turned out that, for example, I was already late for a good Erasmus program this year (she’s in December, it seems, she is finishing up accepting applications next year, but I didn’t have a language certificate).
Starting from the new year, I decided that this would not work, I pulled myself together and began to write about 5 applications a week on weekends. And on weekdays I went to IELTS preparation courses, otherwise he was required everywhere for a master's program, and some were asked for graduate schools. Also expanded the area
In February, count serez year after the start of the search, for the first time I was called for an interview in the German city of Tübingen. Sorry, but I don’t remember what the vacancy was about. The interview was a telephone. We talked for 15 minutes, they asked around the resume, but from experience. There was little hope of continuation, which was confirmed a few days later by a refusal letter.
A couple of weeks called for an interview in Ireland. The vacancy was about using neural networks to process gene information to predict a person’s inclination to schizophrenia (if a person has schizophrenic ancestors, the probability of getting sick increases, and some preventive methods can help in the early stages, so it’s best to know in advance). Also telephone. To prepare for this more. We talked for an hour. The brain after such intense processing of the English text wanted to flow out. There was also a refusal.
Still others were Dutch in mid-April. One of the vacancies, which is interesting, but not very much about programming and co. "The visual perception of light and materials." Interview was on Skype. She prepared herself tightly, wrote, read aloud, searched for information on the topic. We also talked for about an hour. A couple of days later we received a letter, like “We liked you, but some of the questions you didn’t answer very well, and we didn’t understand it because of a misunderstanding of the topic or English. But would you like to have an extra interview in Russian? ” It turns out that the professor was already a Russian graduate student, and I talked to him about it. Successfully, because they suggested the third stage - on the basis of two documents about the region, estimate the research plan for a page. Wrote. They liked it, and at the end of May they took me, Hooray!

Registration

This is probably occasional, but I got the impression that the Dutch bureaucracy is not very different from ours.
So, in May, the professor wrote to me that let's set the date of the beginning of September 1, like she’s going on vacation in mid-July, and before that, if I come, we don’t have time to do anything. I agreed.
A couple of weeks they sent a couple of pieces of paper for the signature, answered, then silence. In early July, I was worried. it would be time to buy tickets already, and from them neither hearing nor spirit. I wrote, answered like wait, they are already filled up with work, because many foreign students come to the beginning of the school year. The professor and I made the face “okay” and decided to wait. As a result, the university administration reached the point that they postponed the start to the 1st of October.
And, by the way, for the Dutch you may need an apostilled birth certificate with a translation into English. It is important to know that this apostil is put on the original only at the place of birth. You can put on a copy, but these are still dancing with a tambourine.
After the IND (Immigration Service) confirmed that she would give a visa, I went to the consulate, brought my passport, photo and application form, returned it, returned after 2 working days and received an entry visa for three months. No money given. For permission to stay an entry visa was replaced already in place.

I probably did not remember everything, so ask if anything. And success in research!