How to get started on a PhD?
In The Netherlands, as a PhD Student (promovendus) you will generally be a salaried employee of the University with a 4 year contract (which may be terminated at the 1.5 year mark if things are looking bleak). On the website of the University Association of The Netherlands you can download the CAO which contains information on the regulations under which you'll be working (articles 2.3, 3.1, 6.8 and E.12 are of particular interest). If you are working part-time then the length of your contract would reflect that (e.g. you'd get an 8 year contract if working 50%).
You can also do a PhD as employee of a company (buitenpromovendus) in which case these regulations would not apply. These generally take far longer (as you are performing regular work for the company, and your work on your PhD is tangential to this).
If your tutor has offered you a position, then the application process could be as simple as saying "yes". There is no formal admission process, though you must have a Master's degree in the relevant field before pursuing a PhD (if this is not the case, then it is still possible but more complicated).
In The Netherlands, applying for a PhD is the same as applying for any other job; if your tutor has offered you a position, then all you need to do is accept. If the offer is not yet formal (or contingent) then a normal application process would consist of submitting your CV and then (hopefully) getting a "job interview".
I started with my PhD two years ago, and I understand what you're asking. There is large number of things you want to consider before enrolling in PhD, I'll try to summarize my experience and some advises.
Bottom line, when applying to PhD you want to make sure that you have these things covered:
- Clear understanding of what your future research will be. When you start working on your studies, passing exams (in case you have formal exams as I do) you'll want to link these subjects to your main research as much as possible.
- Make sure you found mentor. I guess this will be professor who offer you PhD, but it can vary depending on field of studies.
- Check options of scholarship, since PhD studies and research can be quite expensive, depending on your area.
Interesting resources and links related to this subject:
- http://www.pgbovine.net/grad-school-app-tips.htm
- https://www.academics.com/prepare-for-a-phd
- http://www.findaphd.com/advice/finding/phd-interview-questions.aspx <-- check this one
- http://postdoc.unl.edu/documents/interview_prep.pdf <-- Nice checklist
Related to funding/scholarships, inside a site findaphd there are 2 sections to be considered:
- https://www.findaphd.com/funding/guides/phd-funding-guide.aspx
- https://www.findaphd.com/study-abroad/
Now, about more important matter - choosing good PhD subject, mentor and defining a hypothesis. My biggest challenge was finding out what my specific subject will be (and what domain will it be applied to), cause every mentor expect you to have idea what you want to do. If you try to simply "Google it" it won't be of much use.
Few approaches helped me here:
- Open account on http://www.academia.edu , publish some of your earlier papers and works. After that connect to a people with a same research interests as yours and read their papers and current issues. You'll be surprised what you'll find after just couple of days.
- When you search for books use https://scholar.google.com/ instead of simple Google, you'll find lots of interesting papers on your subject probably.
- Try to find "problems", cause your future work MUST provide new benefit, you must solve problem. In order to solve it, you'll first read about current state of that problem.
To summarize it, these are steps you probably want to take:
- Define your field of research
- Define domain and mentor
- Find scholarship module
- Open account on Academia.edu and upload your papers
- Research Academia.edu and Google Scholar for issues and opportunities
- Define hypothesis and general idea for your future PhD
- Prepare everything in nice documentation and enroll
All best,