Before I go into how to approach getting a PhD abroad, consider a few things first. These are my opinions drawn from my personal experience.
- In terms of being academically solid, a doctorate in the US is considered better than a doctorate in the EU (short for European Union, read europe). The US universities has a more stringent pipeline for their University PhD programs, and also takes more time (Typically 5yr+ in US, 3-4+ in EU). If you are unsure of conducting academic research on your own, applying to US unversities will be preferable. On the other hand, if you have done and are comfortable with academic research, and do not want to deal with university courseworks to a large extent, europe is preferable.
- In terms of good living, an European PhD, especially fellowships might be the better choice. European doctoral programs tends to have a more relaxed atmosphere, than its american counterpart. If you want to work really hard and make a name for yourself, US is probably a better choice.
That being said, the main points discussed here are still valid regardless. Just the specifics, such as fellowships would be different.
For PhD in Germany or EU in general, apriori knowledge of the language of the land is not necessary. During the PhD also, this would not be necessary as all communications are in English, though it is very helpful. If you are planning to settle in , working knowledge of the language is absolutely necessary. Therefore, first focus on landing the position. Language is secondary.
There are a few ways of going about hunting a PhD in Germany, or in the EU in general. The general approach can be divied in two categories.
- Look for a fellowship and apply for the fellowship
- Look for a lab, apply to the professor
Both approches are viable, and it is probably best to try a two-pronged attack. When it comes to applications in EU, it generally does not cost any money to apply (unlike in US universities), so putting the time in to make few well thought out applications is a good approach in my opinion.
The plus point of a fellowship is that you are self funded. Therefore, your research does not depend on what funding the professor may have. For good fellowships, you also get a lot of freedom regarding your work, going to conferences, and career development in general. I will mention a few of the best fellowships I know of that you can target. There are many others. Do some research online to find out other such fellowships.
The best fellowship in Europe is the Marie Curie Fellowship. The Marie Curie Innovative Training Network(ITN) offers fellowships in a project by project basis. This is a big endeavour with multiple parties involved, so the process is a bit complicated. Right now for example, I can see that the funding for ITN-2020 is open. Professors from all over europe will apply with projects to this call for research money. The groups that get it then release advertise for PhD (or PostDoc) positions on different websites. This is where you apply. Be on the lookout for positions being open on different job boards. There are a few job boards where such positions are posted. Few well known ones are:
As an example, I searched for Early Stage Researcher in the EURES portal, and here are the results that comes up. All of these are Marie Curie PhD fellowships that are open right now. Early stage researcher is the actual name of the position for Marie Curie, so searching by that gets you open Marie Curie positions. Searching for more generic queries such as PhD in Chemistry will yield more generic results. In any case, once they release the adverts, make your best effort to stand out from the crowd. There are a lot of applications that the receiver has to go through, so it is important to make a good first improssion. Publications in peer-reviewed journal will help in this quite a bit. If you have gone abroad for interships, that will also help. Try getting some of that in the first year of MSc. Also, you will need recommendations from your professors. Good recommendations goes a long way. You can also try to approch the professor directly. I discuss that in the next section.
If you are looking into Germany specifically, there are many fellowship offered by the Max Plank Society. Google "max planck fellowship phd", and you will find a lot of information. Max Planks are the most reputed research instt. in Germany, so the fellowships and training they offer are also very good.
There is also DAAD and Erasmus that is available for Indian students willing to come to Germany. DAAD is a collaboration between the two governments, and is also considered quite good. I will also recommend applying for one of the summer internships that DAAD/Erusmus/Max Plank provides. If you can get it, it will help you get to know people and will go a long way of landing your PhD here.
The other approach, as I mentioned earlier, is the perhaps more familier approach of applying to a professor. In this case, you begin by doing a lot of research to find out good lab(s) that you are interested in. Start by narrowing down a research area, then look for people working in that area in different universities in the country. That is a lot of labs to look through, so take a systematic approach and look through all of them. Dont stop the process in the middle thinking you have found a few that looks good. The key is to do this systematically, and find out a few labs that you can approach. Once you have narrowed a few labs whose work looks intersting, and the research output is good, dig deep and learn exactly what they are doing. Read their recent papers, and think about it. If you are going to approach a professor, he must know that you are truly interested in what they are doing. So prepare well. Once that is done, try to get in touch with him. It is often best, if you can contact the professor through a mutual acquaintance, or by meeting him at a conference. Then, such communicatons are often much more fruitful and your email does not gets lost in the crowd of other emails that the prof receives daily. Doing it this way, you can talk to him directly, and if you have done your homework properly, you will come out as a very sincere candidate that the professor will seriously consider. The methodology outlined above is a very good way of getting a position in the academic world in general. Just sending an email without any prior communication will almost always lead to failure, as they get lost in the piles of such emails they receive. Many profs have filters that cut out such emails to begin with. So, networking and communication is key.
That brings me to the next point. In general, when applying for a position, job or a PhD abroad, your communication and networking is just as important as building up a solid academic background. On one hand, try to publish in academic journals. With effort and some luck, it is possible. On the other hand, invest some time in building a solid network. In Indian education system, this is never taught, but it is a vital part of science in general. In the beginning, it is important to have a general sense of direction or a goal (such as going to EU for PhD, or landing Marie Curie for instance), so that you can look for people that can take you towards said goal and try to communicate with them. For example, if I am looking to land a position in Johnson & Johnson (similar principle apply for labs), I will look for anyone in my existing network (whom I know, past colleagues, batchmates) who are associated with that company (or lab, dept. or Uni) and ask them. LinkedIn is exceptionally helpful in this regard. Through them, I can get in touch with people who I am actually trying to talk to, or get closer to them. This is a recursive procress that will end with me having a contact with the contact person of the company, or lab. This is a skill that needs some work to develop, but is extremely useful and important in my opinion. In an academic setting, conferences are vitally important. Go to international conferences that are in your field, present your research, and interact with anyone that you may find interesting. The homework I mentioned previously is vitally important in this regard. Find out who are coming to the conference beforehand, look through their research, do your homework well, then approach them for a conversation. Most profs welcome such interactions, and such direct conversations is a great way to expand your network and get to know people who work in your field.
Doing all or most of the above will increase your chances of getting a PhD abroad significantly. Combine that with good academic scoresheet from a reputed university, and a publication is the cherry on top. Success is almost guranteed at that point, its just a matter of choice and time.