Nathan

Looking For Support

Daily Post

Who are your supporters for your PhD?

Your supervisors, I hope! Your friends and colleagues from your department, probably. Academics you’ve met at conferences who keep in touch. Internet-people on Twitter and other networks who are part of your community. Friends and family who help you stay grounded. Maybe they don’t get what you do, but they help in other ways.

There are lots of ways people provide support. It all helps. Remember to say thank you!

I’m very grateful for how people have supported Viva Survivors since it began, but in particular since I started the daily blog in 2017. In April the daily blog will have been going for three years, and in a few days I’ll hit the 1000 post milestone!

I’m very grateful for the many ways that people have supported this blog:

  • By telling others it exists!
  • By sharing and retweeting posts that resonate.
  • By using the resources I’ve made and buying ebooks.
  • By subscribing so posts go straight to their inbox.

And in some cases, generously, by telling staff at their institutions about me, and helping me get hired to do viva prep sessions with PhD candidates. I meet nearly a thousand candidates a year that way.

Now there’s one more way you can support Viva Survivors. I’ve started a Ko-Fi page to give people – who want to – the opportunity to financially support the daily blog. Ko-Fi is a little like Patreon and other services; it’s a platform to connect people with supporters. Unlike other services though, Ko-Fi allows for one-off or regular support.

It takes a lot of time to write and publish a daily blog, but it also requires some money too. This blog and any resources will always be freely available: supporting with a £2 donation (one-off or regular) will help cover the running costs of the blog. As more and more people support the blog it could allow me time and resources to provide even more for free here. It could help me to reach more PhD candidates who need support themselves as they finish their PhD and prepare for their viva.

I’m exploring ways to say an extra thank you to supporters; to begin with, anyone who donates can access a free copy of my second ebook, The Viva: Who? What? How? after they’ve donated (details at the Ko-Fi page).

Thank you for reading this post. Thank you for reading my other posts, if you have. Thank you for subscribing – and if you’ve not subscribed to get my daily free posts in your inbox, you can do so here! Thank you for sharing my posts on Twitter and with friends. Thank you to those of you who say nice things about my writing or Viva Survivor sessions!

And if you are in a position to support the blog with a small donation, one-off or recurring, thank you. Thank you. You’re helping me to write more and do more and reach more PhD candidates looking for help with their vivas.

Thank you!

Nathan

You Have More Than Hope

Daily Post

You have all the days you spent working for your PhD.

You have all the nights you spent as well.

You have all the questions you asked.

You have all the answers you found.

You have all the lightbulb moments when something came into focus.

You have the nervous times before a talk, and the moments spent sharing what you’ve done.

You have the questions you were asked and what you said in response.

You have your thoughts and feelings about your research.

You have all your motivations that push you on.

You have your friends, family, colleagues, supervisor and community.

You have expectations for what will happen.

You have a thesis! And everything else you wrote and crossed out to get it into one book.

You can hope your viva goes well, but you have more than hope.

You’ve got this far for a reason. Keep going.

Nathan

Click Your Fingers

Daily Post

If you could click your fingers and make your viva better, what would you do?

  • CLICK! You don’t feel nervous!
  • CLICK! You have a perfect memory!
  • CLICK! Your examiners only have praise for you!
  • CLICK! You have a picture in your mind of the viva and it plays out that way!

Of course, none of these are realistic, but that doesn’t mean that the complete opposite is likely either!

Perfection is unattainable, but your efforts can help. You can’t click your fingers and feel no anxiety, but you can build your confidence. You can’t have perfect recall, but you can prepare with your thesis. You may not have ultra-nice examiners, but you can think about who they are and what they do – and explore how they might feel about your thesis. You can’t click your fingers and have your viva follow a script, but you can ask others about their experiences to guide your own expectations.

You can’t click your fingers and have your viva arrange itself according to your desires. But you can do a little work and steer it toward your preferences, whatever they may be.

Nathan

Ask Me Anything

Daily Post

Seriously. If you need to know something about the viva and you think I might have an answer or opinion or advice, please ask me. You can send me an email, or just tweet at me, I don’t bite!

I keep office hours, so I might not reply within five minutes or one day, but if you have a question about the viva then you can write to me and I will write back to you as soon as I can to try and help.

And I’m not the only one: there are people all around you who can help.

  • Ask your supervisor for help (that’s kind of their job).
  • Ask your graduate school for help (ditto).
  • Ask your friends and colleagues (not a job, but sort of a responsibility).

PhDs and vivas can be struggles – in a way, they’re supposed to be – but you don’t have to struggle through everything alone.

Nathan

The Packet Mix Viva

Daily Post

There are clear contents: a candidate, a thesis, a research journey, some examiners, some preparation, some expectations.

Shake them all up, just add questions.

Unlike other packet mixes, you won’t know exactly how this confection will turn out in advance. You won’t know how long it will take to bake!

You can be pretty sure of the outcome. The ingredients are all there for a good viva.

Nathan

Better Words

Daily Post

Being clear matters. Words help shape how we see and feel about things. Better words can help someone else understand what we mean, and can help us see things differently.

For example, in the last year I changed how I described one of the points in my viva prep session. I would talk about some of the help candidates could get from their supervisors after submission.

Previously I had said something about “…getting feedback after submission, not to resolve problems, but more feedback so that you can see what your supervisors think about the whole thesis and PhD journey, what their take is…” and so on.

I would see candidates understand eventually, but also see it took a while for people to get it. The notion of “feedback” was complicated; when someone hears feedback they expect that they would then have to make changes, but that’s not possible after submission.

The message was getting through, but it wasn’t as good as it could be – it wasn’t as clear as it needed to be.

After a few months’ reflection I changed my message. I now tell candidates they can help themselves by getting their supervisor to “…share their perspective on your work; what strengths do they see? How might someone do things differently?” And I use these words deliberately to emphasise that it is just seeking opinions rather than judgements, perspectives rather than feedback.

Over to you! What words could you use to better explain your research? How could you better describe how you feel about your viva? How could you help others understand your thesis contribution?

Reflect and think about the words you choose to use. How could you make them better?

Nathan

Nervous or Excited

Daily Post

Like a lot of important things in life, candidates tend to be nervous or excited for their viva. Two sides of the same coin, the currency that marks out something as a big deal, and your viva is a big deal.

Which side of the coin is showing?

  • If you’re nervous, why? What has you that little bit concerned? And is it only a little bit, or something more? What could you do to help how you’re feeling?
  • If you’re excited, why? What sounds good to you? What are you doing to get ready to meet your examiners? Is there anything else you need?

Being nervous isn’t “bad”, but I’d personally prefer to be excited rather than nervous – generally it feels better! If you’re nervous, what could you do to flip the coin to excited?

Nathan

Ask For Understanding

Daily Post

Friends and family members may not get it. “Viva?” they’ll say, “What’s that?”

While academic friends can offer tangible preparation with your thesis, friends and family can offer emotional support. They can offer space for you to get ready after a busy day. They could take on responsibilities to give you time to prepare.

But since they may not know what a viva is, or comprehend your research and struggles, you have to ask them for their understanding. If they haven’t known what you do for years, what can you tell them now to help them get the nature of the challenges ahead?

If you can help them see what you’re going through, they can help you get through it.

Nathan

Your Examiners

Daily Post

Who are these people? What do they know? What do they want? What have they done? Why are they here?

And what can they do in your viva?

Spend a little time, answer these questions, honestly, and you’ll find a way to engage with them in your viva.

Nathan

Before & After

Daily Post

Before your viva…

  • …ask graduate friends about their experiences.
  • …make a list of what you might expect.
  • …tell your friends and family what you need from them.

After your viva…

  • …share your experience with others to help them on their PhD journeys.
  • …see how your experience matched your expectations (or not!).
  • …thank your friends and family for their support.

And remember that, as important as it is, the viva – the “during” bit, in-between these two phases of your life – is a lot, lot shorter than the before or the after. Focus on it, be ready for it – but you’ll spend far more time getting ready before for your viva than being in it, and far longer after your viva as a PhD.

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