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Nathan

The Last Few Years

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Three to seven years is a long time in anyone’s life. It may be that while you’ve been working on your PhD that you’ve had big changes in your personal life, not all of them good.

The last five years have been really hard at times in the wider world. We’ve seen daily life change and change again. We’ve seen disruptive alterations to the way the world seems to work. It’s not always clear what these changes will mean – or what changes are still to come.

And all of this is besides the nature of doing a PhD: learning how to research, potentially learning through failure and finding your way while working at a really high level.

 

If you’re feeling bruised by your PhD journey and your viva is coming then you can still make a choice.

If the last few years have been a lot, acknowledge that it’s been hard and acknowledge that you would wish for things to be different. Do that but remember that despite everything the world has sent your way you are still here.

You kept going.

It didn’t happen any other way. The world, your life, your research, whatever tried to hold you back – you said no and kept going. It doesn’t make all of the hard times go away. It might not make them hurt or matter less. But you kept going.

Keep going now. Success is not far away.

 

PS: something else that’s not far away is Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June – only four days from now! I’m regularly invited to deliver this session with PhD candidates all around the UK, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. Viva Survivor is a 3-hour live webinar all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready and participants receive access to a catch-up recording and follow-up materials. Do take a look and see if this could help you keep going. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Magic Numbers

Daily Post

Some magic numbers can help stir up your confidence for meeting your examiners.

  • How many papers and books have you read for your PhD?
  • How many days have you showed up to work even if you didn’t feel like it?
  • How many words have you written? (if your answer is the number in your thesis then remember you’ve edited away many more)
  • How many times have you presented your work?
  • How many deep conversations have you had?

The numbers you might put forward for these aren’t magic in a fantastical sense. They can still do something extraordinary.

The effect they produce is to remind you as you prepare for your viva: you are not at the beginning of your research journey. You are dedicated, capable and successful.

Nathan

Ideas Need Work

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“What a good idea!”

It’s very rare that an idea is enough. It takes work to develop, to implement, to unpick, to understand and for it to have an impact.

You will have had many good ideas throughout your PhD. However they’ve made their way into your thesis, they needed effort to come to life. They needed your work to make an impact.

Whatever is in your thesis, it took work to write, work to edit, work to figure out how to express it.

Your work.

There are great ideas that exist because of the work you did. When you go to your viva there’s a lot to talk about. Remember that the reason it’s there is because you took the time and the effort to do it.

Your thesis is proof of your contribution and evidence of your capability as a researcher.

 

PS: today’s post aims at boosting confidence by reflecting on your PhD and the work you did. If you’re looking for more ways to boost your confidence and get ready for the viva then check out Viva Survivors Select 03, The Preparation Issue, which came out yesterday and is available now at this link!

Nathan

Less Than Perfect…

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…but you don’t need perfect to succeed in your PhD or at the viva.

  • You need to have worked to produce research.
  • You need to be a capable researcher.
  • You need to have written a good thesis (and submitted it!).
  • You need prepare for your viva after submission.
  • You need to engage with your examiners and the discussion at the viva.

None of these are trivial but none of them requires perfection.

You don’t need perfection to pass your viva.

Nathan

Skilled

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Compared to the start of your PhD journey, what can you do now that you couldn’t before?

How do you know this for certain? How can you demonstrate this? What are your skills as a capable researcher in your field?

Reflecting and unpicking the answers to these kinds of questions will give you a lot to share with your examiners in the viva.

 

Nathan

More Than Enough

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Thousands of hours of work.

Probably hundreds of papers read.

All the many, many attempts to do practical work related to your research. Depending on your field or discipline that could be experiments, interviews, simulations, observations, conversations, field work, lab work, library work and office work.

And then all the time spent writing, reading, re-drafting, editing, proofreading, spell-checking, re-writing again and again and finally feeling ready to submit.

(or at least able to submit!)

Throw in some viva preparations and you have done more than enough and then some more to be ready for your viva.

If you’re not ready for the challenge then who is?

Nathan

The Next Time

Daily Post

Frame your viva as the next challenge of your PhD.

It might even be the last challenge of your PhD. It’s certainly not the first. You’ve overcome many others to get this far.

Remind yourself of the challenges that you’ve passed. What made them difficult? What did you do to get past them? Exploring a difficult situation might initially remind you of stress but steer yourself to focus on the positives: look for evidence of your talent and effort to help drive a growing confidence.

While your viva could be last challenge of your PhD it won’t be your last challenge ever. As you finish your PhD journey consider what you’re taking with you. What can you apply from your PhD to all of your future challenges? How much better will you be for this process?

 

PS: if you’re looking for help as you get ready for this challenge then check out Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I have delivered this session to PhD candidates all around the UK at the request of doctoral colleges, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. Viva Survivor is a 3-hour live webinar, you receive a catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Do take a look and see if it could help you! 

Nathan

Timescales

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It might take you seconds to respond to a question in the viva.

It could take you minutes in preparation to review the point of a particular reference.

It will take several hours to engage with a mock viva – and several more to work through your actual viva.

By submission it has taken hundreds and hundreds of days to make something that matters for your thesis.

 

Across thousands of hours you become a more capable researcher. Over the course of months you complete your thesis. In the space of weeks you prepare for your viva. In a matter of hours you convince your examiners that you are enough and have done enough.

All of these are made up of moments – many, many moments – where you put yourself forward and where you do something that makes a difference.

 

PS: in case you missed it yesterday, the second issue of Viva Survivors Select is out now! This is my new monthly pdf zine sharing a curated collection from the Viva Survivors archive. Take a look at The Uncertainty Issue for advice, practical suggestions and reflections to help with the many concerning areas about the viva.

Nathan

Lots Of Reasons

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There are lots of reasons why a PhD candidate might not get to submission.

When I did my PhD I knew someone who didn’t get on with their supervisor and he left, thankfully to do his PhD elsewhere. Sometimes a person’s funding isn’t secure and they aren’t able to continue. Sometimes people start a PhD and it’s only through doing the work that they realise it’s not what they want to do, so they stop.

For these and many more reasons, some people who start a PhD journey don’t work through to submission and the viva.

 

There are also lots of reasons why PhD candidates who get to submission go on to succeed at the viva.

They did the work. They have made a contribution to knowledge. They are knowledgeable. They are a capable researcher in their discipline. They learn what to expect from the viva process. They do the necessary work to get ready for their viva.

For these and many, many more reasons, PhD candidates who work to submission then go on to pass their viva.

Nathan

What Did You Improve?

Daily Post

There’s no one-size-fits-all way to define the value of a contribution to research. Expectations vary a lot between disciplines but perhaps one universal question could simply be “what did you improve?”

Do we know something new now? Do we know something more? What is clearer? What new questions do we know to explore?

A starting point to a response might be to reflect on the improvements in you: now more learned, more capable and more thoughtful.

 

PS: I share another helpful tool to help explore thesis contributions in the first issue of Viva Survivors Select – my curated zine drawing from the daily blog archive. As well as twenty posts from the past I share original writing, including a reflective summary process for breaking down thesis chapters. Check out the issue here.

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