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Tag: the end of the phd

Nathan

The Edge

Daily Post

Are you nervous about your viva or nervous about the upcoming change?

Your viva, and your success at it, aren’t a leap of faith. You did the work, you did the prep, you can learn about the process. You don’t need to hope that it all goes well. You can be reasonably certain that things are going to work out.

And yet you are at the edge of something.

The edge of your PhD before you step out and do something different. The boundary line between here and there. It could be very similar if you’re continuing in academia or a great change if you’re moving to another field or industry – but it will still be different.

Are you nervous about your viva or nervous about the upcoming change?

It helps to know because then you can do something.

 

Nathan

Before The End

Daily Post

A long time ago I would regularly help to deliver residential learning programmes for researchers. Two or three days at an isolated retreat centre, long hours, creative project work, sharing ideas and experiences and thinking about what it all meant. I loved it.

The course director had a good way to close each experiential learning programme. We would all sit down, two or three staff and maybe a dozen or so postgraduate researchers and talk about what the programme had meant. Before the end, we would go around in a circle and just say anything we needed to in order to finish.

This might be something that had stood out. Something we were thankful for. In some cases something that was bothering someone. Something that had been a surprise. Something that had been learned.

And when each person had said their piece they would finish simply with, “I’m done.”

I’ve been reminiscing a little lately and thinking about the end of my PhD. Looking back I do think I could have finished things off better. After my viva I was so focussed on getting my corrections complete and my thesis finished. Then I was wondering what I would do next. Before I knew it I had to pack my desk and office space up, move things out and start something new.

I don’t wish I had had more time, but I do wish I had used my time differently. After my corrections I wish I had spent a little more time on sorting things out. On deciding what I would and wouldn’t be taking home with me. I kept boxes of notes and papers for years before realising I was never going to do anything with them.

And I particularly wish I had taken more time to thank people who had helped me.

My encouragement for you: do what I didn’t. Take a little time after your viva to make sure you finish in a good way. You will be busy. You will have 101 things to do. Still, take a little time to decide carefully on what you do and don’t need for the future. Take a little time to thank people before you move on to the next thing you’ll do.

OK. I’m done.

Nathan

Time To Finish

Daily Post

The viva is framed in lots of different ways.

It’s an exam. It’s a test. It’s a discussion. It’s the end of the PhD journey or the final challenge. You could be excited to be there or telling yourself, “Let’s get this over with…”

Another way to look at is that it’s just time to finish. It’s time. It’s the right time. Years of work, months of anticipation and build-up. New ideas and prospects ahead. You’ve done your PhD for long enough. It’s time to finish and go on to the next thing.

Two questions then: what will help you to finish your PhD well? What will help you to start whatever comes next in the best possible way?

Nathan

The Ends

Daily Post

The end of your viva is not the end of your PhD.

The end of your bibliography doesn’t mean that there is nothing else to know.

The end of your thesis is not the end of the research that could be done.

The end of your PhD journey doesn’t mean that there isn’t more great work for you to do.

The end of your mock viva is not a finish to all the questions you could get in the real thing.

There are many endings around the conclusion of a PhD. Very few of them are final.

The end of your PhD is not the end of your story.

Nathan

The End of the Beginning

Daily Post

The viva is the beginning of the end. Passing it is, I like to think, also the end of the beginning.

However you feel about your PhD journey, particularly if it has been challenging or coincided with the pandemic, it is coming to a close. You will reach your destination and find that you’ve still a long way to go.

Your PhD was just for starters. Where will you go from here?

You don’t need to have all the answers about this at your viva. You don’t need to explain your career plans to your examiners. But maybe you do have an idea. Maybe you have something you’re striving for.

Good. Go for it. Throughout your PhD, with all the challenges you’ve faced, you’ve survived. You’ve managed to keep going in difficult circumstances. And after you’re done, you’ll find more challenges but also more ability to face them.

Your PhD will be done soon, the opening act complete. The end of the beginning. So keep going.

Nathan

And Then You’re Done

Daily Post

Finishing my PhD was a strange time. I remember a weird few weeks of tidying my desk, taking folders home on the train, clearing stuff into recycling, and then a gap of months of trying to figure out, “What now?”

How do you want things to change for you?

  • Will your PhD journey have a gradual conclusion, tidying up loose ends, leaving things in their right place while you prepare to start a new expedition?
  • Will it simply finish one day, a red line drawn across your calendar to mark the end of one era and the start of another?
  • Will it just change? Will you realise one day that you’ve moved on and you didn’t see it happen?

Finish your thesis, prepare for your viva, but spare a little thought for that Future-You, who will one day find that they’re done with their PhD.

What can you do to help prepare them for that situation?

Nathan

A Good End

Daily Post

I’m a little wistful lately, remembering the final days of my PhD.

Not my viva, not corrections, but those last few days when I was packing things up. It is late-summer 2008. My office-mates are either on holiday or have heads down trying to get things done while the campus is quiet.

I had stacks of papers I’d never read, filed away into a box where they remain never-read. Notes for ideas that I thought I might get to, which stayed filed away until a few years ago when I recycled them. Drawers with odds and ends, emptied out now into containers so they could be sorted.

There was no celebration though; no marking of the occasion by me or anyone else. We’d had dinner after passing my viva; months later I’d celebrate graduation, being Dr Nathan, with my family. On those days of finishing though, there was just me, the excess clutter of my research being loaded into boxes and a collection of bittersweet feelings rattling around my brain.

Endings can be complicated and not always within our control. We can try though. My wish for you today is that you have a little space to think, to reflect and then to plan what the end of your PhD might be like.

Your PhD doesn’t end with your viva. Graduation is the epilogue to your story. What would be a good end for your PhD?

Nathan

An Ending, Not The End

Daily Post

After the viva there’s a few more things to do – corrections, completion, graduation – like an epilogue or a mid-credits scene at the end of a movie. You have more time to show your talent. Your viva is an ending, but not the end.

Keep going!

Nathan

Finally!!!

Daily Post

There’s lots of Finally!!! moments at the end of a PhD.

Finally!!! My thesis is finished!

Finally!!! My viva is almost here!

Finally!!! I’ve passed my viva!

Finally!!! My corrections are done!

Finally!!! I’ve graduated! I’m finally, finally, done!

At each moment where you think Finally!!! take time to think: what got you this far? How far have you come?

And what can you do to get you to the next Finally!!!?

Nathan

You Don’t Want The Viva

Daily Post

Regular readers of the blog might know I am a huge fan of Seth Godin. I’m re-reading his most recent book, This Is Marketing, and I wanted to share a passage I’ve been thinking about for a while now:

Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

The lesson is that the drill bit is merely a feature, a means to an end, but what people really want is the hole it makes.

But that doesn’t go nearly far enough. No one wants a hole.

What people want is the shelf that will go on the wall once they drill the hole.

Actually, what they want is how they’ll feel once they see how uncluttered everything is, when they put their stuff on the shelf that went on the wall, now that there’s a quarter-inch hole.

But wait…

They also want the satisfaction of knowing they did it themselves.

Or perhaps the increase in status they’ll get when their spouse admires their work.

Or the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the bedroom isn’t a mess, and that it feels safe and clean.

So: you need a viva, but you don’t want it.

You want what the viva will lead to – passing your PhD. But who just wants a PhD? The three letters don’t mean a lot by themselves: what do you want them for? A job in academia? An increase in status? Pride in something accomplished?

When we stop seeing the viva as the end, but a step – a means to an end maybe – then perhaps we can see it for what it is. A practical thing, not a mystical or terrible or unknowable thing. A necessary step and one that can be prepared for. It leads to something even more important and better.

You don’t want your viva – but since you’re going to have it anyway, why not aim to make it the best you can?

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