You Are Here

Tag: the PhD journey

Nathan

Personally Developed

Daily Post

Personal development is sometimes seen as a box-ticking exercise during a PhD: perhaps a form or report that has to be filled in every now and then. That’s a shame, because I think personal development is what the PhD is all about. A PhD is not just a piece of paper or a couple of extra letters around your name. It stands for something. It represents the change you’ve made in yourself.

Reflecting on that before the viva helps you. You don’t want to stand on a chair and boast of your talent and knowledge, but you do want to sit there and be confident. Reflect on your journey. Reflect on the change in yourself. Consider how you have grown and developed and use that to build your confidence for the viva – where you can calmly explain and explore what it all means.

Nathan

A Series Of Steps

Daily Post

You take a PhD one day at a time. Read, write, test, think and do it all again. Day by day you work through the journey.

You take viva prep one task at a time. Read, write, think, talk: each task brings you closer to the viva.

You take the viva one question at a time. Pause, think, respond, then on to the next point. Each question is an opportunity for you to demonstrate something about your research and yourself.

Step by step, each one bringing you closer to success.

Nathan

Small Beginnings

Daily Post

Do you remember the first day of your PhD? Do you remember what that was like?

I do! I can vividly remember showing up at my office, being told which of two desks I could commandeer for the next few years and then waiting and wondering what I should do next. I knew my supervisor already, but knew that I wasn’t due to see him for several days. I knew, kind-of, what area I was going to be working in.

So I started reading my Master’s dissertation. I had carried that into university with me that day, in my bag, proof for myself that I was meant to be there. As I worked through the pages of a short book I hadn’t read in over a year I found typo after typo. Clunky line after clunky line. I picked up a red pen and started amending my previous work in the margins.

And I felt bad.

Foolish. Naive even. What was I doing here? What was I going to be doing…

…for the next three and a half years?!

I had no idea.

 

And then Shaine asked me if I wanted to go for a cup of tea as it was eleven o’clock and that’s what happened at eleven in the maths department. For the rest of that day, and the rest of that week – and the rest of the month – I was slowly introduced to the rhythms of life in the maths department.

Meeting by meeting, I figured out what I needed to do to get started. Chat by chat, I started to understand what being a PhD maths researcher meant.

One thing stood out to me: research takes time. It takes work over a long period of time. You might have breakthroughs or periods of intense activity, but it all takes time.

 

From small beginnings you must have come a long way over the course of your PhD. Do you remember your first day? Your first week or month? Can you compare and contrast that to where you are now?

I imagine if you’re reading this that your viva is some time in the near future. At the very least you can have a good idea of when it might be. Look back to the beginning of your PhD journey and realise: you have come a long way.

You’ve invested the time and the work to become better, to build your research and develop yourself. Remember and realise that you must be good by this stage of your journey; you might not be at the end, not yet, but you have made a lot of progress and found a lot of success since your beginning.

Nathan

Just After Submission

Daily Post

At submission, a PhD candidate won’t typically know when their viva is going to be. There’s a period when they’ll wait to find out the date and time for their viva. In the UK it’s common for the viva to be anywhere from six weeks to three months after thesis submission.

A candidate might feel pressure to do something just after submission – from nerves, wondering or hoping – but there’s generally not a great need to start preparing immediately. Viva prep is a different kind of work to what one does to get a thesis finished. The wait after submission can be useful as a break or gear change – a boundary between submission and prep.

Perhaps all you need just after submission is to take a moment. Deep breath. Make a few notes. What will you do for your prep? How will you do it? Sketch a simple plan. Then put it into action when you know your viva date.

After submission, generally, you can relax a little. The hardest work is done. You could be busy – it’s unlikely that your PhD is your only responsibility in life – but at least, for a short time, maybe you can put your research to one side and do something to help yourself rest.

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

A Key Expectation

Daily Post

It occurred to me recently that a key expectation for the viva, very rarely expressed, is that the candidate will not know what questions they will be asked until they get there.

There are helpful lists of potential questions on the internet. You might suspect or guess some topics. You have your thesis and know that everything you’ve done will be a possible area for discussion. And you can get some ideas of what to expect from your supervisors, your colleagues and the stories that people generally tell about the viva.

But you won’t know.

That’s not a cause for panic or concern, and it doesn’t mean that you can’t be prepared to respond to a question. Rehearse for the viva, place yourself in situations where you have to engage to build your comfort and competence for doing it again in the future.

You don’t need to be prepared to respond to particular questions; you can be ready to engage with whatever question is asked in the viva.

You won’t know what you will be asked at your viva until you get there, but you can still know that you will succeed.

Nathan

Three, Two, One

Daily Post

Three or more years of research and writing.

Two to four weeks of preparation time.

One day with a challenge.

Put the viva in the right perspective.

Nathan

The Epilogue

Daily Post

That’s the time after your viva, after corrections, after your final thesis submission but before you actually graduate with your PhD.

Are you a Doctor at that point? Technically no, but you might not let that stop you from changing your bank cards.

Is there a special interim status? No, but you will probably feel good knowing that graduation is coming.

Can there be a long wait? There can, depending on where you are in the academic year. My viva was in June, I had finished corrections in July and submitted my final thesis in August: it was December before I was a PhD.

Is any of this bad? No, not really. If there’s anything to remember or anticipate about this first period of life after the PhD it’s that things take time. You’re done but not finished. You’ve a little further to go before the epilogue of your PhD journey concludes.

Nathan

Previously

Daily Post

There are lots of questions you could be asked at your viva, including questions you’ve never been asked before! But by the time you get there you will have had lots of practise responding to questions, certainly enough to do well with your examiners.

There’s a lot of pressure on the whole situation, but you have experience with that sort of thing.

You can’t be sure what your examiners will ask, but before the day of the viva you can find out more about your examiners and rehearse for being in the viva. You can’t arrive perfect but you can take the time to get ready.

Yes, there’s a lot you won’t know about before the moments of your viva, but prior to arriving there you can do as much as possible to be ready for the situation.

Nathan

The End, And Onwards

Daily Post

If you’re post-submission and trying to prepare for your viva but finding it hard then remember: you could not have got this far unless you were good.

Could you keep going for this long and this far if you were not talented?

Make a plan, ask for help, do a little each day, but remember: you did this. You got this far.

And if you got this far then you can get to the end of your PhD journey, and onto the next adventure.

1 … 22 23 24 25 26 … 42