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Tag: the PhD journey

Nathan

Lucky Often Isn’t

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The success of a PhD journey could be influenced by good fortune. That’s when you work hard and that hard work pays off (or enough of it does).

Results don’t just happen. Opportunities don’t just appear. Your work, effort and determination lead to them. You’re not lucky, you’re fortunate: you can be glad that enough things worked out but recognise that you worked hard for them.

Recognise good fortune and the work that goes into it. Luck isn’t required for PhD success.

 

PS: there’s a little more work to do after submission to be ready for the particular challenge of the viva. If you want to know what’s involved and what you can do then check out Viva Survivors Select 03, The Preparation Issue, which is new out this week and available to buy at this link!

Nathan

The End Of Your Viva

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It’s not the end of your journey or the end of the work.

As your viva concludes take a moment to reflect and think if there’s anything else you want to ask your examiners. Are there any questions you can imagine asking now?

Before the very end of the viva there is often a break where examiners confer. You could sit or pace nervously – or decide in advance that you’ll get some fresh air, refill your water bottle or quickly journal anything that’s occurred to you. What will you do in that break?

As you find out the result of the viva it’s very likely that you’ll be asked to complete minor corrections. While you might not know these now you can learn how long that corrections period. You can plan ahead for how you might do that work.

The end of the viva is not the end of your journey or the end of the work – but you’ll be really close to being done.

 

PS: want to explore what else you need to do to be done? Check out Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’ve shared this session more than 400 times with PhD candidates all around the UK, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. A 3-hour live webinar, catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Take a look at the details and see if it might help you or someone you know. Thanks for reading!

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

Reflect & Review

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“Plan, Do, Reflect, Review” is a simple framework for getting things done. Plan what you’ll do, do it, reflect on what happened and review things formally so you have a better understanding.

If you’re reading this post then hopefully you followed a similar process during your PhD. There are lots of systems, resources and processes that use Plan, Do, Reflect, Review to underpin how they work.

As you get close to your viva you’ll be leaning much more on reflect and review. Give yourself time to really take in what you did, what happened and what that means. Ask yourself questions and find answers that will help you communicate what matters to your examiners.

(reflecting and reviewing your journey also helps your confidence to grow by bringing your progress and capability into the spotlight!)

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

Surviving Isn’t Easy

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Manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.

Manage, not struggle.

Difficult not almost-impossible.

Keep going – implying that you’re already in motion, this isn’t new.

I share this definition of survive in all my work. I want to emphasise to PhD candidates that surviving isn’t about life and death, swerving tragedy or overcoming mythic danger. A successful viva requires capability and results but surviving is really about determination. You show up and push forward and do what you need to with each new challenge.

It’s a hopefully helpful way to explore the viva and what’s involved but I’m not saying it’s easy.

Surviving the PhD might require difficult choices or exceptional effort. Getting ready for the viva could involve more work than you like or even a task you would rather avoid. The viva itself might be tough: challenging questions, longer than you would like and a deeper reflection on something than you want.

For all that you’ll succeed.

There’s work to do and you can do it.

There’s talent required and you have it.

It’s not easy but it’s nowhere near impossible. You can do this.

Keep going.

Nathan

The Next Time

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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

Hoping

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Hope is a good thing but we typically apply it to situations where our actions have little or no leverage. It’s probably not good to apply it to how we think about viva prep, building confidence or viva success.

Instead:

  • What can you do to prepare? What will you do to get ready?
  • What can you do to feel better? What steps will you take to boost your confidence?
  • What have you done already to show you’ve done something worthwhile? What can you do with the time remaining before your viva to feel sure of success?

You don’t need to hope. You don’t need to wish for good luck.

Recognise you’ve done the work. Recognise that there is still work you can do.

Nathan

The Friction

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Reflect on your PhD journey and think about any times that you felt friction in your research. Friction always tells you that there was something interesting:

  • Friction could mean that you had slow progress because you needed to learn more. So what did you learn?
  • Friction could mean that the situation was particularly challenging. Why?
  • Friction could mean that something went wrong. What was it and could you overcome it?

Friction could also show that something just wasn’t working. Perhaps you needed to make a change. Perhaps you needed a different perspective.

Whatever the reason, if you find periods of your PhD where you’ve experienced friction then you’ve probably found something to reflect on ahead of your viva. There’s always something interesting to consider.

 

PS: if you’re looking for something else that’s interesting to consider, then take a look at the new issue of Viva Survivors Select. This is the second publication in my 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 many concerning areas about the viva.

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.

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