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Tag: the PhD journey

Nathan

By Now…

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… you must be good at what you do or you wouldn’t still be doing it. You are not the person you were when you started your PhD. The things you have learned and done over the past few years put you in a good position for meeting the challenge of your viva.

It might be that you have weeks or months to go until your viva, or maybe even more, but you have time to get ready. The stage you’re at right now is a good foundation to build on. By now must recognise that you’ve made a contribution. There might be more to say or other things to do, but you can’t do everything.

Your examiners are expecting to see a good contribution made by a capable candidate. It’s helpful, to begin with, if that’s what you can see in yourself and your work.

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

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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

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! 

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