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Tag: the PhD journey

Nathan

The Essentials

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Five years ago today I ran my first ever independent workshop.

I was so excited!

It was a big step: to go from being invited by universities to meet PhD candidates, now instead I was inviting them to meet me. I’ve done that a lot in the last year over Eventbrite and Zoom, but to hire a venue, to advertise, to think about everything that I would want or need if I were a participant – this was a really big stretch for me then.

It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

One of the things I was most delighted about, aside from the great venue that I found and the four people who took a chance to come to the event, was making goody bags. I wanted to give everyone who came a bag packed with everything they would need to help them get ready for the viva – and a few things that they didn’t need, but which would maybe give them a smile.

Goodybag contents

I made a print run of the books I had written, and gave ebook codes too; I designed and published a new guide to getting ready for the viva; I supplied stationery that would help, notebooks – plus a big bar of dark chocolate and a tote bag to carry it all in.

I loved putting all of this together – most of the contents were a surprise to the participants on the day, and the looks of delight at the goody bags I gave were some of my highlights of 2016.

Which leads me to ask three questions, two for you and one for me.

  • First, if your viva was coming up: what would you need in an essential goody bag to support you? What would you want? What would be nice? What would help you just that little bit more?
  • Second, if you have a friend with a viva soon: what could you do to give them a little boost? What practical things could help them get ready? What else could you do to make them smile?
  • And for me: what can I do with my Zoom sessions to bring a little of that surprise and delight that I loved so much in my very first independent seminar?
Nathan

5 Posts I’ll Never Write (Probably)

Daily Post

I keep idea books to help manage my creative process for the blog. I’ve worked through five volumes of these small books over the last couple of years, and every time I fill one I transfer unused ideas across.

There are ideas that I’ve had now for a long time and I don’t know what to do with them:

  1. A post written in the style of Dr. Seuss – a bit of a stretch from the haiku I sometimes wrote
  2. Seven Deadly Viva Sins – I like the title but don’t know what to do with it!
  3. Creating a crossword puzzle with viva-related answers…
  4. A post without our common fifth symbol of communication – a blog post all about the viva that does not contain the letter “e”
  5. 101 Short Thoughts About The Viva – a long list of tips, advice and reflections to consider…

Some of these ideas really amuse me – I just don’t know what to do with them. Others are ideas that I keep returning to but know they still need more work. I have hope but am slowly coming to the conclusion that I might never write the great viva-related crossword puzzle!

Despite not using these ideas, good and bad, I’ve written a lot for this blog. And despite not using all of your ideas, you will have done a lot for your research and thesis. You can’t do everything. Your examiners don’t expect you to do everything.

Coming to the end of your PhD, to submission, the viva or completion – at some point it helps to sit back and consider what you have not done. And as you do so remember that you have accomplished a lot. Accept that you might not ever achieve some of your research goals, that some projects’ potential might go unrealised.

You will still have done enough. You will still have proved yourself.

Nathan

Lockdown Limits

Daily Post

In the last few months I’ve been asked the following many times at webinars: is it acceptable to tell my examiners that “lockdown(s) slowed me down when I was doing my research” if I’ve had to change my plans or not been able to accomplish as much as I wanted?

And my response would be, “Of course!”

If over the last year or so your work has had to change direction, or if you’ve had to do less in some way, then it’s fair for you to emphasise that. We live in exceptional times – your PhD has been completed in exceptional circumstances.

It’s fair to tell your examiners about the challenges you’ve faced in your viva. Beforehand, consider how you can best communicate that. How personal do you want to be? What details do you want to share? How can you communicate the paths that you would have taken? And how do you share what steered your choice in the new directions you had to go?

Nathan

Everyone Makes Miskates

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Corrections aren’t a sign you’ve necessarily done something wrong in your thesis. The request from your examiners is a helping hand to make your thesis as good as it could reasonably be, given that your thesis is a permanent contribution to knowledge. They want to help.

Most PhD candidates are asked to complete corrections. This doesn’t mean that most candidates are failing somehow or that most candidates don’t care.

It shows that writing is hard. Writing long, involved texts – books! – is hard.

Practice helps. Feedback helps. Investing time purposefully to get better, of course, helps. Proofreading and editing and revising all help.

And after all of that you can still miss things.

When you’re asked to complete corrections, as you most likely will be, just remember that it’s another part of the PhD process. You didn’t do anything wrong; you now have the chance to make things better.

 

A short post that occurred to me today, as I sit slightly stunned that this is my 1500th daily post on the blog – and I remember the many, many mistakes I’ve made over the course of nearly 250,000 words!

Nathan

From Day One

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How did you feel at the start of your PhD? How do you feel now?

What have you learned since the day you started your PhD? How much have you invested into your research? How many pages have you produced in your thesis? How many more have been edited out along the way?

From day one you work and learn and make something amazing – that leads to one day where you have the chance to talk about it, defend your choices, explain and explore and more.

You got this far through your PhD journey by working hard. You get through the viva in the same way.

Nathan

Invisible Work

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My daughter was surprised when she came home and saw some new bookcases and a wardrobe in her bedroom. “Wow! How did you do this?!” She couldn’t quite get the hours of reading instructions, hammering, using tools and moving things to get it all in place.

It’s a little the same in academia I think. I remember being amazed at conferences that everyone else in the audience would be nodding along to talks. I could barely understand the ideas.

How are they getting all this? Why am I not getting it? How did that person talking figure this out?

At that early stage in my PhD I hadn’t had time to do the “invisible work” that could help me to understand. The background reading, the practice, the skill building, all the hours that go in to getting good at something.

Once you are good at something, it’s easy to forget about all that time you’ve invested, and simply focus on the end result. For passing the viva it’s essential to try to hold on to that awareness of time spent. Hold on to the understanding that you have invested all of that time and focus into work that has produced a good thesis and a good candidate.

You got this far because you did the work, even if everyone else sees only the end result.

Nathan

Space To Feel

Daily Post

In my writing and webinar work I try to help and to give perspective on the viva. I try not to share things like a great to do list, but also know that some people I engage will treat things that way:

If I do X then Y will happen and everything will be fine.

Everything probably will be fine. Things will probably work out the way you want and you’ll have the outcome you’re looking for – but the journey there might not be smooth, navigating the bumpy road of emotions, changes and endings along the way.

This has been hammered home to me in the last year as I’ve delivered webinars.

In a seminar room, people tend to have their public faces on. They could be unsure, they could be curious but they smile – there’s a mask in place. In a webinar, with cameras off and chat windows open, people talk more freely. Questions become longer than could be squeezed on a Post-it Note, and real emotions flow into the statements that people make:

I’ve not thought about how things are going to change… The pandemic hasn’t given me the chance or the pause until today…

I’m angry because of how my submission and viva will be so different than I had imagined!

I’m crying a little as no-one, not my supervisor or department, have told me that I’m good or talented before…

These aren’t direct quotes, but they are representative of what people have told me in just the last few months. Perhaps it’s been there in the background all along, and it took the shift to webinars for me to recognise it in candidates. Maybe it’s a more recent emergence brought on by the pressures of the last year.

In either case, if you want a to do list for getting ready, here’s my update: read your thesis, make notes, rehearse for the viva, boost your confidence…

…and make space to feel.

Reflect, not just on your talent to help build your confidence, but on where you are, how you got there and how you feel about all this. Happy, sad, angry, excited, scared – however you feel, make space for it. Unpick it a little maybe. See what you need to do.

Nathan

Almost There

Daily Post

You’re so close at submission. It may not feel it, but the vast, vast majority of the work you need for your doctorate is done. Months upon months of hard work and you’re almost there…

…but you’re not yet. Yet. You will be soon.

Hold on.

Rest, ready yourself, read your thesis, rehearse for the viva, do whatever you need to so you feel good for this big, important day. You’re almost there, and it won’t take much to get there, or take much while you’re there.

Your viva isn’t the most important thing that you’ll ever do. Your viva isn’t the peak of your PhD.

Nathan

Good Things

Daily Post

A simple piece of viva prep and confidence building: make a list of as many good things about your research and thesis as you can think of. Add anything about your development too, what knowledge or skills you’ve built up over the course of your PhD years.

It’s fine to list items, but even more powerful if you go back and add details as to why these things are good. Why is that result or piece of research good? What did reading that paper allow you to do? How does a skill help you?

A PhD can be hard for many reasons. There’s a lot of good there too.

Find the good, and use that to help you feel ready for your viva.

Nathan

The Long Way

Daily Post

Between the first day of your PhD and your last you travel a huge distance. From potential to results, you’re talented when you start and even more talented when you submit – plus you have a lovely book too!

Across all that time it’s sometimes hard to see the moments when you succeeded, when you’ve had amazing times of personal growth or completed projects. The great stuff can be hard to pick out from all the days of hard work: reading, thinking, writing and developing what you did.

You can’t get to the end of your PhD, to submission and on track for the viva any other way. There’s no shortcuts, you have to come the long way.  To be sure of your confidence for the viva you have to review that journey when it nears the end. Look back over what you’ve done and consider how you got to where you are.

The PhD journey is long. It can be hard. It can be so hard to get to the end.

But you will – you will reach the end. As you get closer to the viva, reflect on how you got there and what that means.

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