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Tag: the PhD journey

Nathan

What Are Your Numbers?

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I track the number of people I have worked with directly on their viva.

I keep a tally of the number of sessions I have delivered.

I record every daily post I’ve published here.

(and record a word count too!)

These are stats and they don’t mean much to anyone else but they help remind me. Knowing that I have published more than 2800 posts gives me confidence to write more. Remembering how many sessions I’ve done in the past helps me when I feel nervous about doing a webinar for someone new or trying something different.

 

My numbers are not the whole story. They’re a starting point or prompt for my confidence.

What are your numbers? What numbers could you track to help your confidence?

  • Could it be the number of papers you’ve read or cited?
  • The number of days or hours you must have spent on your PhD?
  • How many times have you spoken in a seminar or at a conference?
  • How often have you overcome challenges?

Find some numbers that matter and that help you. Record them and remember them: they’re a powerful confidence booster.

Nathan

Future Feelings

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What do you think it will feel like to wake up the day after your viva?

How might you feel if you were to look at a list of requested corrections?

What do you think it will feel like to be told you’ve passed?

How will you feel when you shake someone important’s hand at graduation?

 

And assuming that some of the above are positive or good expected feelings, what are you going to do between now and your viva to get to that reality?

Nathan

Intention Matters Too

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Whatever your research, you care about the results and conclusions of the work you’ve done. The tangible contributions you’ve made are what show your examiners (and everyone else) that you’re good and have made a difference. Right?

Yes.

But that’s only part of the story – and for some candidates that perspective can be worrying.

What if you didn’t get all the results you were looking for? What if some problems were too big, too messy or too complicated to resolve?

Your contributions matter, but the work matters too. Your intentions matter. Why did you pursue a project or area of research? What were you hoping for? How did you try to explore it or solve the problem?

It’s essential to be able to talk about your contributions at the viva, but just as important to talk about how and why you were pursuing them in the first place. Regardless of whether or not something worked, why did you go after it?

Nathan

These Interesting Times

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On March 16th 2020 I wrote Interesting Times, an extra post that marked when things started to change in the UK because of the pandemic. Things had been changing for weeks but lots of little changes became very big, very quickly.

And then things kept changing.

And changing.

And changing…

These five years have been a lot, right? That’s not to say that life is all doom and gloom. There’s good news everywhere. It can be hard to see sometimes, but there are people who want to help.

 

As I think back, I think about how my life was changing then and how it has changed since. At the time I thought, I’ll be doing webinars for a few months probably, and that became five years and forevermore by the looks of it!

Outside of my own situation I think about the people I meet at webinars now and the people I imagine who are reading these words.

I think of them and you, dear reader, because you have lived through interesting, difficult and upsetting times. You have been challenged not only by the work you do but by the conditions you do that work in. You have managed to keep going on your PhD journey in very difficult circumstances.

When your viva comes you’ll have to prepare but you can be sure that the challenge you’ll find there will be smaller than the challenge of what you’ve been through in the 2020s so far.

Dear reader, in short, keep going. Help others. Work to make things better if you’re able.

And thank you for reading.

Nathan

Challenged

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What’s the biggest challenge you overcame during your PhD?

What was a significant challenge that you faced while writing up?

What surprised you about the challenges you found while doing your research?

What do you anticipate being a challenge as you get ready for your viva?

And do you have any thoughts on what might be a challenge at your viva?

 

Examiners might not ask questions directly about PhD challenges but reflecting on them can be a helpful reminder that you have overcome a lot.

Consequently, you are capable of overcoming the challenge you will find at your viva.

 

PS: looking to explore the challenge of the viva in more depth? Take a look at my Viva Survivor session on March 27th 2025. Registration closes soon for this live webinar – and includes a catch-up recording if you can’t attend on the day.

Nathan

Just Yesterday

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My life has moved on a lot since my PhD – but there are aspects of the first week of being a PGR that I remember as clearly with a pin sharp image and in 3D Surround Sound audio.

I remember what it felt like to walk in to my office for the first time. How it felt to get going again after a year’s gap from my Masters. Looking at half-remembered notes of a topic and rebuilding those ideas. The early conversations and confusion, “So what do I do?”

 

I can remember all of that well. With years of hindsight I see the difference between Nathan-in-October-2004 and Nathan-in-June-2008. The latter knew a lot more than the former! He had done a lot, but he didn’t think about it that way. He had results but he didn’t value them as much as he could have.

Both of those Nathans were quite different, except that both still continued to not feel confident.

 

At times the first day of my PhD and the first minutes of my viva seem like they were just yesterday. And sometimes they feel like a million years ago or that they happened to someone else.

I would encourage you to look back a little as you come to the end of your PhD journey. Hopefully you’ll look kindly on the former-you; at the very least realise that you have come a long way, growing in knowledge, understanding and skill.

And hopefully you’ll realise that that growth and achievement is a good foundation for feeling confident at your viva.

Nathan

Airbrush

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There’s a lot you might need to focus on from your PhD journey as you prepare for your viva: your contribution, the work you put in, time invested in building your skills and knowledge.

As you take time to prepare consider that it could be time to let some other things go.

Let go of disappointments. Don’t dwell on your failures, except what you learned from them. Airbrush out things that drag on your confidence. Leave behind past frustrations that aren’t helping you get ready.

What do you need to forget from your PhD journey? What can you leave out of the story you tell yourself of how you got this far?

You don’t have to focus on your whole PhD journey to find confidence and feel capable for your viva.

Nathan

Keep Going In Difficult Circumstances

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How did you do it?

An assumption: however enjoyable, rewarding, satisfying and interesting a PhD journey can be, there are always difficult circumstances that are part of the process.

So given that assumption, how did you do it? How did you manage to keep going in those difficult circumstances?

Or, to simplify, how did you survive?

 

I’m not suggesting that any difficult circumstances are fair, right, justified or should be shrugged away. Difficult covers a wide range of things and some situations can’t be excused.

Whatever they were, you made it this far.

You managed to keep going. Part of that is knowledge, capability and work. You applied yourself. Effort lead to results in one form or other.

Part of it is simply determination: if you made it through it’s because you kept going.

Whatever the situations and however you did it you have found yourself on a path to success. You submitted your thesis. You’re doing the work to get ready for a successful viva.

 

It’s easy sometimes to think of these things like knowledge, capability, work and determination as somehow separate.

We can put them at arm’s length, other things, when in fact it’s you.

How did you survive? How did you manage to keep going in difficult circumstances?

Every answer may be unique but at the core there is always a simple truth.

You did it – and that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Nathan

Goodbyes

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Goodbye to your office and officemates perhaps, to a community of fellow travellers on the road to academic success.

 

Goodbye to the piles of paper and folders of files. Whatever your future plans you might be letting go of a lot of stuff.

 

Goodbye to your institution? Maybe. Goodbye to where you live now? Perhaps. There can be a lot of logistics and a lot of feelings that go with moving on from the PhD.

 

Goodbye to the You-That-Was-A-PhD-Candidate. Hello to the You-That-Is-A-PhD-Graduate.

Hello to You-Who-Survived – you managed to keep going in difficult circumstances.

 

At some point after your viva you’ll have to say some goodbyes. And at some point you have to figure out what all of that means for you. Take your time.

Say your goodbyes. Be ready for the feelings. Be ready to say a few hellos too.

Nathan

Imperfect Metrics

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Viva success is not based on how many days you showed up to do your work.

Success isn’t determined by the number of chapters you have written, the number of papers you cited, how many conference talks you’ve delivered or whether you have several publications out there.

All these numbers can give a boost to your confidence though. The numbers mean you did something, repeatedly, and over a long period of time.

You need to look a little deeper for proof of your knowledge and capability as a PhD candidate, but a good starting point might be the imperfect metrics of a few numbers that show you did the work.

They count for something.

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