PhD anecdotes and advice

I have nothing to add except a story about my friend Phil. We worked together in  a cancer research lab , late 80s, early 90s, he was about 10 years older than me, proper Landahner, drank huge amounts in the evening and was knowledgeable about old motorbikes and any aspect of drug-taking. The unit we worked in tended to put staff through a PhD, and Phil was coming to the end of his as I joined, so I helped collate stats, etc. The thing was that he had no other qualifications at all, not even a CSE. He'd blagged his way onto the PhD. Nevertheless, he completed it and became Dr Phil...

Well done on getting the funding, it's really competitive.

I was funded 1990-93 by ESRC for a PhD, in human geography 🙂

My advice? Write, write, write, get the words down, right from the start.

It can be a lonely business doing a PhD, make sure you get out on yer bike.

Get networking, conferences, seminars, etc, and be noticed, hopefully your supervisor(s) will help with this.

Good luck!

it’s in Human Geography, looking at rural sustainability. Really exciting

We'll agree to differ. In my experience, Human Geography was the dull stuff about housing estates that you had to just get through so you could also do the interesting stuff like rivers, glaciers and volcanos. That was A-Level mind 🙂

"That was A-Level mind"

Exactly, human geography gets more interesting at degree level, I find most Geography students by the time they get to the end of their first year prefer human geography to physical...!

It's even better at postgrad level 😉

Depending on the OP’s free time, it’d make financially more sense to buy a property that needed some work as a distressed sale (i.e. auction) so you’re getting it at the bottom of the market. Then renovate it and sell in a couple of years.

I can't comment on what it will be like in Humanities, but Dr Poly went to a workshop run by the University about a month after we started and was struck by the number of people who were there for spurious reasons like "I wanted to be called Dr", "I hadn't found a job", "my dissertation supervisor asked me and I didn't want to say no" and "I didn't really feel I knew enough science to actually work in a lab".   I'd gone away and worked and then came back so this "drifting into it" thing was weird for me.

Everyone there started believing their research was about to be ground-breaking.
By the end of the first year "everyone" realised that they knew even less than they thought.  Those who were hating it usually dropped out there - often with an MPhil, some didnt write that up and just found jobs.
At the end of the second year "everyone" realised that they didn't really have any good results to write up.
Third year was a mad panic of trying to get the data and write up and find a job.  Four years of funding sounds like luxury.
By the end, most people seemed to realise that three years of work had contributed only a tiny grain of salt of knowledge on top of the existing mountain and it would likely go mostly unread which was kind of disheartening.

Weirdly I now sometimes interview/recruit/hire PhD's in other disciplines and some still seem to believe when they finish that they are a the pinnacle of knoweldge and everyone else should worship them.  When you get to that point, remember you know loads about **** all.  What you have (hopefully) learned by then is how to work stuff out.

Supervisors made or broke people.  Select with extreme care.  Try to suss out of there's any risk they might change institution half way through your work - I saw a few people totally shafted by that (but it can be a good thing too).

My top tip would be: get published as early (and often) as possible.  Even a small low rent "communication" or "letter" paper provides some independent badge of recognition.  Most supervisors are quite keen on publication (for their own reasons) so should support this - but many tend to wait till the "conclusion".  Help other people too - not sure how that applies in humanities, but in science doing experiments on someone else's samples or preparing/supervising stuff for masters students doing dissertations also meant you could end up named on their papers.  My viva went unusually smoothly - and while I'd love to bask in the pretense it was my expertise and wisdom, I'm pretty sure it was the fact there were 5 papers at the back of the thesis.

Finally from about the end of year 1 your probably want to be thinking about what you do after the PhD.  You can shape the sort of work you do, the way your present it, who you network with etc so that you can head towards particular directions or avoid others.

Learn to dance, it'll come in handy when you submit your thesis:

Lota if good advice here.

From my experience I'd agree that choosing your supervisor (note the direction of choice) is key. Better to walk away from 4 years wedded to the career/whims of a narcissist than struggling through the alternative, it's something I saw happen. Having said that I had an excellent supervisor and count myself lucky as whole it was a brutally hard 3 years I was guided through.

I'd also say it's worth investing time in working out how to do a PhD in your field... Network hard with post docs and other post grads and keep notes on what the good ones 'do'. It's easy to spend time working but not working.

Good luck! Doing mine changed the trajectory of my life.

I did a physical geography PhD. I'm not in the field now and what I look back on most fondly is all the opportunities to travel. Grab everything with both hands; if you don't stay in academia, chances are you'll never get to travel so much on the company dime again.

If your fieldwork is going to be in the UK, bad luck 😉 . I did my research on the beach in South Africa...

Ha it's very much a UK based project! Some interesting comments; Human Geography is by far the most interesting to me (I know very little about physical geography, didn't even do it at GCSE, which I took 22 years ago!)

Already working on networking and am co-authoring a paper with 2 academics in my department alongside my MSc.

I've got a meeting in a few weeks to discuss supervision.  First choice is retiring this year, but I have good relationships with a few potential others.

Already kind of got one eye on the future I suppose, although unsure what exactly I want to do. I was a musician for 19 years, so this is somewhat a departure from that 😳

I had the possibility of turning my research work at Welsh Water into a PhD. Then I decided to give up that science lark and head for France. Good choice.

I lived through doing a PhD by proxi as Madame Edukator wrote up hers. Even though French resistance history doesn't have many applications in the real world those three letters do mean she gets paid a bit more each month. And every time she wrote a cheque (nobody writes cheques now) she had to say not a medical doctor.

Do it.

(what do I know and I just googled Human Geography and I like it ... I like to observe people. LOL!)

You might struggle for 10 years (including 4 yrs of your programme) but after that all will be fine like everyone.

Watch out for the 18month blues. As above it's when you suddenly realize you know nothing and have done not enough and the research is not what you thought.
My mate left at nearly write up time when he found that one of his fundamental equations wasn't right and so everything he'd based his work on was flawed.
My supervisor left the summer I started the final write up stage and I got a new young who was a total bitch but thanks to her I wrote up in 6months and my viva lasted an hour with less than a side of A4 for corrections.

Only done PhD by proxy as my wife (the brains of the family) did hers after residency and Diploma exams. She has then gone on to be supervisor and co supervisor for others often picking up when someone has left the organisation. Hopefully she isn't a total bitch like onehundredidiots new one though she does encourage them when needed!

Again science based but definitely important to get a supervisor you can work with and who knows what they are doing as well. Papers make the academic world go round so the more publications from your research the better and helps you organise your thoughts and correct course early if needed. Often is a period in the middle where motivation wanes and direction from supervisor can help that as long as you actually talk to them!

She loved her time and still does a mixture of research and other roles now! I liked the time I spent in Fiji as she finished it in the hotel conference facilities and I swam to the pool bar before we spent a month traveling NZ. I also liked then fact she got a proper well paying job after though too!

I've a PhD in Human Human Geography from 2012.

My advice is:

Take every opportunity for study abroad arrangements you can.

If you want an academic career get as much published as early as possible

Don't expect a human geography PhD to open doors  outside of academia - from personal experience. Make sure you have good work experience if you plan to leave

I really enjoyed tutoring - worth doing that

I enjoyed the social side - too much it has to be said, but it was a great carry on

On occasion it'll be the shittest thing you ever thought to undertake but you'll get through.

A PhD is a study in stubborness!

It's all worth it the first time someone calls you Dr though (apart from medical Doctors as they appear to flat out refuse to acknowledge the title of professional Doctors!).

I did one back in the 90s, in four years whilst working full time, in a mainly research role but had to do all analysis and writing in my own time. (Whilst doing up a house and juggling toddlers. Crazy in retrospect. Get me.)

Anyway my advice: I'd been a rubbish undergraduate a few years before and an uninspired masters student, but I think I came good with a PhD partly because I was into the topic (had  some decent publications written up in my own time. Ah the days before quick internet). But mainly because I approached it as a work project.

I was a rubbish undergrad as I'd got the idea education was meant to be "good for you" in some way and I wasn't that bothered. But my PhD, after working a few years, I treated just as a job I was doing for other people and so I just got on with it. (OP may not have been a rubbish undergrad of course...)

Last thing - I remember at my midway viva after going into loads of detail on the various constituent projects being asked very gently what it was that I was actually trying to find out. And I realised I did not at that point have a one sentence answer. It's good if you can get to one.

I don't refer to it or any other quals at work any more as I don't think it has that much relevance to what I can actually achieve, but I'm definitely glad I did it.

I was doing a PhD at Leeds Uni from 2011-2015. I won't say which department / subject. I had big problems with my supervisor / supervision + mental health issues because of the stress and isolation of the whole process. I started with a passion for my area and what I was researching but burned and crashed around 80% completion (write-up phase). I had to walk away for my own sanity.

I occasionally think about going back to finish it (but with a different uni + supervisor - my ex-supervisor was sacked by the uni not long after I left) but the academic job market in my subject is abysmal and to be honest, I've lost all passion for it.

Advice? Carefully research institutions, departments and supervisors beforehand. Ask yourself what the potential financial and career gains / pitfalls before commencing.

If you can't imagine a career other than in research/academia, congrats and crack on.

If you can, do that instead.

If you aren't completely driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a love of your subject, don't waste three years on tedious lonely pointless work that no-one will ever care about, including yourself.

I did mine back in the 90's in genetics/molecular biology. I did it partially to stay a student and because I really enjoyed the field and aimed for a career in research. This was in canberra, australia, not the most exciting city but 1 1/2 hours from the coast, 1 1/2 hours from the ski fields, good cycling etc. Had a 'difficult' supervisor but a great bunch of collegues. Make sure you pick a supervisor who has people skills and a good reputation.

it got me overseas for two reasearch contracts (holland and london) which was what I'd really wanted, along with travel to various conferences in cool places. I wasn't hugely successful in publications and didn't want to be writing grants or an office job (and had two young kids after meeting the next-door neighbour, we now live in sunny australia) so retrained as a teacher at that point. I definately don't regret doing my Ph. D. It taught me a lot, got me overseas and I get to go by Doc in the classroom (although I do have to explain I'm not medical and they need to go to first aid).

I'd say go for it, its a great experience especially if you have a grant that will cover your living expenses.

I did a Geography Bachelors and started out most interested in physical geography, by the third year had discovered historical/cultural geography, so decided to do an MA. That was very interesting, but ultimately frivolous (my thesis was on CAMRA). Supervisor wanted me to publish and progress into a PhD but I could either start straight away and knock it off in three years or take a year off during which the system was apparently changing and I'd have to an additional year. I was in my early 20s and I looked around me at my peers and mentors and realised most were on antidepressants (including the girlfriend of the time) and weren't ultimately contributing much to the world. Plus, the job prospects were limited to academia...not really my cup of tea. So I buggered off and never looked back.

Some very good advice here. To do a successful PhD student  you should to be hugely interested in your subject - it’s going to be your life for the next for years. Also choose your PhD supervisor(s) very very carefully. The personal relationship between the student and supervisor can really make or break a studentship.

Can you talk to former PhD students? See how it went for them? What’s the supervisors pass rate for students (should be near 100% these days)? How many students are they supervising at one time? Are they normal (as much as any academic can be 😄)? Will they be hands on / hands off? What’s their publication record like. Great researcher’s won’t necessarily make good supervisors?  I say all these things as a PhD supervisor.

And to those folk who “I want to be called Dr”. Forget it. Otherwise you spend your life telling people “no not a medic”. I never use Dr anywhere except where required in the career.

lastly will it be worth it for your career?

My PhD was done part time whilst working and having two kids from 2012-2018.  It sounds like a lot, but most PhD students end up with similar (though not as extreme) circumstances of jobs, relationships and studies.  I’ve now sponsored over 20 PhDs across a raft of topics, universities and countries and these are the most important, general things to consider.

Time management and planning is really important.  Many people will tell you to treat it like a job, but it’s important to understand that research isn’t like that, it can’t be forced.  Sometimes you’ll need to just walk away and do something else.  This is where planning and time management becomes important. Plan the critical path of your research, but also the thing you could/should do to support your thesis.  Conferences, publications, etc and try to work on these in parallel, using the time when the research won’t come to advance them.

Communication is key - build a rapport with your internal supervisor and his current and previous PhD students.  Find out how he/she works and use that to assist in building a relationship.  It’ll help later.

Knowledge management:  Plan you literature review early, taking note of assumptions, etc.  get a resource manager (like Endnote) and organise your literature, keep notes (in Endnote) on what you liked, disliked or why you disregarded it - you might not visit it again for months or years.

Setup saved searches in key journals so that they feed your chosen literature needs.

Identify key conferences to both go to and present (never just go, always aim to present, it helps your networking) and even if not going, how to access their literature afterwards - lots of good industrial research never makes it to journals, only conferences.

Finally, keep a one-note (obsidian, whatever) journal of your decisions, assumptions, etc and like them to your literature.  If you’ve discarded something because of X, and something on X is then published, you can quickly revisit and see if the assumptions are still valid.

Try not to get too stressed at any point, rarely is a problem in a PhD a terminal one for the candidate and your supervisors should spot problems early if there’s good communication.

Well done Tom. Getting a funded place is very hard.

I’m short on time as I’m away at a meeting in Morocco (see notes above re travel) but fully agree with everything Daffy has written. PhD in Physical Geography 2006-2010 and now an established academic and supervisor, plus I mentor early career researchers who have sadly often have negative experiences with supervisors (I try incredibly hard not to be that supervisor). DM me if you want and I’ll send you my work email if you want to ask any specific Qs which I’ll have more time to reply to next week.

One more thing to add from my side - EXPLORE!  During the first two years, try to involve as much of what you might also be interested in (academically) into your PhD.  Machine learning, neural networks, image recognition, ontologies, etc. These things are hugely transversal and in high demand, especially if they're applied.  BUT, after 18 months (of a 4-4.5y PhD) really focus on what's absolutely necessary, what is (likely to be) useful and what's a nice-to-have.  The latter can be future work, or spun out MSc or BSc projects which help your thesis and give you some management experience.  It can even be undertaken IF you feel you have time.

My industrial PhD supervisor was largely absent and used the PhD to fund his own research. Building a robust storyline was so difficult. I wrote the thesis and burnt out. I took a year to get better and couldn't return to submit it. He even threatened to sue me, which did no good for my mental health.

My university supervisors were fantastic. Looking back, I should have moved from the industrial site back to the university site. If I did that, I don't think I would have burnt out.

Pick the supervisor very carefully. And do not be afraid to change the supervisor.

Write, write, write, get the words down, right from the start.

Very much this.  BITD universities were funded on how many students were registered for degrees by research, it didn't matter whether they finished them or not. Subsequently, only one in four of those registered actually ended up getting their MPhil or PhD. Easy to get carried away with doing with research and then giving up when it comes to writing it all up, so write up as you go.

In general, universities are now a lot better as regards supervision and keeping an eye on how much is getting written up.  Beware of plagarism, AI etc, unis are clamping down on it more and more.

Keep the literature review up to date, some students do the lit review at the start and then don't update it for the following 3 or 4 years.

My supervisor went on sabbatical for the first year of my PhD. Nice guy and it wasn't entirely his fault (I only got awarded my grant late in the day when someone else changed their mind) but it sure made things a bit challenging. I also spent a couple of weeks on a friend's floor finding somewhere to live (fortunately they had 4 year u/g course and I was staying at the same university, which I wouldn't specifically recommend but it worked out for me at the time).

There was a stand-in supervisor and I'm sure he was fine in principle, but his specialities were different enough we never really clicked at all. This was back in the day when the research studentship was not linked to a defined project at all, so I had to work out what to do by myself. A bit of a sink or swim situation, I just about managed to keep afloat but those 3 years were certainly not a highlight of my career, just a stepping stone to getting into research really.

Pick the supervisor very carefully.

Supervisor NOT subject will determine success. Look at their past track record, publication history and number of completed PhDs. Mine was a different field completely, but my supervisor was wonderful and I wonder whether I'd have finished without him. Don't be put off by a new supervisor, provided they are accesible - could be an enthusiastic collaboration, but old hands know the processes and timings better. PhD's are exercises in learning effective research methods. So don't get hung on the subject you are going to study. Year 1 is learning the field, 2-3 getting results, 4 publish and write up. Son1 is in his second year of his four-year PhD in volcanology, so I didn't manage to put him off!

Wow some amazing responses here, thank you to everyone for taking the time to respond.  I'll follow up on various offers of private advice in due course.

A bit more detail:  My PhD is part of a wider project that the university is launching.  October 24 will be the first intake of PhD's, there will be 21 of us eventually.  7 per year over the next 3 years. I'm currently doing an MSc at the same uni. Though the project is massively interdisciplinary, it is based in my 'school'.

There were advertised questions, but I didn't quite fancy the one that would've been most suitable for me, so the project director wrote a question for me.  The ideal first supervisor, who I have a great relationship with is unfortunately retiring.  He's said that he'll be available on a casual basis to offer advice, but couldn't commit to supervise.  The director of the whole project is the likely first supervisor now, she's a human (or social) geographer, and very well respected in her field. (Well into double digits of PhD supervisions too). I get on well with her, she is the head of my school as well as this project, and I've only really heard good things about her. My MSc supervisor messaged to ask if I'd like her as one of my supervisors.....again I get on great with her so really positive.  All of these people are Professors (not sure if that is a good, bad or irrelevant point), I'm hopefully going to be doing some ecological surveying as part of my project (has to be interdisciplinary after all) so will likely work with my current academic mentor for that, as that is his specialism.

Really interesting to note how important people are saying that supervisor choice is.  There is a choice to be made, and potentially a teeny bit of departmental politics to navigate in doing so.  I feel quite lucky though as I genuinely get on so well and have an enormous amount of respect for so many of the academics involved in the project.

In terms of post PhD career, I'm starting to think about it. Academia as a career doesn't seem overly appealing, although I'm not totally ruling it out. I'm not financially motivated, mortgage and kid free aged 37, but I do need a retirement plan! I suppose that my biggest worry is that I'll run out of ability before I do determination and drive.

One bit of advice that served my wife well in a slightly more practical field than me: choose a supervisor/project where the data already exists, rather than one where they plan to collect some! This was astronomy where telescopes need booked years ahead and can fail for a number of reasons...you might twiddle your thumbs for a while waiting for something to analyse. She did get to go and use a big telescope, but had work to do before then.

The dept was mostly nasty predators who had affairs with their students when they weren't bullying them. Her supervisor was no worse than most, but no better. She couldn't wait to get out of the field and hasn't kept in touch with him.

If you aren’t completely driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a love of your subject, don’t waste three years on tedious lonely pointless work that no-one will ever care about, including yourself.

These words could have been spoken by my wife; a prof at Manchester who supervises PhD students. Also echo the comments about jobs in Academia. You are not going to get a job in Academia - If you're supervisor hasn't told you that already.  Also, go to the US and get a proper PhD? (jest)

HoD / Profs can make good supervisors but you are probably going to see less of them than someone lower in the food chain. Especially if they are constantly out at conferences / meetings etc..Or do they run their PhD students supervision via Post/docs - if so do you get on them. You sound pretty grounded and probably need less day to day supervision which might suit a Prof/HoD well

It sounds as if you're joining a 'Doctoral Training Partnership' or similar. I have been around academia for a long time and supervised quite a few students (2 non-completions in the last 20 years) and DTPs and similar are among the best things I have done. They address many of the weaknesses of the traditional PhD approach. There is lots of good advice in this thread already but drop me a DM if you want to establish direct contact.

Yeah it's a DTP, which was part of what appealed to me.

I did have a chat about another funded project at a different uni, but decided that it wasn't right for me.

Bit of a random question, but do I need to make voluntary national insurance contributions to keep my state pension now? Stipend is tax free, but I assume doesn't pay NI on my behalf? (I've been self employed all my life, so used to just paying them as part of self assessment).

In terms of post PhD career,

Be careful here. I don't know about other field but in engineering I fell into the too qualified for grad programmes but no experience for direct entry trap.

Until something came up that required specialist knowledge in my field in the public sector I was getting really worried about actually finding a job.

Start putting feelers out with companies at conferences and seminars in the second or third year so you have contacts to rely on when you finish especially if you want to get a job outside of academia.

Be careful here. I don’t know about other field but in engineering I fell into the too qualified for grad programmes but no experience for direct entry trap.

Until something came up that required specialist knowledge in my field in the public sector I was getting really worried about actually finding a job.

there is definitely an issue in Science too - the recruiters assumption is you are looking for a stop gap and will quickly be bored - you need to craft your covering letter/cv in a way that makes your PhD skills relevant to the job rather than telling the recruiter how smart you are!

You are not going to get a job in Academia – If you’re supervisor hasn’t told you that already.

that’s a bold assumption.  Child and mortgage free he might just have the flexibility and lack of need for career certainty to put up with the way the academic world works.  With his age and life experience he might be better at writing grant applications than new post docs and if you can get funding he’ll be in demand… …only if that’s what he really wants and I think I was about 2/3rd of the way through before I really understood what academia entailed.

@Tom-B One of the things I like about DTPs, CDTs.... is that they are much more structured than the normal PhD experience. While they are all different, in our CDT we teach relevant technical material, much of it delivered by industry; we put on events- workshops, student conferences and the like which open up networking opportunities for students (we even have a 'careers fair' in our annual student conference); the students work together and develop into a mutually supporting group and there is a group of academics, from which we draw supervisory teams of two or three, which reduces dependency on an individual supervisor. All in all, it is very different from the rather isolated experience I went through many years ago, and which a fair number of people on this thread describe.

We have run a CDT for the last 15 years, graduated over 200 students from the programme, and my two finishing PhDs this year have both got jobs lined up already (one in Government, one in industry), 6 months before they finish.

I do rather agree with the comments about academia- it is very much a vocation and you'll know if you have it. In our field, finishing PhDs are fortunate in that there is high demand and for most the PhD ends up being a combination of conversion course and Level 9 apprenticeship.

As a PhD supervisor I used to tell students that in their first year they wouldn’t know what their supervisor was talking about, in their second year they’d work out what he was talking about, and in their third year they’d realise that their supervisor didn’t know what he was talking about. Trite, maybe, but I think there’s some truth in it.
When I did my PhD it was as more or less the only time I’ve ever been able to use my full creativity without regard for money etc, so it’s a great opportunity to see what you can do.