Thriving: A survival guide to your PhD
From daydreaming to effective choices
In collaboration with Marco Dalla Vecchia as the image creator
Doing a PhD, that’s really something to evaluate carefully before getting into it, especially for those of us who live with the idea or expectation that pursuing a doctoral degree is like becoming a small Einstein. While that might be very well the case, it’s inevitably an idealistic view of it. Those who enter it without idealistic expectations and focus on the real progress that they make might find more stability and peace. But those of us who engage sentimentally with scientific research may hit the ground strongly if the choice is not well thought out.
I did my PhD after I had some industry experience in my home country and abroad. I particularly appreciated not being fresh from school when I started the program. Sometimes I still wonder how many students manage to keep their sense of management for such a complex thing as a doctorate diploma without some professional experience up front. I also appreciated that to some extent, I was quite realistic and promised myself that I would not continue if I faced a moment in which I wouldn’t enjoy it anymore. After all, doing a PhD was always more a personal goal than a professional milestone for me.
I said it many times before and I stand on this ground: Academic research is yet another type of industry in our economy. What does that mean? It means that project management is a core skill, we produce knowledge and this knowledge is expected to be “sold” in the form of patents or publications. Even if some programs around the world are not exactly like this, we embark on a training journey to do so if becoming an academic researcher is what we pursue. Therefore, in the search for citations, obtaining funding, and achieving higher levels of recognition, the competence pressure may hit us from the start. Lucky those who don’t experience it that way.
The fact that academic research behaves like industry is not really a problem per se. Competition always brings growth, and as humans, we like that and we strive for it. The problem is our ignorance on the matter. We enter this challenge without evaluating several core aspects that may play very well or very badly for us along the way.
Yeah, there are several aspects to consider when we are choosing where to do a PhD beyond the excitement about the topic. One or two might be already quite obvious for many of us, but it is worth diving into the list. So, let’s get to it.
1. University and faculty
The choice of the university and the faculty where to pursue the program always comes as first thought. I personally don’t consider this choice to be more relevant than the other core aspects, but because it’s always our first consideration, it’s worth talking about it from the start.
Sure, the prestige of the university and faculty will forever support the diploma we can get out of our PhD program. Therefore, no need to motivate why this choice is a crucial one when deciding where to go for the doctoral research years. With hope, we can pursue our research in an institution that has a good record of research outcomes and has the means to prove that it will be a motivating and encouraging environment for a researcher in preparation. If famous researchers have graduated from there and a good publication record is a cover page, it makes sense to be inspired by it.
However, there’s more about the university and the faculty. It’s also relevant to check the diversity in the institutions, the values that guide their education, and what concept of doctoral degree they comply with. As I mentioned above, not all PhD programs are similar across universities and countries, some are more traditional than others. For example, some institutions put a lot of emphasis on the classical thesis development while others are more focused on gathering individual projects to make up one final thesis document. In all of that, considering not only the prestige but also the organization and structure of doctoral programs at the university level becomes part of evaluating the university and faculty.
2. Supervisors and research group culture
Now we come to the second aspect on the list, which, in my opinion, is at least as relevant as the prestige and organization of the university and faculty. A PhD program can be a very lonely (or individual) path, and 4+ years of individual research is a pretty big commitment with a PhD supervisor. We always have the right to evaluate the places we consider for our applications, like other industry jobs. This is not different for a PhD program. We need to carefully consider different aspects that may hint we are a good match with our potential supervisors. For example, availability for meetings, expertise in our target research topic, or their management style when results are not promising. Once we gather this information, the most important aspect is not to hesitate to step back if we feel there’s no good match despite their publication record and fame in the scientific community. Not everyone is made for everyone.
Along with the supervisors, there’s their own little institution: the research group they have built over their scientific career. Even there, as invisible as it may look, a set of cultural traits continuously guide and shape the research group. There are explicit or implicit rules on how they communicate, how they manage their research and relationships within the group, the long-term objectives they have for their current researchers, and most importantly, how they manage conflicts.
But that’s not the only cultural set of traits. There’s also the culture of research productivity. That means, there are expectations on how much should be produced (publications, conferences, patents, training, etc.) and these might differ from those officially required by the university or faculty. These internal cultural aspects for productivity can easily generate peer pressure and unhealthy competition within the group, and that’s not really what scientific research should be like if we want to keep our peace of mind.
3. Opportunity for networking
Now, we arrive at the aspect that most people forget or simply don’t know of when considering signing up for a doctoral program: Opportunities for networking. Besides the scientific knowledge that comes as a product of a few years of research, the second most important product we need from our PhD programs is the network we build during those years. Doing a literature review and spending time in the lab is exciting for most people. But going out and building professional connections with other researchers from our field of interest is a crucial mark we cannot miss.
Whether we intend to continue our career in the same lab or somewhere else, building a career is also about building connections. We need to think about our future steps, and the right directions may well depend on those other fellows that we connect with. Many traditional supervisors don’t take care of connecting with other researchers. For successful networking, it is enough to only see the value of building connections and motivating or supporting PhD students toward seeking their own network.
Let’s not forget, networking does not mean spending all the time talking to other researchers and forcing our energy toward socializing within the professional community. It simply means staying in contact with the community and being open to discussing the progress and evolution of the field. In that way, we also maximize our chances to fine-tune our interests and objectives for our professional careers.
4. Funding availability
And then finally we touch upon the topic that most interviews generate anxiety about, either for supervisors or PhD candidates: Funding. All PhD paths are unique, even in their funding availability. Some people do a PhD with a fully funded project ensured for the whole duration of the program. Others are on the other side of the financial spectrum and embark on this journey with a lot of uncertainty about the money they will have in the coming 1, 2, and more years. Maybe not everyone needs to have certainty regarding the financial aspect of their research, but the one thing that no one can miss is to have clarity on the expected uncertainty.
It’s undeniably crucial to evaluate the secured funding for our research and make an estimation of the costs that are not ensured from the start. If we want to jump into the PhD journey with a low or high level of financial uncertainty, that’s our personal choice. But many students sign up for this without knowing that the money might not be available later on or not aware of the consequences of lack of funding.
One truth about this is that the explosion of anxiety of being in the middle of the ocean without any supplies is not the best feeling. This greatly compromises the chances for a successful culmination, impairing the career of the researcher as well as the productivity of the tasks that are related to those unfinished projects. But most importantly, it also engages our general well-being and mental health.
5. Where is the real secret to success?
We have evaluated all of these aspects and we embark on our PhD journeys with a bag full of these supplies. However, that’s not the secret of a successful culmination of the program in terms of management. The secret and real value of these core management aspects is tracking them year by year. Our universities and supervisors track our progress in scientific production. We, on the other hand, almost always miss our duty to track the performance of the four core aspects. We may find ourselves fully packed at the beginning of the PhD. By year 3, we’re exhausted and lacking all the motivation to continue. More often than we think, the reason behind it lies in some of those core aspects. Nothing stays stable, so it’s crucial for us to keep an eye on the evolution or change of our relationships and funding. If something drastically drops, it’s probably not really smart to ignore it and continue.
What to do when some of these aspects underperform? That’s the question we need to ask supervisors when we are evaluating the options and yet the question nobody asks.
So, as I could discuss in this fragment of opinion and thought, doing a PhD requires a high level of management, planning, and evaluation of conditions. Doing a PhD is no longer only a matter of passion for science. I wonder whether it was probably more true 100 years ago when scientific research was not as dense as it is today and the research community was not as diverse. But certainly today, as of 2023, the world of scientific research has grown to be a big institution. Contrary to private companies, it connects the entire world. Technically speaking, the advances of research in a specific field are in all ways connected regardless of whether the scientist is located in the west, east, north, or south. Of course, we miss a lot of the contributions in far-away places with respect to our own location, but in theory, we are all connected and working toward similar directions.
Let’s not miss the chance to evaluate carefully our prospects for a PhD journey. We can jump into it with the illusion of changing the world, but we can better jump into it with a solid evaluation. That might actually increase your chances of really changing the world!
Happy PhD to everyone!
