PhD Journey: Week 1

Week one…done. Well, I’m actually already into Week 2, but I’ve just read an article on creating and curating my academic profile (spoiler alert) so let’s start by looking back.

In at the deep end — just dive in

My first day on campus with my supervisor coincided with him hosting colleagues from across the UK and Europe who are part of the Entrepreneurial University Network (EntreUnity) https://eit-hei.eu/projects/entreunity/

The success of this project has been at least partly the reason that my PhD Studentship was created, so it was a good opportunity to see the research activity already taking place, but I was almost immediately out of my depth. It’s easy to forget the level of detail and knowledge that academics have in their specialist area — even though it’s an area that I know a lot about, these guys are completely immersed in thinking about it. That raises some questions about the applicability of knowledge (how can we get these guys working with the sorts of businesses I know are crying out for that knowledge) but not for today.

By lunchtime I stopped trying to decode every acronym and just started to get a feel for the sort of work they were doing, and figuring out how I could get involved or contribute.

Admin, Introductions and Campus Tours

Day two revolved more around practical stuff — IT, emails (surprise surprise, Outlook and Teams are a bloody nightmare), tour of the Paisley campus (not as big as it seemed when I was trying to find where the tour started from, I needed a tour to get to the tour), and a welcome talk from the Vice-Principal of Research, Innovation & Engagement. This was the moment I started to feel more like a student / academic and less like a consultant on holiday — excited and a bit nervous, but inspired to give it a go and make the most of the opportunity. To be honest I hadn’t really understood what a privilege it is to win a VC Studentship, and it’s made me pretty determined to hit the ground running.

Starting to think like a researcher

The rest of the week involved meeting my second supervisor, who’s more academically focussed and immediately started me on the path towards a structured thesis, and getting started on some reading He gave me two hours of his time, which considering he has a newborn at home and plenty of other things on his plate is incredibly generous, and by the end of it I had a much clearer idea of the work in front of me, a revised and more sensible working title, and a load of keywords to get stuck into. I felt a little bit like if we carried on sitting there long enough I’d have a pretty decent 80,000 words written, which was reassuring.

Then it’s reading, reading, reading, with a break to chat about possibly picking up some teaching hours on a social enterprise course, which sounds great. I’ll read the course materials over the weekend, and check I’m confident delivering it.

Ready to get started

So, thoughts on week one. A huge amount to take in, lots of practical stuff to navigate, and we’re still working round boxes after the house move. Overall though, it’s a welcome change of pace from the past 15 years, and I’m going to make sure that I appreciate the journey and make the most of all the opportunities that come up. A few people have said “it’s a marathon not a sprint”, but I think I’ll make as fast a start as possible anyway.

Key week one tips

• Go to as many things as possible, talk to people, keep your eyes and ears open.
• Get signed up to email lists, Teams (yuck), whatsapp groups, and anything else that might flag opportunities.
• Stay patient with the practical stuff. This isn’t my forte and I’m proud I stayed calm, and clunky as it is I’m getting access to things now.
• Meet your supervisor early. I’m lucky that both of my supervisors have been really engaged and wanted to get time in the diary with me. I’m not sure that’s always the case though, so if not then force it yourself.
• Smile — this week made even me grin, so no-one else has any excuse.