PhD Journey: Week 2
It’s been a slightly less hectic second week, and I think I’m starting to see why people say that PhD candidates can have a lot of time on their hands. I’ve been getting involved in as many virtual meetings as I’ve been invited to, including some research-focussed groups, but haven’t been to campus so I feel a bit ‘out-of-it!’
These are my thoughts on week two.
Set up my academic profile
Coming from a professional background, all my online activity is based around work — I try to use social media as little as possible in my personal life, which is a rant for another time. I need to reshape this into something a bit more academic, which has been harder than I expected — the obvious steps (registering with Google Scholar, Researchgate and so on) are easy enough, but know what to do in more detail is evading me. More thought needed, and I haven’t come across any particular good guides to doing.
Set myself some objectives
It also occurred to me that I should have some objectives to work towards. The end result (passing my viva and getting a doctorate) is a long way off, and I have seen many times in the corporate world that a 3 or 5 year target is more or less forgotten until year 2 or 4 respectively (and then it’s panic stations!) I ask the companies I work with to look 12–18 months ahead and give themselves targets which are very demanding, but achievable.
With that in mind, here’s my breakdown.
Vision: Set the world on fire with my research, teaching and general magnetism.
Mission: Secure a PhD alongside a strong body of published research and good teaching experience
Objectives:
- Teach 3 different courses in 2022/23
- Start data collection by January 2023
- Publish in 3 journals in 2023
- Publish in a 3 or 4 star journal by 2024
