Tag Archives: PhD

Deciding on Post-PhD Priorities

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Completing my PhD has been my goal for a very long time, even before I realised I wanted to do a PhD at all. Now that it is over, I am reflecting on what brought me to this point, and where I would like to go next.

My goal to become a ‘doctor’ probably began around age 16. Exactly what type of doctor I wanted to be changed from month to month (mostly forensic pathologist), and over the years has taken many forms. I never made it to medical school, despite considering applying after my A-Levels, and again towards the end of my degree.

Instead, after my degree in psychology I became interested in a career as a doctor of clinical psychology. The next few years, therefore, were geared towards gaining the necessary experience and going through the application procedure. In an effort to strengthen my application, I decided to do a research Masters degree, and that was that. I fell in love with research and a new ‘doctor’ possibility unfolded before me; a new chance to fulfill my dream.

Which brings me to the present day – the other side of the doctorate. I feel like I am on the other side of a big life goal. It wasn’t as though I set out in life to get a PhD, but getting to this point in life has been the focus for such a long time. It feels as though I am at a major cross roads. This is the time to decide the path I will follow for the next few years and what the next big goal will be.

A few years ago I would have assumed that the next big goal would be a full-time academic post, but that isn’t necessarily an achievable goal. So it is up to me to carve out a new path, but I’m not sure exactly where I want it to lead. Just plodding from one short-term contract to the next doesn’t really seem like a sensible way forward without a definite career goal in mind, but maybe that is exactly what I need to do until the next inspiration or opportunity grabs me. Perhaps the one advantage of short-term contracts is being able to experience many different workplaces; each offering new skills, colleagues, and opportunities. I think it would also be valuable to get more experience of non-academic jobs – even if only to further cement my feeling that I would like an academic career – but it would feel casting the deciding vote against any possibility of progressing in academia. It would feel impossible to make up that lost time in teaching and publishing papers if I wanted to come back. Is there such a funding clause as “I only published one paper that year because I was trying out being a (insert non-academic career here), but now I definitely want to be a professor”?

I hope that time and some research will lead to a way forward from here. Do you have any advice or experiences to share? Have you completed a life-goal and how did you find a new direction afterwards?

Top 10 Post-PhD Resources

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Recently I have been thinking and talking a lot about how difficult it can be to move on from life as a PhD student. I have found some aspects of this transition very difficult, as I have written about previously. It seems that a lot of people who have made their way on to my blog have also experienced a loss of confidence or direction; towards the end of their PhD, during the period after thesis submission, or as they move into (or search for) a new job. Therefore I would like to list a few of the articles and resources that I have recently found helpful; some for very specific advice, and some for more general support. I have picked out an article from each site, but all of these sites offer a wealth of other useful and interesting information.

“Charting a Course for a Successful Research Career” by BiggerBrains

This academic career planning guide covers lots of useful topics, such as ‘selecting a mentor’, ‘applying for fellowships’, and ‘collaboration’. I’ve only read bits and pieces so far, but I’m going to put it on my kindle for bedtime reading.
N.b. I will report back whether this results in positive optimistic dreams of a glowing research career, or nightmares of disappearing job prospects.

“How to write your academic CV (and how not to)” by 3 Month Thesis

This could well be the best CV advice I have read so far (please let me know if you’ve read better). It really helped to put me in the place of the recruiter and think about what they are looking for in a CV. I will definitely be using these tips in my next application.

“The importance of doing your homework” by Prof. Pat Thomson

Assuming you have written an amazing CV (perhaps using the tips above), you may be invited for an interview. I have recently tweeted about this post, and I think it’s worth sharing again, because it’s so valuable to hear about the academic interview process from the person giving the interview. The motto: Know your prospective employer.

“Something Scary” by Prof-like Substance

This is a great, and reassuring post about the pressure of moving on from your PhD or postdoc supervisors’ research interests and coming up with your own big idea. (Thanks to Annelies for leading me to this one.)

“Help! I Have To Write A Grant Application” by The Research Whisperer [apologies for originally mis-naming this link, The Thesis Whisperer is also an excellent resource!]

A major hurdle for anyone wanting to do research is to find the money to fund it, making grant applications a necessary part of most (all?) researchers’ lives at one time or another. The Research Whisperer offers some excellent advice on how to make it successfully through the grant application process.

“Why Academia May Not Be For You” by Online PhD

I haven’t had much chance to delve into this site yet, seeing as I just discovered it today (thanks to InBabyAttachMode), but from what I have seen so far, there are lots of resources here for post-PhD life, whether you are thinking about staying in or leaving academia.

If all of this advice so far is overwhelming, the next two suggestions are intended to offer a little more reassurance for those of us (including myself) who are feeling uncertain at the moment.

“Imposter Syndrome” by Scicurious

If you have ever looked around you and felt like somehow everyone else has got the hang of something that you haven’t, then you need to read this great post by Scicurious discussing ‘Imposter Syndrome’.

“A grey area” from Researcher Life: The early career researcher experience

There are lots of great posts and resources on the Researcher Life blog, but I picked out this post in particular because the time between finishing a PhD and starting a full-time job is somewhat of a grey area (and this is a common feeling, judging from the comments and mentions thread). Decisions need to be made about career direction, whether to relocate (this is a must-read), and a non-academic plan B (yes, I’m finally thinking about admitting this).

The final two posts revolve around my favourite new support network; Twitter. It has been especially difficult moving away from the two strongest support networks that I relied on during my PhD; my family, and my PhD-student-peers. Now that I have moved away, and my family and my PhD network are also spreading out across the globe, I like to keep in touch with them online. For this personal support network, I tend to use Facebook. However, in the absence of a strong support network in my new location (I’m sure it will come with time), I have found comfort in the global support network of Twitter.

“Great Twitter hashtags I am using as an early career academic” by Dr Anna Tarrant

This post offers a great collection of hashtags to help you find support on Twitter during the PhD and post-PhD phases, including #Acwri, a live chat for academic writing discussion, and #PhDchat, a live chat for PhD-related advice and support.

“#ECRchat: A twitter chat for early career researchers“

If you have been following me on twitter then you will probably already know that I have been involved in setting up a new live twitter chat for discussing academic career issues. If (even after reading all of these great resources) you still have questions, you can suggest them as topics for the live chat. You could try asking me, but I probably don’t know the answer, which is why I was so keen to reach out to others at a similar career stage and beyond, to help me figure out where I fit in, and what to do next.

I hope that some of the sites I have suggested will be useful to you. The list is by no means exhaustive, so please add your own suggestions in the comments below. Perhaps you have found some other (offline) ways of coping with this ‘grey area’, in which case, I would love to hear from you too.

 

Do you ever stop feeling like a student?

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Since submitting my thesis in January and starting my first postdoc in February, there has been a long period of adjustment. I think there are many reasons for this, and I am interested in connecting with other researchers to see if they have had (or are having) similar experiences. Some days I think I know what it is to be a postdoc and other days I am transported back to day one of my PhD. I have found limited advice surrounding the transition from student to independent researcher, and some days I wonder if I will ever stop feeling like a student.

Of course, a lot has changed since I was what I would actually call a “student”. I don’t mean that I still feel anything like an undergraduate, or even a masters student, but I find it difficult to draw the line between PhD and postdoc. It doesn’t help that the line is naturally fuzzy: (in my case) step 1 – submit thesis, step 2 – defend thesis, step 3 – submit final copy, step 4 – receive confirmation of award, step 5 – graduate. My graduation (the day I actually become a doctor) is later this month and I hope this will draw a mental line for me, but I am still pondering the slow and gradual transition to independent researcher.

Another contributing factor is that I moved departments and countries to take up my postdoc (as I’m sure many people do). I don’t regret this decision at all and I am enjoying the new learning opportunities that I am being exposed to, however, beginning my postdoc didn’t feel much like a promotion when I was going back to asking the simplest of questions. Moving from a department where I had been for four years during my masters and PhD, to a department where I had only previously spent a few months, did undermine my confidence to start with. It doesn’t help that many of my colleagues speak to each other in Dutch or German (which I don’t speak), so it can be hard to get to know people and to join in with small talk. A few months on and I am starting to feel a bit more at home in my new department, but I do still sometimes feel like the PhD students around me are racing ahead.

Finally (though I could easily add another few reasons to the list), I feel like there is less solidarity amongst postdocs and early career researchers (ECRs) than there is between PhD students. Perhaps I partly wish I was still in the club? Perhaps there is an internal or external expectation that we should have it all figured out by now? After all, we made it through the PhD process and secured a job (even if it is only a temporary one). Perhaps there is an unconscious (or conscious) feeling of competition between each other? The problems we face as postdocs and ECRs probably become more specific to our own field, to our personal circumstances, and to our own choice of career paths (than the issues we faced as students), but I think there are general problems that we face and advice that we can share. There are already some great resources for postdocs and ECRs, such as Elsevier’s Bigger Brains, The Postdocs Forum, and The Research Whisperer, but I would love it if some postdocs were interested in regular tweetups, akin to the #PhDChat. It would be great to have a place to pool resources, share advice, or just chat (thanks to @biggerbrains and @snarkyphd for suggesting the #ECRchat hashtag).

Some of the points I have raised are specific to my circumstances, but did you experience any similar (or different) problems during the transition from PhD student to postdoc? Do you ever feel like you will fill the ‘postdoc shoes’? Add your comments below or tweet me your thoughts and advice.

 

Fear of Failure is Not the Issue

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[Disclosure: I was lucky enough to have a postdoc offer, which I took up very soon after submitting my thesis.]

Having read this article and commentary in the THE, I can’t help feeling that somehow the issue (for me) is the reverse of what has been portrayed. Perhaps I have missed the point, or I am too close to the issue. As an early career researcher, the topic of academic career progression comes a very close second in my list of priorities. Of course, my research interests are my top priority (academically speaking), but the freedom to pursue ones research interests is lost without a career within which to pursue them.

The article in question, ‘Making other plans’ (published anonymously), provides a frank view of the reality many PhDs are confronted with when they attempt to stay in academia; that “not everyone who completes a PhD gets an academic job”. Having secured a first postdoc position, the author discusses the possibility of having to leave academia once his or her current position ends. With fewer jobs available for each successive rung of the academic ladder (the Royal Society illustrated that less than 0.5% of UK science PhDs will end up as professors, and only 3.5% even as permanent academic research staff), the author rightly portrays a bleak and difficult situation that PhDs will more likely face than not; having a non-academic ‘plan B’.

I cannot disagree thus far. It is true that most PhDs, therefore, will need to pursue a career outside of academia. However, there is one aspect that the author approaches differently from my own view. At first I couldn’t put my finger on it, but then I read the accompanying commentary by Phil Baty. This commentary picks up on the idea that it is somehow ‘taboo’ to seek a career outside of academia after completing a PhD. Both authors imply that there is a conspiracy within higher education to push the idea that PhD=permanent academic career, and that discussing or considering the alternatives is frowned upon and avoided. This hit a nerve with me, for reasons I will get to.

In the original article, the anonymous author admits feeling the regret of not having established a plan B earlier. For example, the author suggests earning a teaching qualification alongside a PhD, for easy transition into secondary education. The author regrets that help and advice is unavailable for PhDs thinking about non-academic options, and Phil Baty (in the commentary) picks up on the idea that there is a taboo that needs to be broken. The idea that PhDs should not be made to feel like a failure for pursuing other options; that we could all be making better-informed choices about which direction to take with our PhD.

Again, I cannot disagree with the idea that more alternative career advice would be beneficial for PhD candidates and early career researchers. Who couldn’t benefit from well-informed and relevant career advice? However, what that leaves me with a bee in my bonnet is that somehow PhDs are mislead into thinking they will automatically become a professor, the idea that the system makes us stay by offering false promises of an unobtainable career, and the idea that we are somehow sucked up by the system and spat out once we have provided our supervisor with our best years of research. This seems completely backwards to me. If I had been given other career advice, and told honestly how dire the prospect is that I will ever get to call myself ‘Prof’, I wouldn’t have done a thing differently, and I am still not intending to change. Of course, it depends on why you are still in academia in the first place, but I am still here because I still have a burning desire to pursue my research interests, to collaborate with other academics, to share in the growth and accomplishment of my students and colleagues, and because there is just nothing that I want to do more. I don’t love everything about the daily realities of my job, and the weighty pressure of finding the next short-term contract (and the one after) is constantly present. There is also a nagging voice inside that reminds me that I may (as so many women do) decide, or be forced, to leave academia in favour of settling down with a family. It will probably be disappointing if I have to leave, but I feel like I would be wasting precious time if I started preparing for that possibility now. Yes, I may need other qualifications if I want to change direction, and no, I don’t have an infinite pot of money to keep me going while I retrain, but I will remain optimistic and throw my full efforts into academia. If my time is limited then I want to hold on for as long as I can, and I don’t think I can do that if, mentally, I have already given up.

Yes, we should be allowed, and possibly encouraged, to take our PhDs elsewhere. Yes, we should be proud of what we have accomplished and throw ourselves enthusiastically into our alternative careers without shame. But no, this is not the problem that young academics face. In my opinion, fear is not what is holding PhDs and postdocs in academic limbo. It is not stigma that stops us leaving, it is the desire to stay!

The fact is, I do it because (right now) I love it. I will come up with a plan B when the time comes (and it will more than likely come), and I will feel no shame.