Phd By Research - What to expect

McCogley

Hi guys,

Starting a phd programme pretty soon, what should I expect? Workload, deadlines etc.

Ostrom

Manage your time well, stay healthy, and it shouldn't trouble you more than a 9-5.

Also, have a look at this article; I wish I had read it sooner

McCogley

Will do! Thanks

dastardly00

efla wrote: »

Manage your time well, stay healthy, and it shouldn't trouble you more than a 9-5.

+1 efla is spot on.
I'll just add that be prepared for the odd late night when you are preparing for a conference, or submitting a grant/abstract/paper.

(Conferences are generally held in really nice places, so that's a big plus! )

baby and crumble

You should also learn what your college guidelines are with regards to supervision- not just what is expected of you but also what your supervisor is expected to provide you with, and be very sure that you get the right supervision.

blue5000

+1 on that, a bad supervisor will make your life impossible

jelly&icecream

Talk to other phd students of the supervisor or phd students in the department in general. See if theres a pattern of students submitting masters theses after 3 years or dropping out all together with that particular supervisor.

blue5000

thanks jelly+ice cream. AFAIK I'm this supervisor's first 'victim'. I've been off last few months, I tried changing supervisor a yr into it, but was told it wasn't possible. Will be meeting in college over the next few weeks to try and sort it out.

Time Magazine

efla wrote: »

Manage your time well, stay healthy, and it shouldn't trouble you more than a 9-5.

I wish that was true for all PhD programmes! I have to be at a desk before 9am (and after 7.30pm) twice a week! Granted my first two years are mostly teaching-based but still, how happy I'd be with a mere 40 hours!

McCogley

Time Magazine wrote: »

I wish that was true for all PhD programmes! I have to be at a desk before 9am (and after 7.30pm) twice a week! Granted my first two years are mostly teaching-based but still, how happy I'd be with a mere 40 hours!

With regards supervision, I'm lucky enough to have a pretty good supervisory team. So no worries (yet!) in that respect. With respect to working hours, your time frame is a lot more like what I'm expecting! Rather expect too much than too little!

jelly&icecream

blue5000 wrote: »

thanks jelly+ice cream. AFAIK I'm this supervisor's first 'victim'. I've been off last few months, I tried changing supervisor a yr into it, but was told it wasn't possible. Will be meeting in college over the next few weeks to try and sort it out.

Ah thats a pity...Its so hard to judge the situation until you're past the point of no return.
I know of people who have successfully changed supervisor a year in, seems you've been unlucky with the college/department/supervisor. It's also easier if your funding is attached to you as opposed to that particular research group/supervisor.

Best of luck with it, hope it works out in the end for you.

mystique150

Its a roller coaster of highs and lows. I've often wondered if I was turning bipolar! For the most part its a pretty handy lifestyle and it fares out very well when I compare my life to friends of mine working boring jobs.

Ostrom

Time Magazine wrote: »

I wish that was true for all PhD programmes! I have to be at a desk before 9am (and after 7.30pm) twice a week! Granted my first two years are mostly teaching-based but still, how happy I'd be with a mere 40 hours!

I meant that more in terms of headspace and overall wellbeing than manhours. Good American structure

Red Alert

I'll try to sum up as best I can the last four years or so:

The first six months to year will usually turn out to be getting you up to speed on the area. I'm not sure what it is you're in, but one thing I would really advise is to start on some "new" work as soon as you can. Or at least just getting used to the tools and methods you'll be using - in my case I started some of the programming in my first few weeks. I threw most of it away soon after but it got me thinking about how to approach the problem. There's only so much that reading a huge body of literature in isolation is going to give you.

Deadlines are a weird one. Your supervisor may well be a "deadlines" type of person, or they might not, you never know. There are some hard and fast deadlines, like college dates for transfer report (if any), thesis submission (at the end) and deadlines for conferences. I think it's very helpful to be able to set personal deadlines - and stick to them. There's plenty of stuff I could be doing to put more results into the most recent chapter in my thesis for example, but I decided that last week was the cutoff. If I've more time when everything's done I might re-visit it.

Conferences are a very enjoyable part of being a postgrad. To be honest I prefer going alone rather than with the group - you're much more likely to get talking to other people during the actual conference rather than hanging around with the gang from your lab or office. Either way they're very sociable events, and it's great to be able to see where your work fits in. Typically a conference has both oral and poster presentations - the poster sessions are much better for interacting with people, especially some of the more senior people in the area. The other very handy thing about conferences is that they tend to be abroad - which means that if you plan correctly you can take a holiday afterwards. I got to visit London, San Diego, Washington, Minneapolis and Copenhagen at essentially no cost! I've also built up quite a few friends I keep in contact with from my conference travels.

Teaching may well form part of your weekly schedule as well. I did labs (for 3 and a half years) on two separate modules, and then did tutorials in final year. It was well worth it, and I hope to be able to get some mileage out of it for putting the CV together. Be careful if you're assigned to a module that expects a lot from you, it's very easy to spend way too much time on teaching.

On time keeping... this can vary from person to person, and supervisor to supervisor. I essentially worked a "business day" until recently, coming in around half eight and leaving at six. If you work longer, you'll find the tasks just expand to fit the time rather than actually getting more done. At the moment I'm writing up, so unless I'm meeting my supervisor I actually stay at home because I can get much more written there.

Don't forget the most important thing is to get to know the others in your office/lab if you've got one. They've got plenty of experience and will be glad to show you the ropes during your first few days.

MiniMed

Red Alert wrote: »

I'll try to sum up as best I can the last four years or so:

The first six months to year will usually turn out to be getting you up to speed on the area. I'm not sure what it is you're in, but one thing I would really advise is to start on some "new" work as soon as you can. Or at least just getting used to the tools and methods you'll be using - in my case I started some of the programming in my first few weeks. I threw most of it away soon after but it got me thinking about how to approach the problem. There's only so much that reading a huge body of literature in isolation is going to give you.

Deadlines are a weird one. Your supervisor may well be a "deadlines" type of person, or they might not, you never know. There are some hard and fast deadlines, like college dates for transfer report (if any), thesis submission (at the end) and deadlines for conferences. I think it's very helpful to be able to set personal deadlines - and stick to them. There's plenty of stuff I could be doing to put more results into the most recent chapter in my thesis for example, but I decided that last week was the cutoff. If I've more time when everything's done I might re-visit it.

Conferences are a very enjoyable part of being a postgrad. To be honest I prefer going alone rather than with the group - you're much more likely to get talking to other people during the actual conference rather than hanging around with the gang from your lab or office. Either way they're very sociable events, and it's great to be able to see where your work fits in. Typically a conference has both oral and poster presentations - the poster sessions are much better for interacting with people, especially some of the more senior people in the area. The other very handy thing about conferences is that they tend to be abroad - which means that if you plan correctly you can take a holiday afterwards. I got to visit London, San Diego, Washington, Minneapolis and Copenhagen at essentially no cost! I've also built up quite a few friends I keep in contact with from my conference travels.

Teaching may well form part of your weekly schedule as well. I did labs (for 3 and a half years) on two separate modules, and then did tutorials in final year. It was well worth it, and I hope to be able to get some mileage out of it for putting the CV together. Be careful if you're assigned to a module that expects a lot from you, it's very easy to spend way too much time on teaching.

On time keeping... this can vary from person to person, and supervisor to supervisor. I essentially worked a "business day" until recently, coming in around half eight and leaving at six. If you work longer, you'll find the tasks just expand to fit the time rather than actually getting more done. At the moment I'm writing up, so unless I'm meeting my supervisor I actually stay at home because I can get much more written there.

Don't forget the most important thing is to get to know the others in your office/lab if you've got one. They've got plenty of experience and will be glad to show you the ropes during your first few days.

What a great informative post. Thanks.