Looking back: Things I Wish I Knew During my PhD
A short reflection on some of the things I wish I knew when I was going through my PhD journey.
Photo by Dan Dimmock on Unsplash
One of the best parts of my job is being able to supervise students as they navigate through their academic journey. I currently have the pleasure of sitting on a PhD panel for an incredibly talented student, Memunat Ibrahim.
The experience of supervising PhD students has made me reminisce on my own experience and to reflect on the things I wish I knew when going through my PhD journey. Some of these things I learnt throughout the time of my PhD, while others I learnt much later and reflect on now with hindsight. Hopefully this little list will be helpful to anyone who is currently navigating through the journey of a PhD.
Supervisors can play many roles
Picking a supervisor is an important part of a PhD. A supervisor plays a big role in not only your research, but also your PhD journey more broadly. A PhD is a long and often challenging journey and you will find yourself wanting different things from your supervisor at different times. There were times when I needed specific technical clarity, times when I needed advice about my research direction and times when I needed general support with navigating complicated professional relationships and situations. Realistically, it’s hard to find all of that in one person so it’s important to remember that a supervisor is one of many people who sit on a PhD panel. Looking back, I wish I had thought more carefully about how best to make use of my panel. During my PhD I had the most contact with my primary supervisor, a fair amount of contact with my secondary supervisor but I didn’t explore much else with respect to the rest of my panel. A panel is a great way of accessing a diversity of expertise and resources across a PhD. Having a gender balance on that panel is also important. My panel was all male and the experience of completing a PhD in engineering under an all male panel was, at times, isolating.
When picking a PhD supervisor, keep in mind the following:
While subject matter experts in your relevant field are important, impactful research benefits from diversity.
Your primary supervisor is one of multiple people on your panel and each of those people can play an important part in your PhD journey.
Be mindful of the gender balance of your panel. You will need different things from your supervisors at different times and a balanced panel can provide you with more options for support when you need it.
You don’t have to agree with feedback
Feedback is a useful tool for improving your research and your skills in general. Throughout a PhD, you will have many opportunities to receive feedback. This may come from your supervisor, your panel, peer reviews, etc. One thing I wish I knew when receiving all of this feedback is to critically consider that information before actioning it. Feedback is subjective and will differ depending on the person’s expertise, skills, experiences, etc. What is deemed ‘correct’ will vary depending on the person. Of course there are technical elements of research that can be argued to be either correct or incorrect in the binary sense of the term; however, for a lot of the other elements that make up research - critical thinking, analysis, methodology, etc. - the idea of correctness becomes a little more grey. There are many different approaches to the patchwork of elements that make up a PhD and there is often never just one way that something should be done. So when receiving feedback, it should be viewed with a critical eye and a confidence in your voice and the direction you have chosen for your research. When I was doing my PhD, I didn’t hold the confidence to critique the feedback I had received, particularly when it came from people I deemed subject matter experts. Upon reflection, I think there are elements of my research that lost my voice because I focussed more on actioning feedback and less on trying to understand if that feedback was actually relevant and appropriate to my work.
When reviewing feedback you have received, keep in mind the following:
It is ok to disagree with feedback you have received. If you do disagree with feedback, make sure you have a clear and understandable reasoning for why you disagree.
Have confidence in your voice and the direction you have chosen for your research. This confidence will help in identifying what feedback is useful for improving your work and what feedback may be out of scope for your research.
If you know the person giving you feedback, think about their expertise when assessing their feedback. It may help you to understand their perspective a little more and to better interpret their feedback.
It’s ok to change your mind
A PhD is a long journey of learning and self reflection. It makes sense that your perspective and way of thinking is likely to change over the course of a PhD. As you progress with your research, remember that it is ok to change your mind. Research is amorphous and it should change with time. The earlier stages of my PhD had a strong environmental focus and my early work was littered with the term efficiency. At the time, I was referring to fuel efficiency of long range flights; however, overtime, that term evolved to mean more than just fuel efficiency. My research matured into considering strategic factors that could improve the efficiency of long range flights and the term efficiency evolved to include fuel, time and minimised delays. This change came about organically for me and there were moments when I worried that I was changing too much and losing focus in my research. With hindsight, I can now see that those changes were the natural progressions of research and were an indication of how my work had matured with time.
As your research changes, keep in mind the following things:
Instead of worrying about change, it may be helpful to think about where the change is coming from and how it is improving your work. Understanding change can help with nurturing it into something constructive.
Know your motivations. If you have confidence in the ‘why’ behind your research, it will be easier to ensure the changes you make still align with your interests and passions.
Talk about change. Talking about the changes you want to make with other people - supervisors, colleagues, friends, etc - will help you to both understand and articulate the evolution of your research over time.
The PhD experience will differ from person to person, but the ‘motivation crisis’ is something most students will feel at some point during their PhD. Having a supportive panel, having confidence in your work and allowing yourself to evolve over the course of your research are a few things that can contribute to a more positive PhD experience.
