PhD Student Advice | 5 insider secrets no one tells you about a PhD
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2024
- Ph.D. Student Advice is hard to come by as there is a load of great reasons for doing a Ph.D.
Here are the five insider things that no-one told me about doing a Ph.D. and how you should approach choosing and doing a Ph.D.
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▼ ▽ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction
1:22 Supervisor
2:54 Competitiveness
4:40 h-index
5:31 Peer review papers
7:39 Funding
10:04 Not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel
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Hi
Hi, thanks you appreciated but I'm not capable for it
I'll see later
Thanks
As an International PhD student in Australia, I would like to emphasize that "your supervisor will dictate the length of your PhD" is an understatement. YOUR SUPERVISOR *IS* YOUR PHD. No matter what you do, if your supervisor doesn't support/like/consider your idea (or that you are worth his time), you won't (1) graduate on time, (2) get proper research funds, (3) access to labs/materials, etc. So, pro-tip, CHOOSE WISELY.
How do you rate Australia compared to other countries you’ve studied?
I feel like that's anywhere (outside of maybe UK or wherever else people are acquiring PhDs in 3 years). That's why I shrunk away from applying. Now, I'm at the point where I may not mind it, aha!
+1000000
So getting a Phd is just about kissing a$$.
I cannot agree more with you. PHD is awarded by supervisor. if your are not ready to kiss your supervisor a$$ forget it, you will get your PHD.
This makes me so stressed and I’m not even a phd student
I am wondering if that is the next logical step or just get stressed out by starting a family with my masters.
same 🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I rectified my PH.D. situation by not stressing myself out. I know..hard to do BUT I remind myself of my love of academics and I will not compete and stress myself out with people who, like you mention, are cheating the system or have this need to show off their resume. I do set goals, in chunks of times, for myself. The great thing with doing this in my 40's, I don't give a hoot whatever others think of me and I work towards my passion and that will lead to my PH.D., if that makes sense.
A
Great advice about the absolute importance of choosing the right PhD supervisor! Well done for putting this first. It truly makes all the difference. The PhD is an apprenticeship in research and you are going to be this person’s apprentice for several years. You need someone competent you can learn from, someone you admire and respect, but also someone you get along well, and who can bring out your best talents. I always tell my students that finding the right supervisor is one of the most important decisions for the success and happiness of their PhD, possibly more than the topic or university they pick.
In Japanese martial arts we have a saying that you should invest at least three years just to find your true sensei...
Hi Frank. I couldn't agree with you more. Your PhD supervisor will absolutely determine so many of the most important aspects of your PhD that spending three years - like the Japanese martial artists - to find a suitable supervisor is time well spent!
@@DrAndyStapleton And it's true for the supervisor as well! From the viewpoint of the tenured academic, supervising the PhD of a student you get along well with is paradise, and an extremely productive and enriching endeavour; but supervising a PhD where there is a poor fit with the student on some of the fundamentals (objectives, work ethics, trust etc) is a lot of stress for both sides, not merely for the student.
PHD here in USA. Overworked, low pay, debit accumulated, no weekends, advisor treated me like a slave labor. After coding bootcamp, I found a good paying job and enjoyed the work. Never do a PHD if you do not like it!
Even, before I left the United States to back to Togo in 2019. I would be on this platform and many others discuss or express the same things.
That it may not even be worth it and not to put words into other peoples' mouth, but the impression that I got was that it was and is just as bogus as the college and university system.
Coding bootcamp can be a really bad idea in many markets because of saturation. It can be impossible to compete with people who have an actual degree and experience. Have seen this happen to family and friends in the U.S.
Should you quit the PhD if you don't like it? I'm just wondering how you would know you wouldn't like it if you hadn't done it yet or if you have no undergrad research experience.
@@michaeldillman1660 no
Stop
Don't share lies as fact
@@thewhizkid3937 Sure. People are lining up to get a phd, but it is simply bogus, you are always taken advantage of, have debt, etc. This is a gross exaggeration. I am sure it does happen, but norm by and large is that it is rigorous, but worth it. I am very happy to finish a phd in biostatistics and it opened up doors that would not have been opened without it.
1 @ 1:22 Supervisor
2 @ 2:54 Competitiveness
2.1 @ 4:40 h-index
3 @ 5:31 Peer review papers
4 @ 7:39 Funding
5 @ 10:04 Not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel
You are amazing..
@Andy Stapleton could you add it to the description? 🤔
God bless ur soul
I admire his honest perception. Getting a Ph.D. in Chemistry is not easy. Being advised by an advisor with a Ph. D. _in Chemical Education_ is quite different than being advised by a _Ph.D. in the proper experimental strategies and techniques to solve problems and explore theory_ .
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Most universities professors are not worth their salt to supervise PhD candidates unless it is precisely their area of expertise and research.
Lol. My father got in PhD when I was born and graduated when I became 12.
😂
@Mohammad Jafar Yeah, I'm proud of him, his full story is inspiring.
My heart goes out to these students and the love they give to their profession in academia.
Stumbled upon this video some how, and I'm not even in grad school let alone PhD. But Andy's advice applies to any competitive field, and I'm strongly motivated by what he said about turning up day after day, set goals, and contribute in a timely basis. Now I'm motivated. Thanks Andy!
Thank you for the untold insights. Am about to complete the first semester of my PhD life in Chemistry. I will be glad to receive more tips from you.
This is so very true!! I am at the end of my PhD and I recognize literally everything you said.
This is just a superb summary of what it means to undertake a PhD. Being a last year student myself, this resonated with me a lot.
Thanks for your videos! Having been a PhD student and working in the HDR area, I found your videos to be very true and sage advice. Keep up the good work!
Can't wait to start this challenge, thank you for your sincere advice!
I quit my PhD due to my advisor. She is a big micromanager and I am the opposite. This video is so important.
I really wish I knew this when I did my PhD! Great advice Andy! So glad I came across your channel!
This is a great post! People need to hear this before making a decision for a doctorate. Universities also need to do a better job of talking to students and candidates before and during a program.
I’ve just found your videos and I’m so glad! You really inspire me to do a PhD, 100% subscribing!
This is probably one of the videos summing it up the best. period.
Thank you again. Lots of this resonates for me, and overall I think I’m on the right track so far… I like these videos because they work like a ‘check in’ with my own circumstances to see if I’m missing something important.
Great advice Andy. I have today subscribed to your channel. I'm just starting to compile my PhD Proposal for a UK university. Your tips and experiences are really invaluable. I'm looking forward to watching all your videos. Keep up the great content! Many thanks 🙏
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Everything you said are so true. I was a PhD student over 20 yrs ago. I wished someone had told me all this before I went.
Thank you for posting this! I just got accepted to a PhD program in Genetics. I am from Romania and things are more complicated here. We are not payed during our PhD, you need published papers for admission (which is close to impossible if your supervisor didn't publish. I wrote a review with 3 colleagues and we were asked to add an author just because). Here almost no one has projects so we have to "make something out of nothing". But I also can't wait to start and see how this will turn out. Thank you again for the content you make!!
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Thanks for this! I hate the sound of everything that you shared, so pretty sure PhD is not in the cards for me! Thank you so much, saved me loads of time out of my life! 👍🏼
A good supervisor makes all the difference. Great video.
Thank you! It sure does make a huge difference!
Great video as usual! Even if I am pretty late on this video I would like to add something on point about the supervisor: as you said it is very important to choose wisely the supervisor, therefore I think it is super important to try to contact actual, or even better former, Ph.D. students of said supervisors.
It is usually pretty easy, it suffice to send an email or send a message on any social media, since most of the people are pretty happy to help.
Please do not let shame or shyness stop you on that, it is the only reliable source available for a student to gauge the supervisor's capabilities to help you during your Ph.D. (I got a Ph.D. in Physics obtained in France for reference)
First time hearing about the h-index...absolutely terrifying. Cheers Andy! :D
I'm a 3rd-year Ph.D. student at Yale this year and I am definitely feeling the pressure of academia as I move into my dissertation.
To be honest, I'd rather use my credentials to make a difference in my target population through social entrepreneurship. It seems a lot more beneficial than competing for grant money to publish papers only a few people will read.
Wow. Painful truth.
Yes
Innovative startups have lottery ticket like payoffs. The only real difference is funding comes from rich chumps rather than governments.
I hope you'll achieve your dream. 🙏🏼 Cheers from Brazil. 🇧🇷
How I wish I have discovered your channel before pursuing a PhD. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, advices, and experiences.
Hey, thanks for the video. Now I completely understand the mind set difference from doing undergrad, after 3 confusing years of PhD. I even am doubtful about the field I choose, now.
I want to enjoy my life even when I am learning, because I got one life (for now).
Anyway thanks for the video. It is true and great.
Great to hear that the video helped you! A PhD is a confusing time, for sure! good luck moving forward!
In my first year of my PhD in Canada... I guess I knew all of this but it was nice to hear it from someone else. Thanks for this, looking forward to going through your other videos.
Hey Stacey can you tell me about your experience I'm considering doing a Phd in Canada my main concern is how much time does it take from you daily
@@fouadmounchid9805 I would assume that it depends on the program that you are in, but I would generally say that it takes about 20 hours a week plus time spent on TA/RA positions
Thanks for that brutally honest revelatory video about PhD and Academia in general 👏
Actually, I have myself spent around 5 yrs and yet unsuccessfully quit a PhD programme with an MS, so I don't know why I am watching this (perhaps assessing the utility of another attempt). But, I felt perhaps there are a lot things which, either due to lack of my own initiative or lack of pointers/guidance from supervisor, I didn't know about.
I think I could learn quite a bit from your video 👍
Great advice Andy. Although it applies to persons more in academia, it does reflect a lot of realities that I have experienced thus far.
everything ive heard about doing a phd just sounds so toxic and its just so soul crushing if you wanna go further into a science field.
What better alternatives are there really though? If you go the engineering route, you have to go through the whole internship and can't get a job to gain experience when the job requires experience bullshit, and it is also more competitive at the undergrad level than science.
If you start a business, you're basically just playing dice, and are at risk of ending up shaking your ass on social media to maximize revenue. Or you take a loss for a long time, and have to find a way to feed yourself in the interim so the business becomes a side hustle anyway.
Good coding jobs are also tough to get, as you need to know the appropriate packages, and as more and more people are learning how to code, more companies are trying to take advantage of that fact and put up unpaid or minimum wage internship jobs to trap the desperate.
Elite athletics? Good luck. You'll need to train at the level where you're consuming and burning thousands if not 10,000 Calories a day.
Military? First responder? Construction worker? You'll be rough and dirty, and it will be hard to find a significant other who's okay with dealing with that after every workday.
McDonalds? Starbucks? I've never tried it, but chances are those are also soul crushing jobs. I've worked at my mom's restaurant before and it was soul crushing, and the restaurants failed because of cockroaches and the facility rental was too much. That was over 10 years ago. Nowadays, brick and mortar shops are fucked in the ass.
That's completely true
@@cryora everything you said is true, even though I'm 29 with a masters, and I really don't want to spend the next 5-6 years in school, in my mind I'm thinking what better options are out there, in Nigeria my job doesn't pay shit so it's not going to be beneficial in the long run, but if I can go to the U.S. for a PhD, it will be 10X better than what I'm doing now, plus I'm living a better quality of life, I've been in school for most of my life anyway so if I can spend 4 more years for a PhD maybe it will be worth it
Data Science to Social Sciences PhD student here.
It so true what you just said. I knew about the funding to projects, but never expected to compete in this kind of level with my own lab mates. The joy of coming to the campus everyday and working with innovative thinking needs to be balanced everyday with these "bad" aspects you told.
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Your vid’s are great and the sound quality perfect unlike many other videos
I am a research assistant in Taiwan and planning to start a Ph.D.
Really appreciate the crucial information.
Giving me apparent guidelines to follow and definitely decrease my anxiety about the future.
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Great thoughts, and thanks sharing!
what an honest and genuine channel. thank you
Really insightful ideas. I had a shaky start with my supervisor due to some unavoidable circumstances, but now things have seem to change for the better and currently working towards the registration process. Will keep these ideas in mind always. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing ❤️, I'm just finished my masters and Intending to do a PhD in Engineering, hearing your experience makes me to reconsider and slow down things. I hope you the best success
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Please do more videos on PhD stuff. This is great
great video , started PhD this year in Hamburg. nice to hear all these. make a video on unwritten rules of Academia.
This is great. I am applying at a school now. I did not know about the h-index, that is helpful to know. Thanks.
May you be at peace this Thanksgiving Day and receive great rewards for your work.
Dude , this really helped me out. Thank you
An absolute pleasure! Good luck with your future!
Good job! Great video. Thanks for sharing.
Recently found your channel and subbed. I got my Ph.D. in chemistry back in 2014 at Northwestern and I can say without a doubt everything you said is true. My channel is about personal finance and investing, but I've been thinking about sharing my own Ph.D. story. Today I sell scientific research equipment and have followed the path of the sales scientist. My hope is that I can show other Ph.D.s about this alternative career path,. and that they don't need to be bogged down by this academic...machine sort to say. Keep up the good work. What area of chemistry did you study? I'm more of a physical electroanalytical chemist.
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Open and very practical. Thanks!
Thanks for creating this insightful video!
PREACH IT!!!!!!! SPREAD THE FEAR!!!! SPREAD THE REALITY!!!
Nothing will change but it's good to be spread out.
holy crap calm down....
But that being said yea, Academia is a racket from when you first enter in highschool, specifically because they won't tell you what the racket is doing just so that you get fleeced by this massive corporate machine.
Thank you for that, Andy! Very helpful insights here
My pleasure!
Thank you Andrew for the wonderful content. You should do a video on Must reads books for PhD aspirants / student.
Thanks in advance 🙏
Thank you for your videos - I find them very interesting and insightful!
I'm currently in the last phase of my masters degree whilst writing up a proposal for a phD.
I came across your videos as I'm wanting to know the ins and out of applying so again, thank you!
So true. You hit the nail on the head.
Thanks for the info! I'm a theoretical math PhD student in the US and there are a couple things that are different, 1) In math, we are usually funded by our universities, not grant money, which gives us a lot more stability, and a choice between advisors and even the freedom to change advisors, and 2) Theoretical math papers just don't happen as frequently as in other fields, so there's not as much of an expectation to publish during grad school. Maybe a paper or two on the Arxiv but not necessarily published (This might be different in other schools)
What is theoretical math?
@@adamtaylor1739 I think they mean pure math.
I did an MS in Physics in Alaska and was supported by my department as a TA so no grant money needed. I think physics is similar to math where their isn't lots of cutting edge stuff transforming the field every few years. My adviser was a geneticist in the biology department and my thesis was bio-physics computational evolutionary dynamics stuff so the rest of my committee was physics and the stark contract in culture between the two departments stuck with me. I liked the more laid back physics culture and greater freedom I had with a well established field, but could really appreciate how the other students in my advisers lab (all biologists) actually made new never seen before type contributions and were constantly up grading techniques. They also had crazy hours in the lab, I work 6 days a week about 55 hours/week, but many of those bio students were in the lab 7 days for 70+hr/week and were grant supported so constantly worrying about funding on top of their crazy work loads.
Thank you for this video!! I am currently in undergrad physics in the US, considering a phD but all you mention in this video is what’s really making me not do a phD, I’ve been thinking about this for over a year, I guess that’s a clear sign it’s not for me.
This is great, really informative
your video was extremely helpful, thank you
Wish RUclips and Andy had been "things" when I started my (unfinished) PhD. Never would have wasted the time and money.
Thank you for the reality check of a PhD! I needed this!
Thank you for the informative video! I’m graduating with Mphys physics this year and I decided to slow down and do alot of research about PhDs, potential supervisors and researchers groups. Just hearing about how mentally draining a PhD is makes me rethink about applying even though I know for sure that I enjoy research :/
If you enjoy the research and do plenty of background work to find the perfect supervisor and group for you - there's no reason that you wouldn't have a brilliant time during a PhD. Although entering knowing that you will most likely be required to leave academia at the end is important to keep in mind.
@6:39 I am from HK, and I can confirm that
@13:21 I have learned that being persistent and consistent are really the key, that is also why I would argue that PhD needs to take weekend breaks so that they can keep coming back strong and remain as a high-performer!
Taking breaks is so important and that is the only way to remain persistent and performing well for a long time!
I am also from HK. I know some of them are put in the middle of a long string of authors, but most of the time, they're really pushing for doing a great number of projects in a short time, in both a first author capacity or second author commitment. The stress I saw as a research assistant there was part of the reason I went somewhere else for my PhD. Glad to know the bar in HK is not the norm around the world.
I like your honesty. My PhD GF showed me this video. Great insight.
Never underestimate or undervalue the PhD honed ability to think and communicate.
Now I’m curious what your day job is.
I am forever thankful to a friend who told me "Choose your supervisor wisely". Getting along well with the supervisor was my top priority when applying for positions. Made the overall PhD much smoother compared to other peers who struggled a lot with their supervisors. And when you are stuck and also your supervisors cannot help you, reach out to other researchers and universities and try to colaborate with them. Saved my PhD.
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yeah dont listen when your supervisor tells you not to talk to people or professors outside their lab. If you get results they wint care how you got them, so ignore them when they blow their top when you do something you thought of
This is pretty saddening. A PhD seemed like the natural route for learning more and more about the field I'm interested in, but it sounds like all the posturing and pointless obstacles hinder your ability to gain knowledge and growth.
That's rightly said. But through this 'hindrance' you would surprise yourself with your ability. Afterall it's boring if everything goes according to a plan!
Well, one can learn just as much or more from reading (books, scientific papers, studies, etc.) or working in the field. The point is after acquiring a certain level of knowledge, one is expected to contribute new ideas to the body of knowledge. This will be analyzed and criticized in not so pleasant ways by peers.
From my experience, PhDs and PhD candidates lack the very important soft skills (creativity, imagination, innovation, vision, management, leadership, etc). I think this has to do with their training pipeline.
Universities graduate far more PhDs than there are positions available for them. As he said, jobs are unstable with not great pay. In this situation, one would expect these folks to start new businesses. This doesn't typically happen because they lack soft skills to succeed striking out on their own.
And most of the time you have more questions than answers which drive you even more anxious.
BTW thanks for such a nice and honest review!
This is perfect ! I want to do a PhD researching value and ethics in institutions. I’m currently doing a Masters and considering PhD
You're a saviour Andy 💯
Sir you're so right! I'm about to start my PhD and now getting a lot of anxieties!
Quit now, while you can.
That last one is SOOOOO true and not just for the sciences either. Tenacity is the key.
Hi! I am currently in my 4th-year of Ph.D. studies in literature and I am already regretting it! I really had so many problems with my mentor. First I talked to a professor who never had time for me in months and was not interested the least in micromanaging me. Then I found a woman that agreed to mentor me but she didn't want to let my thesis proposal be accepted for a year and now before the university got shot down, she said she gives up on mentoring me!
I am emailing to other professors, trying to find another mentor but some of them already turned down and some still haven't given me a clearer answer.
It has cost me a lot of time and money and honestly, I just want to finish it and move on. I have no desire for any academic career whatsoever.
I like the video and thank you for your insights!
Thanks for sharing your story, Vlada! It sounds like you have had a series of bad circumstances. Make sure that you make a decision that is best for you! Let me know how it all works out!
Why did she not want you to have your thesis proposal accepted ?
Was it not on an original topic ?
Did she read it prior ?
@@thewhizkid3937 she was a beech. Case closed.
How's it been now?
My sister is in fifth year .. doing PhD in literature ...his supervisor has made her circumstances from good to worst ..she depressed , has anxiety and can't change because he is hod...and no one to help ..
Great advice respect you brother
I also got so terrified by the number of publications required to get a job in Chinese academia. Usually each candidate may have got over 5 SSCI pubs. However, in the US here, even 1 pub may cost you half a leg. 1is already super hard and may be an indicator for a good job. 2 is rare. In terms of classes, we're required to take 17 core courses, which takes 2.5 years already. The PhD in our department usually takes at least 5 years as we're taking 8 classes per year while teaching 2 undergrad classes each semester in addition to our own research.
Thank you for sharing!
Yes Dr, the last point about anxiety. I am doing master for 2 years, but I had approached my school counsellor to solve my mentality issue and through their simple questionnaire, they diagnosed me with severe anxiety, depression and stress. I had been undergone a burned up progress 2 or 3 times due to my supervisor that doesn't give me proper guidance when I first stepped into the research world. It is true that we student throughout the study years since young till bachelor, we often had goals or aims to fight for or reach over it. I often called this a Framework or Boundarywork where we can bounce around within this frame and we will finish our works. But in the research world, there is no framework and we have to set it by ourselves. Thus, with a framework mindset, I built my progress carefully day by day, night by night, but in the end, my supervisor just said, simply, to shift my working direction to something else without giving the actual reasons, just kept quiet or avoid conversations. My school counsellor asked me to go home and take a rest but , anxiety, burning money and times, really stopped me to rest and keep on heading in a direction that seem to have no end. Working so hard for 2 years and I'm tired.
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Hi. I'm a 2nd year Ph.D. student, and I'm very glad I watched this video to know that my feelings now during the Ph.D. are not weird or unnecessary !
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You have such beautiful teeth!
Thank you!
Are you a dentist!!!
@@nepzdeepy 😂😂
@@adityalewis7515 My sister is a dentist.. Indeed dentists study smile and teeth even in non professional settings 😀
I have teeth gap looking at his teeth m really jealous..
True. I'm PhD student and already in second year. The first year is really amazing with colloquium and DRP then second year, I start to fell a bit anxiety on the novelty & finding on my research. Hopefully, I could manage to finished this journey. Amin.
On Competitiveness: I have to concur with you on US professors pitting students against each other. In my case, it was worse: he had me and another student on the same topic and misled me on the other student's topic; the other student consulted with me all the time (as he was moving from a completely different research area).
I'm on year 5 and I have a great supervisor and great labmates and it's still awful and I still don't like it, especially since the pandemic is preventing me from going in and doing the interesting parts. I think I would recommend getting some work experience in your field first before starting the PhD so you have a better idea of what you want to get out of it.
This is really helpful. I'm just finishing my MSc degree in Biology and considering applying for a PhD in Genetics, however I really don't want to go down the academic route and don't want to specialise too much in one field, so there's a lot to consider before making a decision
Best of luck with your decision. I'm pleased my video helped!
It is about learning how to do something from beginning to the end too. A PhD does much better on something new than a master's graduate even with work experience. But all in all, it really depends on how you do it and how good your supervisor is.
arian vc Interesting. I’m considering a PhD in AI and legal disruption, which is a very new field
its been a month how was it? Do you think u will do the phd?
@@VictoriaSobocki It actually sounds really interesting! Best of luck to you.
This is so accurate description of PhD.
Wow, this is really an eye-opener. I never knew a Ph.D. was that competitive, i.e. pier reviews. So, I can see PhDs are geared toward research, but what if you want to start your own company? How is that different from what you describe, for example, grants.
Excellent explanation!!
As a dentist who plans to start his PhD, after 5 min of video I realised that I've just been looking at your teeth and forgot to listen.
Underrated comment
As a PhD myself I can tell you that you are very likely to regret this decision
@@abdullahkhatib1464 I do not recall someone telling me otherwise
@@pac167 PhD is hard work and it can be very stressful and isolating. Few jobs and you will be competing with the smartest most hardworking people out there while others make much more doing a much easier job. This is if you pass in the first place. A lot of people fail and sometimes it is not even their fault. There are too many horror stories of awful supervisors around.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Thank you for posting. I'm in the second year of a Biochemistry degree. Struggling to decide what is right for me: finish here or "Master out" with a thesis and move into Microbiology. My passion is origin of life and extremophiles for astrobiology, so Micro seems an easier/more obvious path, but that would mean starting over again. I wish I had seen this before I went straight to PhD from undergrad!
Astrobiology 😮damn is this even a subject. I didn't know that. I am in biotechnology.
Biochemistry has more open positions in industry than a microbiologist but then again that depends on your goals.
Can't imagine going straight from an undergrad to my PhD!
I'm in my final semester after 6 years (evolutionary biology). I know all about the "wheeler dealer" aspects of research positions, and that lifestyle is not for me. My career goal is centered around teaching. My advisor has a small lab with only a couple of graduate students, which would be ideal for me. We're not in a highly funded area of research (spider behavior), so we have virtually no pressure to secure grants year after year. We're happy with our little enclave, and my hope is to land in a similar situation. In the end, not all folks pursue a PhD to attain a high H Index. I'm doing it because I love what I do. For me, it's a privilege to teach and mentor the next generation of scientists. My teaching evaluations are a far more honest "index" than the rigged publishing metrics that exist currently.
So glad to hear this. My Master’s degree chewed me up and spit me out. I wanted to love what I was studying, but I was so beat up. My Master’s left me feeling destroyed.
@@adrianadetrinidad901 I am so sorry to hear that. I hope things get better for you.
@@adrianadetrinidad901 I feel you, for me it was COVID-19 and the distance to the lab. It's just so lonely, noone helps you and you're completely on your own
@@adrianadetrinidad901 so sorry to hear that. I am afraid that my masters project didnt go well either and affected my grade. What your subject was?
One could also mention that in some countries and fields the academic system is downwards mobile only. If you graduate from a top school, you may be able to get a decent number of job interviews and offers in academia later, but if not, be prepared to only get invited by third tier schools or worse, even if you actually outperform the others on a number of the metrics mentioned in the video. While I met some brilliant people at top schools, I also met quite a number of ordinary folks that weren‘t exactly impressive and frequently they still got the jobs over some quite outstanding people from lower ranked schools. It is not like one only can be happy at top schools, in fact, often small lesser known departments offer much healthier work environments, but it might be important to know in advance how restricted your options might be even if you do a lot of the things you mentioned right. Sometimes, differences in output are also the result of differences in funding. If your school pays for every conference travel and offers a year off teaching, you naturally will end up with a better network and more time publishing. So, do proper research on the schools you apply to and see whether they align with your goals.
And on the side note, for what it is worth, even though I left academia, I never regretted doing my Ph. D. Never again, most certainly not in the business world, where BS is the main currency, could I actually dive into a topic all the way and feel my thinking improve as much as during that time. It still helps me and shapes almost everything I do. In spite of all the long nights, workloads, stress and frustration, I would not want to miss the experience for a second. But I also had some wonderful advisors and mentors, which certainly contributed to that. But yes, only do it if you are absolutely in love with the subject and feel you have to do it. Do it for its own sake or not at all.
it doesnt matter what tier your school is, you can find goid and bad professors at every school
Dude what we really need are inside tips about your beard.
Here is my Beard Channel: ruclips.net/channel/UCPnZJxZknXzGqK9t2-fnvKg
@@DrAndyStapleton wait-- I didn't expect that there would actually be a beard channel hahanha. This is legit!
Well he has a PhD, very organized individual@@sotirismaragos
I did a PhD in 1995 in Immunogenetics. I produced 3 papers as primary author and 1 as a secondary which at the time was considered very good. Spent 4-5 years as a postdoc but left science as I found I spent more time applying for grants and networking. Didn’t enjoy that at all and, at the time, with a heavy heart left the field of science. I liked research at university and enjoyed teaching undergraduates, tenureships were still widely available but unless your research was ‘sexy’ very difficult to get funding. Working in the pharmaceutical industry never appealed to me
What are you doing now? What's your job today?
@@bjj_9925 I now work in finance as a manager. The skills I learnt during my PhD were invaluable and very much transferable such as tailoring explanations of complex concepts from your peers to students. Presentation skills, logical mindset, focusing and recognising important key points from long dense technical documents, written communication skills, not distracted by failure as long as you’re still moving towards the end goal.
you should have tried industry research, its pretty wonderful. If you are listening to academics talk about industry research, dont because they have been misinformen
Dear Sir, I am also from a chemical science background.. This video was very helpful for such students who's are about to start their phd studies. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
My pleasure! Good Luck with your next steps!
I’ve heard a lot of what you are saying before...I was going to do an MA but I bought a camera instead. This was my 40th present to myself, in the end I just didn’t want the stress in amongst a full time job...
Hi, Andy. Just wanted to thank you for your content and all the insider advice. Your channel deserves more suscribers. I just finish a masters in the philosophy of science, and gotta say my prospectives are not all that bright. I know it is not your field, but have you considered putting out a video about doing a phd in the humanities? Maybe you could ask a friend of yours in those fields? Love the content.
ruclips.net/video/ZsVz58LT7H4/видео.html
Thank you for sharing your story. 🙂
Got PhD in Chemistry and Looks Like Walter White.
GREAT!!!!!
Great video. Thanks
Thank you, Chatura!
Love your wisdom .