Dr Keiran Suchak and Dr Peter Hristov gave a talk titled “What to Expect When You’re Expecting… the End of Your PhD”. We enjoyed soaking up all their fantastic tips and tricks for navigating the challenging journey of completing a PhD. Our speakers inspired and motivated our own PhDs with renewed energy and a sense of purpose. From their practical advice on overcoming writer’s block to their heartfelt reminders to take time to celebrate our achievements and acknowledge those who have helped us along the way, their advice will stay with us as we move forward in our academic and professional career. The slides from their talk can be found in this link and we’ve also captured and compiled some of the insights from this talk below:

Writing up.

• Writer’s block doesn’t have to be such a big hurdle.

• Take one paragraph at a time.

• Try not to worry about the big picture.

• Give yourself a deadline.

• Good enough is better than perfect.

• Submit your final paper as if it’s a draft and expect feedback, rather than driving yourself crazy trying to reach ‘perfection’.

• The PhD is a steppingstone, not the end of the world.

• You could write papers as bullet points to begin with and then fill in the gaps and build up the story.

• Start writing early.

• Have a detailed log of what you do. Even just bullet points or notes. These can be converted to a thesis.

• Make writing more natural by practicing. It doesn’t have to be perfect!

• It’s easier to edit documents that write from scratch.

• Combine publications into a thesis. But it doesn’t have to be strictly ‘publication by thesis’.

• Learn about yourself and the way you like to work, don’t try to hack productivity, find what you love and what works.

• Remember that you’ll look back on your work and be proud!

Moving on (finishing your PhD, starting a job).

• Try not to start a job whilst writing up otherwise feels like doing 2 full-time jobs.

• Have a break after your PhD if you can. Though not having a form of income for a month can be tough for some.

  • Ask your new employer for time to do something, e.g. your PhD work, rather than trying to juggle two things. The worst they can do is say no.

  • You could work part-time until you’ve finished off.

  • Be honest when you’re struggling, your well-being is important.

  • Have blocks of writing rather than a couple of hours here and there. Stay in one mode ‘writing mode’ rather than re-familiarising. Only think about one thing at a time.

• Things are normally left over from PhD (papers etc.) so you can end up working double.

• It takes some time to adapt into a new role and form new habits.

• Find a way to process the end of your PhD. It’s an emotional transition. You may have a final ‘was that it?’ moment, whether that be celebratory or a form of grief.

• Look back and acknowledge those who helped.

• Take a vacation, reset. It can be hard to switch-off. Try to get rid of this habit of thinking you’ve always got something to do, it’s hard but necessary. Momentum is useful but sometimes you need to slow down.

• Don’t fear celebration. Celebrate everything. Celebrate every step, presentation, transfers.

Postdoc vs PhD.

• Being a postdoc is like being a PhD student but you’re part of a team.

• Different types of meetings.

• Calmer, teamwork - all working together on one paper.

• Not expected to have expertise.

• Freedom of PhD but more contact, collaboration.

• More structured.

• If you don’t meet the deadline others are impacted.

Applying for jobs

• In academia people often say, ‘I fell into it’, or ‘it was luck’. This is partially what inspired them to present and provide a structured way to apply for academic jobs.

• Don’t leave applying for a job until after your PhD.

• Speak to your supervisors about job/career goals, interests, and contacts.

• What do you want to do?

• Academia or industry?

• Supervisor or someone new?

• Your motivation shows to your employer so make sure you know what you really want.

• Post doc roles need people who will get to the end.

• Contacts from conferences.

• Help each other – do you know anyone, networks?

• People in academia are happy to help – reconnect with people you’ve met.

• Post do employers will look to see when your thesis will be done. You need to be definite when saying when you will finish write-up, be honest and hard with yourself about meeting the deadline.

• Your experiments should be done if you’re at the stage of ‘close to finish of PhD’

How to write a good application?

• Tailor application to the role.

• Contact the PI to get more information.

• Find priorities from PI as the role description can be long and hard to get into your application.

• Be enthusiastic.

• Review each other’s CVs. Academic CV – just get the info down. Tailor CV for job.

• STAR method for interview questions. Situation, task, action, response. Good or bad results can be mentioned.

• Transferable skills don’t have to all be PhD related.

• Look at fundamentals rather than specifics as they can teach the specifics or you can learn it.

• Check out reviews in the area.

• Different institutions have different processes, e.g. some might only ask questions and others only look at CVs.

Remember that you’re doing something really impressive! It may seem like everyone around you is doing a PhD, but it’s rare and something you should be proud of!

Blog written by: Zoe Hancox