Outdated PhD advice | Bad advice that needs to stop!
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- In this video only share with you the outdated PhD advice still shared by some older academics that you need to be very wary of.
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▼ ▽ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - introduction
0:22 - being an expert
2:56 - go abroad
4:22 - it'll be good for CV
6:00 - don't worry about finding funding
8:12 - thesis fodder
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Graduated my PhD in medical sciences from a top-ranking institute, I would like to say - publishing even one single 'quality and high-impact' research paper will make you more qualified as a PhD scholar than having a load of middling or low-impact papers. Establishing a good network peers/mentors of your field, as well as "supporting" fields are key for success in your future career either in academia or industry. Great soft/personal skills may compensate to some degree your lack of technical/specialized skills. It is important that other than the specialized field you'd better acquire enough working knowledge of other relevant fields/subfields- so that you know how to choose and collaborate with true experts to succeed in a comprehensive project, at the same time, not being too much controlled by them. Having a high EQ, integrity, and humility (know how to curb excessive enthusiasm of showing off yourself) make you climb up easier and faster in your future career rank.
Great pieces of advice as always, Andy. I believe that as soon as an academic start a postdoc, it is necessary to start applying for tenure positions. The Universities want to keep postdocs as they help deal with graduate students, authored scientific papers and contribute to other demands for a low cost.
Where I did my thesis, thesis by publication (three accepted paper) was mandatory. Exceptions were made where the reason was not your fault (e.g. long sickness, or really bad luck extraordinary with your experiments). I know a case where six months of work were destroyed by a non-functioning machine.
At some universities a thesis by publication can be done with submitted and not published papers, otherwise I agree it's impractical for most
Thanks much. Made so much damn sense.
Powerful message!
I have my interview on Thursday! I'm hovering between over-preparing in a blind panic and telling myself it's a discussion between academics and I can do it.
You can do it!! Good luck!
Don’t run after awards and fellowships that will take so much of your time. It’ll look good on your CV and you’ll feel important when you post it on your status on WhatsApp and LinkedIn, but you’ll be losing time you’d have used on your dissertation, especially if the award/fellowship requires you to do a different side project or something. I stopped doing stuff like this in year 2 of PhD. Time-consuming and absolutely not worth it.
What about placement work? Do you think it worth doing it during phd ?
@@moon_36912 I think it depends on the gaps you think you have in your academic career, and what you are inclined to do with the skills/experience you pick up post-PhD. For example, I did not lack placement work experience, but lacked teaching/supervision roles. So I focused on the latter as I wanted to swing into making my own business in industry, and wanted some work that was not as isolated as my research usually was. Whereas my colleague lacked direct case/labwork (we are in a forensics related field), and similarly did not want to continue in university academia but go into pathological practice, so they oriented their time that way. The list can go on, but if the placement work will benefit you and your future, do it. Like @Adebisi, extra awards and fellowships also were a waste of time for me as well, but it was not for my other colleague who wants to continue in academia, and within university jobs, our field asks on job postings for demonstrated success in finding and receiving grants/fellowships, etc. It's a very individual process, cater it to your future.
@@Joeyykins Thank you so much for your detailed answer!! Its really appreciated.
I've recently discovered you and have been watching all of your videos! Thank you for the content, information, and insights you provide! Would love to get your thoughts on how to demonstrate to your advisor you are ready for the dissertation defense? (especially when previous meetings to establish clear, defined benchmarks of success only result in vague responses of 'just publish a few more papers')
That's a great video idea. I'll add it to my list.
@@DrAndyStapleton Thank you so much! I will keep an eye out for it, keep up the wonderful work!
I’m in the final stages in my PhD by publication, not an easy path but I am hoping for a higher probability of success at the end of the process
Hi Andy- Greetings from India!! I follow your videos on the series. Most of the advice is commendable and factual in nature. Go on to work on more and more......
Awesome, thank you!
I exploring PhD by Publications, target 5 journal in related topical areas.
Watching your channel gives me a lot of ideas and motivation, however, here is a lengthy comment in hopes you can help with it.
I am a biochem/biophys grad, with an MBA and 2.5 years of experience in pharma industry, i went back and aplied to material sciences and nanoengineering PhD and got accepted, however, now i feel like i made a mistake. I still WANT a phd, but im not sure the area was right for me, i feel very incompetent, and lack majority of the background, i also dont have the writing skills necessary, my first year is almost over and i have almost no progress, my advisor is young and nice, and juggles a lot of things at once, i am working (trying to) on project that includes proteins and materials, but there is nothing solid, very slow, and a lot of waiting for external things. I am not sure is this is normal, or if it was just my bad decision. I am beyond overwhelmed and have lost motovation for a while now!!!
It's extremely unlikely that I will ever qualify for anything at grad school other than a professional certificate (for various reasons) but I nonetheless enjoy watching these videos.
Maybe I just like hurting myself 😂
What skills would be good for academia and outside of academia?
I’m an undergrad a few months away from graduating looking to do a PHD straight after in Genetics, as Masters can be a bit pricey
You would be surprised how much overlap there is, especially since universities (in the US) are under a lot of pressure to make college more career-focused and skills-based. For me, I worked on coding/data science skills so that I could have options in industry, but this ended up making my application stand out on the academic job market too, since I could possibly teach data science/statistics courses. This is probably very dependent on your field though.
Giving presentations and writing well are skills that are valued both in academia and industry. In industry they especially value communication with "non-technical" audiences. Good luck!
@@lindsay3917 Thanks a lot, im sort of on that route as it is, doing modules in Bioinformatics as an undergraduate and extracurricular courses in Bioinformatics. Thanks for the advice it’s really appreciated
Data science definitely.
A+
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Conclusion, PhD program does not prepare you for anything. The same as undergraduate degree. 🙄