Biggest No-Nos for PhD students [10 to AVOID!]
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- In this video, I will share with you the biggest no-no for PhD students and the traps people often fall into.
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▼ ▽ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - plagiarism
0:49 - dishonesty
1:51 - perfection
2:34 - no keeping
3:53 - little wins
5:42 - comparison
7:31 - toxicity
8:19 - asking for help
9:12 - plans for after
11:06 - wrapping up
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▼ ▽ TOOLS
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![How to actually ENJOY your PhD research [7 effective hacks]](/img/n.gif)
Politics, never criticize your supervisor in front of your labmates. Always always someone will use that to fill your bosses ears and make themselves look good. I learnt that the hard way.
#1- don’t fall behind, and if you do, get back on the horse as fast as you can, even if it isn’t perfect.
"It is perfection that kills PhD studies"... Can't agree more!!
There's something very common with fresh PhD students which I am also 1000% guilty of: "ready, aim, fire". This ties into the perfectionism. What actually happens, especially if you're used to scoring well and getting good marks in class is "ready, aim, aim...aim.....aim..." and nothing happens. Instead, "ready, fire, aim" is the best policy. You are allowed to fail, you are allowed to mess up, so long as you learn and try again. I get it, gold-silicon wafers are expensive, DNA samples are expensive, so each mistake can cost 1000s of dollars. But each success can yield millions in value in the form of greater understanding, industrial value, and foundations to future work. Those failures are stepping stones to future work, and can even result in remarkable spin-off ideas if the failure happens a certain way.
This might tied in to so-called "fear of failure". When someone has a great track record, perhaps too good, they are over-anxious about ruining it. This can actually paralyse someone into a kind of inactivity or indecision. I think the reason is that people are too focused on their career rather than just doing what they enjoy. Perhaps they have gone into it too much because of other peoples' expectations, rather than their own instrinsic motivation. If you are doing research you love, you can't help yourself just tinkering around with it, or trying something new etc. Like a kid with a meccano set.
Spot on
Very important tips, especially the points on perfectionism, note-taking, comparison and post-PhD career planning. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for your support via these videos, Andy! 😊 So helpful and uplifting! God bless you and all of us - the PhD students.
Thank you for this Andy. Don’t compare yourself with others and don’t look for perfection. Celebrating your small wins. Submitted my application for PhD and your videos are super helpful 😊
I just found your channel and I am so grateful. I've watched 5 videos back to back and thank you for making this wonderful content!!
Incredible points! Thanks
Great video! Enjoyed very much, thank you
Thankyou Andy , I'm not Phd student, I'm infact Btech student and currently not planning to study for PhD but I take your advice because they're very relevant and specific in my startup and engineering academics . Thankyou 🙂
I like your videos, really thank you :)
I am three weeks into my studies. My supervisor did not provide a very comprehensive project plan, so I am very lost. The job application and subsequent interviews were about waste heat application and district heating. Though, the current project seems to be about agroindustiral energy symbiosis. I suppose its related, but it did put a wrench in what I thought I was suppose to do.
Good job Andy 👏
Great video Andy! Question: do you have any videos on how to apply for a post at a different university from the one I am doing my PhD at? specifically, I am referring to applying for the role of "visiting researcher". My university and division has connection with some very renowned universities and one of the reasons I want to apply for the above mentioned role at these unis is because of the reason you listed above (planning beyond my PhD). I thought if the post overseas is interesting enough and the uni itself is well established academically AND industry wise, then that should strengthen my potential new role in the industry (IF I don't find any available role in academia). What is your take on this? Would love to hear it
I agree with all of the points you raised.
One thing I would add about career planning is this. Don't just have one goal. Create a plan that is more like a cascading set of failsafes, where you can aim for your top goals but you'll fall into something that's still quite acceptable to you if you don't make it.
For example, maybe your goal is to be a tenure-track professor at a research university. The odds of that are very low, but if you are planning your publication goals, projects, and so forth with that in mind, then even if you miss the primary goal you could still be well qualified to land in a national lab position, which would still be pretty comfortable in terms of benefits and compensation, and allow you to have a substantial degree of control over your own projects and so forth. Or perhaps you want your landing position to be a well-paid industrial position, in which case you could choose projects that might land your dream job but also includes a number of skills that would make you attractive to your target industrial sector (eg., semiconductor fab, computer programming, etc.).
Or perhaps you want to teach in a liberal arts teaching college, but failing that maybe you would consider it a good consolation to set yourself up to be a high school teacher, a science writer, or something similar. In that case, you could plan your projects, which might include teaching courses at your graduate university or focusing on Science Education research, keeping in mind what story you ultimately want your CV to tell about yourself.
This is a conversation that, like you say Andy, should start early and could be fluid. You don't have to still want to do the same thing after your PhD, that you wanted to do before hand, but hopefully you realized that somewhere along the way and adjusted as necessary.
Above all, I would encourage people to have dreams and goals, but also be flexible. In our field, often very little can be determined by us. We're subject to factors out of our control, and it could be that you take a wide detour before finally getting to where you want to be. It could be that you never get there. You might find a different door opens to you that you had never considered, but you end up liking that route just fine after trying it out. Maybe you are led to a non-traditional path. Maybe you get your goal, only to realize that you actually don't like the result. By the time you end a 30-40 year career, you're very likely to have experienced a great deal of highs and lows, successes and failures, successes that led to the worse and failures that actually ended up for the better.
All you can do is make the best of what you have, and for gosh sakes, carve out some time to do things. Whether that be volunteering, joining a martial art or gym, taking a pottery class, or setting up a D&D group. Life gets much better when you're doing something that you find personally invigorating, even if it's only an hour or two a week. Unless it's Qual season or something, you can probably find an hour.
Keep going sir.
Sir I appreciate your efforts for people like us
Thank you, I will
Thanks 😊
It will be really interesting I guess if you give some advices about lab notebook. In the beginning it hard to understand what is important to write down and what is not. How is it working for you? Is there any structure in this notifications? I'm trying to understand what works for me so looking for the references.
Thank you for your content. It is really useful!
Thanks Andy Stapleton
Hi Andy, love your videos. I am looking for help for my friend currently doing a PhD in Germany. He is struggling to adapt to his current lab environment which sounds not at all inclusive. This is affecting his mental health badly. I was wondering if quitting the current position and trying for another one is possible or not. Or, is there any other solution for this. I would really appreciate it if you can help me with this.
thank you
Ugh, I need to get a lab book because I've mistakenly relied on other's memories.
Thank you, I will watch this video often throughout my PhD.
You are welcome!
Agreed. Perfection is the enemy of progress.
Hi. Could you make a video on the format of SOP needed for PhD and other admission procedures. Thanks.
Andy has one already, check his videos :)
Thanks
Middle of my second masters… GoodNotes is my go-to for notes
That is important. Thanks Andy.
One thing, I want to know what range is the hourly rate for a PhD student in Australia, if he/she managed to find some consultancy work (apart from uni or supervisors' research program)?
I'm not sure I could give you an accurate answer without knowing your skills/current market demand for the skills/offering etc...
I love you man
Good afternoon... I'd like to ask you in which cases the PhD title can be revoked
Thank you for answering... Good bye
One quote that helped me shake off my perfectionism is "the perfect first draft is an existing one"
Sir...is Ph.D. in environmental engineering worth after completing masters in chemistry?
Curious why PhD in engineering and not another masters. Less time, sooner on the job market. Unless you want to be in academia?