You are here:  Home  Blog  Blog Details

Saturday 4th February 2012

Advice for starting a PhD

Blog Archive

Advice for starting a PhD

Posted by Guest Blogger 21 July 2010 Careers |  Graduates |  Guest blogger |  Technology It can be daunting starting a PhD so here's some hands-on advice from Hannah Dee, a computer vision researcher, who finished a one year post doc in Grenoble, France at the end of May 2010. Prior to that she did a three year post doc in Leeds and six months in Kingston upon Thames. Hannah is a 'women in computing' activist and is deputy chair of BCSWomen, the British Computer Society's group for women. She writes articles on her research and on women in computing and she also walks up hills, cycles everywhere, drinks beer, takes photos, reads a lot of books, listens to music and tries to give up smoking. She's also currently looking for work...!

Here's her advice for those of you starting out on a PhD:

  1. DO NOT fall out with your supervisor. This relationship is the most important one to maintain. Try to find others who you can discuss your work with, too; this can take some of the stress out of the student-supervisor relationship, but be careful of treading on academic toes.

  2. Keep a diary - this can be a blog or a paper thing, but take time out to write down what you've been doing. I wasn't very good at this and found that when I revisited old work (particularly old code) I sometimes wasted hours working out exactly how to run it!

  3. Work out how to manage your supervisor. Some places have a "meet every week" regime, others are more lax. Work out how often you want to meet, and try to get a schedule sorted. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want - this is your PhD, take ownership of the learning process. I liked to meet mine every week so got the meetings in his diary; sometimes we only took 15 minutes, but having a regular slot and a regular chat really helped motivate me.

  4. Work out what the top publications in your area are. Read them (or at least skim the paper titles) every time they come out (monthly, quarterly, annually).  In every field there's a hierarchy of journals and conferences, and you should have some idea of what this is, and some idea of the sorts of things they publish.

  5. Write up your work properly, and try to publish it in refereed conferences and journals. Not only does this force you to get your ideas in order and evaluated, it is also good for getting jobs later. But perhaps more importantly, it's a kind of safety net as you're getting your academic work out there and evaluated by your peers. If your PhD has led to a couple of good conference publications by the time you submit, it can be harder for them to fail you as your work has already been judged to be worthy of publication. Conferences are huge motivation boosters, too – seeing what everyone else is up to, meeting people in other departments, networking, and free stuff!

  6. You will get bored, depressed, tired, and fed up. This will happen about half way through your second year. This is normal. When it happens, talk to people, review and write up what you've done so far, try to get to a conference for a motivation boost, and persuade yourself that it's all part of the process.  This is where having a support network can really come in handy – if an article on the internet (like this one) tells you it happens to everyone, that might provide some comfort when the second-year-blues strike. But if you've got a circle of friends, doing PhDs, maybe even at different universities or departments, and they all agree it happens... then that can provide real reassurance.

  7. Take advantage of courses, events, and conferences on offer that aren't specific to your own tiny research area. The London Hopper is an annual event for women PhD students in computing, and you should GO because it's fantastic fun. The BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium is an annual event for undergraduate and masters students in computing, but is free to attend for postgrads - consider going along, and maybe helping out. The British Science Association have competitions for postgrads, EPSRC have summer schools and events, VITAE the researcher support people hold events for postgrads across the UK. Your own institution will also have postgrad networking and training sessions. Go! Meet people studying in other disciplines! Get new skills!

Hannah Dee
http://www.hannahdee.eu
Delicious
Submit
1 comment
Apologies (a) for being related to Hannah (Uncle) and (b) for being a business person (not from academia). I think that in many cases there would be value in establishing some contacts outside of academia, in the business world. I expect that joining industry groups would be one way to do this, you could also research companies with an interest in your particular field. If a business thought there was a potential future employee, or even future business idea from the relationshio, then they might be prepared to help out. Just my 2 cents. A Phd is a huge commitment ... but like all great endeavors the rewards will justify the sacrifices.
Posted by Kevin Dee, Date 21 July 2010, 09:40 PM
Add new comment
*
*
*

Latest Jobs

  • Technical Architect (Infrastructure...

    Technical Architect (Infrastructure) The BBC is looking for a Technical Architect (Infrastructure) to join the Online Technology Group (OTG), part of BBC's Future Media division... More

  • Designer (Data Visualisation)

    Designer (Data Visualisation), BBC World Service As a designer with a keen eye for detail, a strong interest in typography, experience of working in a technically-orientated environment and experience designing for news... More

  • Senior Product Manager

    Senior Product Manager As a Senior Product Manager with significant experience of developing and deploying architectures and infrastructures for software engineering services in a new media multi-tiered application... More

  • Officer, Technical Helpdesk Advisor...

    The GPS EMEA Technical Helpdesk Team within the EMEA Technical Care Centre is responsible for the telephone and email support of all the Bank’s clients throughout the EMEA region who have one or more of the Bank’s... More

  • Senior PMO Analyst

    Are you a Messaging & Collaboration Programme Manager? Can you create financial reports? If the answer is yes then we are looking for you. At Ernst & Young... More

Job search

Job search