Things about a PhD nobody told you about | Laura Valadez-Martinez | TEDxLoughboroughU

so right now there are 740,000 students enrolling a PhD in Europe that is two every thousand of the adult population is enrolled in a doctorate degree a doctor of philosophy known as PhD or defil comes from the Latin to teach and the Greek love of wisdom it is a process where you're meant to master his ins and outs of a topic that really is of your interest it is a process where you can learn and expand your knowledge and really get to know what something is about a PhD usually starts with some proposal that contains research questions some methodology some justification about why this is important you're supposed to write a thesis about 100,000 words or so so it's a long piece of work you work under the guidance of a supervisor and then you defend your work after an examiner panel you are encouraged to publish in academic journals and in some countries there may be some teaching and some cour work involved so this is how the process usually looks like that's the formal standard definition of what happens in a PhD nevertheless there are many things on how to do a PhD well a simple Google search for the phrase how to write a PhD throws about two and a half Million results so there are books magazines blogs articles you name it there's a lot of information on how to do well in a PhD universi tell you this is what you have to do this is what you have to fulfill to finish your degree and to be called a doctor fine enough nevertheless there are a few things nobody talks about there are a few things that you discover while doing that Journey so today I will focus on seven of those I will take you through my experience when I did my PhD on these issues that I found and some ideas on how to overcome them so the first one is I'm stuck I don't know what is next probably we have heard of the term writer's block when somebody is not being able to make progress in their thesis or make any progress in their writing in a PhD however being stuck could be much more it could be stuck with ideas stuck with methodology not knowing how how to do it how to run a model stuck with not knowing where to find the literature stuck with not knowing how to analyze the results so there are many many mental processes taking place while you're doing a PhD they go go from vocabulary to memory analysis synthesis so it is only normal to feel stuck at certain point and not knowing what is next but hey nobody told me about the need to think so it is important to have some thinking time reading takes time knowing how to do something takes time learning a new method takes time so it is important to yes read a lot but to yourself and think and really make sense of the things you're reading and this thinking time is really important the Second Challenge is well there is more and yes a lot more there are more books to read more authors to find more methods to try more questions to address there's always something more I usually say that doing a PhD is like opening doors so each of these knowledge doors you open leads to A Whole New World of research and each of these doors that you open they go to another world of research so new books new Authors new things so do you really want to go there do you really want to keep going and lose the original starting point so well nobody told me about the importance of leaving things out actually it is important to leave make sure that you really focus on what you're doing doing yes it is important to read new things but also concentrate on what you actually want to do many of the readings that you will read will have to stay in the drawer and many of the calculations that you will do will have to go to the trash bin that could be very frustrating and it doesn't look like progress but that is progress so leaving things out is actually making progress in your thesis sometimes you have to read a lot to really understand what is important for your own work or to actually say no this is not important I'll have to leave it out a third challenge that I have found is I have no motivation doing a PhD is meant to be difficult it is not meant to be something easy we have heard oh it's a marathon yes a PhD is a marathon with a few Springs as well but mainly a marathon where the work is constant and it's long and the end result is over there very far and yes it is very easy to find lack of motivation a recent study in the UK showed that three out of 10 doctoral students will not finish their degree within seven years and obviously many many things take place and many things play a role in attrition rates or why someone is not finishing their doctorate degree nevertheless lack of motivation is certainly one of those but nobody told me hey ch up and you can do it so I will not either instead I will say work work really hard and then keep working as painter Pablo Picasso said inspiration does exist but it has to find you working so yes a PhD it is a constant process where you're working but nobody told me about the importance of tiny progress so all these readings that you're reading and all these calculations that you're doing all the paragraphs that you're writing that is progress you may not feel like that but that is progress and that is important so these tiny achievements are really important they give you this sense of accomplishment that you're really doing something because while writing a PhD thesis there's always something you could be doing so if you're struggling really with writing a paragraph then try something else try sketching maybe your methodology chapter or if you're tired of running calculations then go and find your graphs and try to make them pretty so there's always something you could be doing even though it's small and Tiny that is progress and that's how a PhD is done on the other hand you can also find tiny progress somewhere else so it doesn't have to be in your thesis I would say actually find something else you could be doing where you can find that sense of accomplishment and that you're making progress that is important in your life it could be something like baking a cake it could be joining a class doing a painting even though you're not good at painting but just try it out and having that sense that something is finished is really important if a PhD is a long process where you're working constantly and the work is there and there's always something there that you have to do having this tiny progress elsewhere really keeps you going and that gives you the motivation to keep going through the PHD process now a first challenge that I found is I forgot what I did it may sound crazy but yes you may forget what you did sometimes you may forget what you just did a minute ago because a PhD requires working long hours maybe you haven't slept maybe you've been reading a lot and you forget you have stress you have deadline something is approaching so it is very easy to get confused and to forget what you did so nobody told me about importance of having a research diary well actually somebody did and that is one of the best advices I having been given so write at research Di and I mean write the decisions you make and why you made them while I was working on my PhD I had to run some calculations to model the effects of poverty on children I had a data set with more than 3,000 variables and more than 25 ,000 cases some information was at the individual level some information was at the household level some information was at the microeconomic level and I had to put everything together to model how the effects of poverty would affect children obviously with all these theories going around it so yes a PhD is a constant process from going between detail and generality so it's easy to forget why you were doing something and if you're tired and you haven't slept it's like why why did I do that so this is how the space under my desk look like there are a lot of notes hundreds of them just tracking every decision how I change every variable if this variable meant this then I wrote it down if I then decided to change it I would say why because then it's very easy to forget and say why did I change that so it's important to keep this research diary and as I said it's an advice that I was passed on to so I'm sharing it with you related to that if you're working in quantitative research write up syntax it is kind of a research di but in the program you're working with so it's a way to keep track of the variables what you're doing but not only that it will allow you to find mistakes and to replicate the analysis so if you want to do again this type of research with another data set or with something else you could you could use that syntax to write it down and also Rel related to that well never ever this may sound easy and simple but never ever save changes on the orinal data set if you're working with data sets my models ended up looking like multi- poty multi poverty 2003 multi poverty 2003 new multi poverty 2003 new without housing multi- poverty final I can see some people are laughing is probably that sounds familiar I don't know I don't know if that's the best way or not but at least it helped me to keep track of what I was doing or what was going on and then when something said final final this is the good one well that was a good one so do not delete that data set moving on to the fifth Channel I mean challenge well I'm not sure this is relevant suddenly one of the biggest questions in base your mind is this actually relevant is this important is it adding anything to the world is it adding anything to the knowledge is anybody going to read this well according to the oecd doctoral holders are expected to play a key role in society because they drive forward the advances in knowledge science and technology that is one big statement and that reveals great expectations so yes no wonder why it's easy to feel fear and to be afraid of not knowing what to do of being afraid that this is relevant or not so my ideas is well nobody told me about self assurance it's important to be self assured and I have a couple of those one way to be self assured is to read The Originals to read the original documents social policy scholar esping Anderson said Adam Smith is often cited but rarely read so if you're going to use Adam Smith in your thesis go find Adam Smith don't r on someone else he said that this is part of good scholarship anyway but if you're using some author go and find the original Source because not only you will find new ideas and new approaches but it will help you to find how it connects to your research a second way is well get in touch and be updated read journals go to conferences find out who else is working your topic that is important because not only you will learn from each other but also you will know that you're on the right track the sixth challenge is I feel lonely a PhD could be a lonely process and I mean a very lonely process so yes a PhD is done in solitude but it doesn't have to be a lonely process a study of the University California Berkeley recently found that around half of postgraduate students suffer from some kind of depression and obviously many things play a role in depression but feeling lonely in a process that is already long and difficult does not help so nobody told me about the importance of being connected one way of being connected is get involved in your department talk to your colleagues but not only about academic things but also saying well I don't know I feel lost I don't know what to do I don't know how this is done find a way to be connected to others that are there another way to be connected is talk to your supervisor well you are the only person in the world who knows exactly that topic the best way but that second person should be your supervisor so talk to them find a way to connect to them and say I don't know what is next I don't know how to do this so it's being honest and being humble in in knowing that research is difficult and this is a process that is long a third way to connect to the world is find something simple for example buying a plant well you don't have to but I did and I see my I saw mine grown during four years and it was rewarding so it was nice it was a way to connect to the world but another one is also connect to your family and friends people who are outside Academia so it's a reminder that there are problems out there that are not related to not knowing how to write a paragraph that are not related in not models not converging not finding the right information so find ways to connect with other people and also by by the way be prepared be prepared and to explain how your 4year thesis your 100,000 work summarizes in two phrases because they will ask and not only they will ask but that is a sense of accomplishment you know when you're able to say this is my thesis in a sentence or two you have made progress because you know what you're talking about and well finally what is the right way but nobody told me that either I don't know some people work office hours 9:21 225 some people work during the night some people work during the weekend and then nothing during the day I don't know it's up to you there is no single correct approach it is that process where you can find really what interests you and find your own way I have said many things now but this is just my journey this is my experience so it is up to you if you're starting a PhD or you're thinking about it there are no secret recipes on how to succeed you have to find your own ways so leave it enjoy it shape it now you've been told thank you very much

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 1,970,262

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United Kingdom, Education, Higher education

Id: CAKsQf77nHU

Length: 16min 23sec (983 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 13 2016