Basically it is about this PhD thing. I wanted to do this, I always knew about how much trouble I could get, I was aware of the amount of work it would be and how many hours of my life I would have to spend doing this but still I went for it and I am now doing it.. THE PHD!So, please let me introduce you the PhD sort of (entertaining aka complex) life:
It doesnt matter which day it is, if it is raining, if you are ill, anything can happen BUT once entitled PhD student you are always ready to work.. NO way to overturned it! NO one accepts your excuses though.. (don not try to become creative!)
As a PhD student you have a lot to do, you have to plan experiments, you have to run them, you have to read a lot, you have to write everything you do, everything you intend to do and everything you didn’t do but you should have done.. And every result you might get (thats doesn’t usually takes much time because there are never much results anyway.. So you end up spending your time writing about the frustrations). One have to meet the supervisor, one have to go to seminars, have to review papers, have to be social and nice (even when everything is going crap) and of course attend for the very much popular journal clubs where a few groups meet weekly for a scientific conversation.. so boring (I missed the journal club today by the way.. )
From my personal experience I havent got my superboss, I mean supervisor, in the lab (thanks God!!!), but I know a lot of people who did have this experience and I can state their experience here: more or less it was always very painful and never actually resulted very well.. it usually brings a lot of trouble to the students since supervisors become old and out of date they cant perform experiments anymore and they don’t know how things work anymore.. New software, new devices, new machines, all electronic... Supervisors look simply good sitting on their desks, writing grants and other shit stuff and that’s all. No supervisors in the lab, please, they have to understand that things changed in the last 20 years! The PhD is already a lot difficult without the supervisor around, don’t make it worse please!
Another detail about being a PhD is that to do anything the procedure is always a hundred, up to one thousand times more complicated than for a professor.. Any thing since writing a letter, asking a permission, attending a course, applying for a desk or facility... whatever.. Why?? Because you write your name only without a title like Professor! When professor word is added as a prefix to your name your life goes so much easier and you suddenly get a lot of “slaves” and everyone think you are a sort of a king. You are then so respected that you don’t even have to spend time with formalities or politeness! No reason, you became a professor!
Same happens when you are an engineer in Portugal (ask my friends for more information ... http://towardsnothing.blogspot.com/ the person who writes this fairly interesting blog is an Portuguese engineer.. I hope he forgives me because of this advertising but he affirms that from personal experience).
The very last reason because one does a PhD is because that person wants to add a piece of knowledge to the subject/area where he or she belongs to and therefore results, RESULTS, are welcome and very expected..
Nonetheless, How much and how hard one has to work to get results is very subjective. Sometimes it just happens, one gets a shot of luck and results appear like magic. Other times, months away looking for a single result and althought it was just so much planned and seemed so interesting and logic and expected but it doesnt happen!
Supervisors always think that everything can be done quickly and easily (because they are not in the lab. they don’t know, they forgot a long time ago..) Its always hard to say that what we thought that was a brilliant idea did not bring out any results yet and yet..
Despite the bad things of being a PhD student which are just so many and it makes your life really shity sometimes, there are the good points:
- you are a student and as a student one has the student benefits, can behave like a student and that means that you are not an adult for real and can avoid a lot of adult stuff!
- And.. thats it! No more advantages, sorry! (But if you are a PhD student and you feel I am being unjust please I welcome your comments!!)
- 12 hours in the lab, work during the weekend, stay late, dream about the experiments, have a great idea during the dream, but it doesnt work in the reality, go back to the dream and it doesnt work anyway, go back to the lab and it does work at all.
- Read a lot of stuff, have piles of books sitting next to the computer but read the emails, facebook a lit bit and write your blog instead of updating your knowledge reading the latest published papers and so on and in the end of the day complain about it and about the loads of overdue work to do!
I am a 7 months PhD student and I have got more three years to go.. can you imagine?? I cant but just as like AA: One Day At A Time! And its not that bad any way.
If you feel like doing it: think twice!
If you are not sure: think 10 times
If you don’t want but your being persuaded: give up!
3 comments:
LOL, you are exaggerating a bit, there are more advantages, flexible hours, flexible holidays, more holidays if you actually take them :P a taste of the real world, the coolness effect on people who don't know what a PhD is, etc ;P Besides i hear you meet very interesting people during your PhD ;)
I agree with the flexible holidays!
I forgot to tell that the subject of the PhD makes a lot of difference in how nice/rubbish your life becomes! I talked from the biochesmist point of view.
There are few nice people. mostly everyone is boring and lacks social skills.
Thats why I say 'thats not that bad'..
Thanks for your opionion :)
Thank God I stuck to MSc!
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