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So, you want to do a PhD...
So near and yet so far (writing up)
There comes a time when everything has to end and this applies to your
PhD as well. Typically, this is when funding for your PhD runs
out. Many universities are also under pressure to have their PhD
students finish within a certain time limit. Regardless of the exact
reasons, at some point your supervisor will ask you to start writing
up, i.e. write the actual PhD thesis. It's difficult to predict how
long it will take you to write up, and this of course depends on the
individual circumstances, but something like 6 months is not a bad
estimate. Like any of the other stages of your PhD, the write-up stage
has it's own charm (i.e. things that drive you insane).
- Never mind how often you've thought your PhD could not end soon
enough. When it actually comes to finishing, you can't let
go. The main reason for this is that you suddenly realize how
much is missing and not done properly. All these experiments you
were planning to run but didn't get around to at the time. And the
fact that you can't remember exactly how the code was working
doesn't help either. You have a bunch of approaches and papers
describing them, but how does it all fit together? This is the
time when that by now obscure, but finely crafted research plan
(see above), will haunt you. You realize now that you should
have stuck to it earlier on when the material was still fresh in
your mind and you actually knew all the details, including how to
run your code. Together with your supervisor, who is probably
better in grasping the bigger picture than most PhD students (no
offense, this comes with experience and you will get there as
well), prioritize the things that need to be addressed to connect
your approaches so they tell a coherent story again. This effort
of connecting the dots is one of the main reasons why it takes 6
months or so to write up.
- Another reason why you can't let go is because you have become a
perfectionist. You know your work and the research area like nobody
else, and you know all the shortcomings and imperfections of your
approach. You'd be embarrassed to let anybody else see your PhD
thesis before all the kinks have been ironed out. Don't
worry. Science by definition is incomplete and nobody really solves
a problem to the last tiny detail. If researchers did, what would
happen to all the poor PhD students of the next generation? There
wouldn't be anything left for them to do. In other words see the
imperfections in your PhD thesis as a contribution to science that
helps keep the scientific world go round. On the other hand do point
out any shortcomings of your approach (you can even sketch a
solution). This shows the PhD committee that you have thought about
it and that you know what you're talking about. Every PhD committee
member is sympathetic to the fact that you can't solve every little
detail in the limited time you've had to do your PhD.
- Finishing your PhD thesis is surely the most important thing at
this stage, but don't forget, you also have to defend your thesis
in front of a PhD committee. The exact constellation of a PhD
committee depends on the regulations of your university. Common to
most requirements I've seen is the fact that your supervisor doesn't
play much of a role in the committee itself, after all he or she is
not really an objective party in this. Also most committees are
required to have an external member, i.e., a member from a different
university. Check these details with your supervisor who should
invite people to the committee well in advance of your defense. It's
worth the effort to think who both of you want to have on the
committee. On the one hand it's nice to have big names on it as this
is a nice opportunity to present your work to them and get their
detailed feedback. At the same time you don't want to invite
somebody who's known to be particularly nasty. Again, try to find
the right balance. Trust your supervisor's judgment who should know
many of these people for a long time.
- As if by writing up you don't have enough on your plate, you
should also start thinking about what you want to do after your
PhD. It can easily take 6 months between applying for and
starting a job. Unless you're planning to take a very long break
after your PhD and have the financial means to support yourself, you
need to think about this, and indeed apply for a job, before you
actually finish. Quite a few supervisors discourage their students
from applying before finishing, as their main concern is to get them
finish in time. Personally, I disagree with that. I think not
knowing what you're gonna do afterwards can be yet another stress
factor, and additional stress is the last thing you need right now.
I'm not gonna go into the details of job hunting here, as this would
take up too much space, but here's some common sense advice: (a)
Networking is the single most promising strategy to land a job. Talk
to people at conferences, and 'drop' the fact that you're about to
finish. (b) Talk to other senior people in the department about
their advice. (c) Subscribe to the relevant email lists that
frequently post job announcements.
Next: Done! (the big anti-climax)
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