If you have a PhD - what advice would you give someone who is about to start?

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I am very likely to start a PhD after Christmas. It won’t be easy as I have 3 School age children... but I have recently discovered a research area I am fascinated about and have the motivation. I work as a senior lecturer full-time in a post-1992 University, btw, so I guess it’s a conducive environment for this sort of things.

I know I can have the right stamina as I have already written two books about my subject, but that was before the children came along... I feel very daunted now! I know too many people with mental health issues directly related to their PhDs and want to avoid that.

What advice would you give someone in my position?

If you already have two books on the subject, can you not do a PhD by publication?

Choose your supervisor(s) very, very carefully. Part of the issues I had completing mine was a terrible supervisor. World class in a particular field, but totally unavailable to his students. He never once read a draft of any of the chapters! (This was a long time ago ...)

The Head of Dept picked him. I should have stood up to them but was only 21/22 so felt a bit out of my depth. Use your years of experience to pick someone with not just knowledge but time and enthusiasm.,

Good luck!

Hi. The books I wrote were textbooks and haven’t got the research calibre you’d expect for a PhD by publication.

Thanks for your suggestion about the supervisors... how do I know how good someone is as a supervisor, though?

You could ask their previous students. Try and find out how many they have guided to a pass! I wish I'd known that; my supervisor was shocking.

Agreed - pick your supervisor very carefully. Look at their research output but also talk to their former students. Look at their day-to-day workload and duties too - I know am academic who never had the time to see her PhD students because she is travelling so much.

Know that it is a huge amount of work. It's on a different scale from writing a textbook.

Be prepared for your mental health to be affected, you may start to doubt yourself and your abilities, and to feel quite isolated. (speaking from personal experience).

They should have some kind of c.v. up on the departmental website. Plus, word of mouth - ask around, find out who is highly regarded by students as having time for them. Do they read drafts? Stick to agreed meeting times?

I'd actually consider a first-time PhD supervisor if they ticked the other boxes, and an experienced supervisor was also named as part of the supervision team.

Only do a PhD if you cannot bear not to.

And think ahead to the time (quite possibly the last three years of it) when you've done all the fun part (diving into data, exploring the field, finding your actual thesis) and all you are left with is the grind of writing the thing up. They don't call it write-up hell just to be cute... If you still can't bear not to do it, then go for it!

Treat it like a (flexible) job - work hard but don't let it take over your life.
Trust your instincts picking a supervisor you will work well with - and ask their current/previous students what they're like. Assuming you will have a couple of supervisors, one experienced one and one less experienced one is a good balance IMO - you want expertise in the field, but also enthusiasm for your project and someone with the time to actually help when needed.
Have/build a good support network (both others in academia, and those outside it, for perspective)
Write up as much as possible as you go along.
Own your project from the very start, say yes to opportunities that arise but also don't be afraid to say no to things that you aren't interested in or won't take your career in a direction that you want to go.

Forgive a really pointless question but how does one become a senior lecturer without being in possession of a PhD? (Ongoing family argument ...)

A PhD is a demanding full-time job (at least in the sciences, I don't have experience of humanities subjects). You need to be prepared to take ownership of your project, work independently and to have very strong self-motivation. And be prepared for failures along the way. It is entirely different from doing a masters degree.

If you are passionately interested in your subject, then it can be an incredibly fulfilling experience. And on your own personal research topic, you will probably end up being the world expert!

SL at my institution is just the top end of L at pre-92 institutions.

I have lots of colleagues at SL level who came in based on their professional qualifications and experience. It’s not uncommon in areas that require professionally qualified educators (such as nursing or social work) or in areas where industry experience is really important (this applies to many subjects in the business school or engineering and computer science departments at my institution. And, actually, in lots of the more creative practice areas too, like film, journalism or creative writing).

The university now expects most of these staff to do PhDs while they work. But not all, because even the unrealistic fools who run this place seem to have some understanding that lots of the people with the skills and experience they require could earn more (much more often) in industry and they’ll just do that if the university starts demanding the moon on a stick. Or they won’t be able to attract the kind of people they’re looking for.

Watching with interest as I'll hopefully be applying and registering over the summer to do a part-time PhD.

Oh, and I'm a lecturer in a RG university. Essentially what used to be a teaching fellow. I was hired for my professional experience to teach on a vocational degree. I can't get promoted to SL without a PhD in my institution, but there is talk of changing that.

Will you be doing the PhD part-time? Keep in mind this is far more demanding than a full-time PhD. The PhD is a marathon, you really need a lot of strength of will to keep at it, and the part-time option is even more demanding in this respect. It is easy to let work and family take over, so that weeks go by with no work on the PhD. This means you have to get back in the mood and recover materials already studied to get going again.

Your supervisor is crucial for support. Try to find someone who compliments your research interests but also is someone you can work with on a personal level (try to meet the supervisor at a conference or make an appointment for an exploratory meeting).

I assume the Uni you will do the PhD at may well be distant from where you are based? This will also make a difference, as local students will find it easy to attend graduate seminars, visiting speakers talks, conferences, social events, etc. and will have more of a support network through-out the PhD.

look at other phd theses in your area (most unis now have an online archive of completed phd theses as pdfs). that will give you an idea of how much work you will need to do and how much you will need to write. Some students some in to a PhD with plans that are MUCH too ambitious, and it is useful to look at a thesis and see how big it is (less than they think) and how it can be broken down into doable chunks.

And I agree with all the points above that getting a good supervisor is critical - talk to that person's existing students to find out if they are available and helpful.

Within your environment I would be looking to do a PhD by publication. It's great you have job security already!
Yes to ensuring you are compatible with supervisor. How many other PhD students do they have? How many meetings would you have? What research training is offered by your institution. A PhD is largely about research skills training. Mine makes barely a tiny dent in my field but I learned a great deal about research by doing it.
There's a Facebook group for PhD and early career researcher parents - it can be very useful.

My most practical tips are to write as much as you can, even from the start. It's all useful. In particular, keep detailed notes on your methods - why you took decisions will be really important when writing up.

Camscanner and something like Evernote for keeping track of notes and lectures by others.

Use a reference manager like Mendeley.

Accept you will never read or remember everything.

Good luck!

I did similar; biggest challenge was time.
Of course, on paper my research time within my workload was for my PhD but in practice teaching and admin always came first so I should have been stricter with that.
Only way I managed in the end was to get a chunk of study leave (just a few weeks, but it helped), and to get up at 4.30/5 for a few months and write then.
Took me 7 years on a part time basis. Suspended study for one year due to workload.
Find a PATIENT supervisor 😂

Hi! Thanks for all the advice, I haven't checked my account for a few days! There are some great tips here, thanks.

In practical terms, what ideas can you give me to keep my motivation up? I'm planning on a "little and often" approach. One of you said you'd get up really early and put in a few hours before work- I definitively see how that would work for me as I'm an early riser - problem is, that's when I go for my run!

Anything else to stop it feeling like such an enormity?

Can you devote one day a week, or two half days to the PhD and make sure you are always writing something?

Break everything down into chunks

Obviously this is subject dependent as to exactly how this can work, but essentially I planned out my thesis structure at the start of my PhD, with my supervisors help - introduction + lit review, three 'research' chapters on X, Y, and Z, and a general discussion.

Then break each step down into manageable chunks. Write a tick list if you like (I'd end up with several, going into more and more detail for more specific aspects - obviously you add to these as you go along as you won't know everything you need to do at the start)
This way you can see when you're making progress and ticking items off is great for your morale.

How pertinent that I read this today, basically it sums up, “I wanted to change the world but I couldn’t find a babysitter”.
Be fierce about creating time for this! I wish I had been fiercer....

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/21/woman-greatest-enemy-lack-of-time-themselves?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1563866158

Excellent article, Always. As someone who just obtained her PhD (graduated last week!) my Viz-style top tip would be to get divorced. The fact that dd went to her father's house every second weekend gave me that chunk of time to work in. It wasn't that hard to focus during that time, because I knew that if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to make up the time. The whips of terror drove me on.

As the article suggestions, cut back on any housework. I can't remember the name off-hand, but I read a feminist writer praising Virginia Woolf for paring her domestic obligations to the "slatternly minimum" (yes, yes, I know about the servants) and I like to pride myself on doing similar.

You're welcome.

In other words, be a bad woman.

Watching with interest, as I am also thinking of taking the plunge.

I'm writing up at the mo. A bit different to what the other posters have suggested but I would say really examine why you want to do a PhD. From what I can see in my department (and beyond) PhDs don't cause mental health problems. Instead the people who choose to do PhDs often have low self esteem or a poorly defined sense of identity to begin with. They believe the PhD will fix that, it doesn't, they get depressed

Really interesting article, Always - Thanks!

Springfern That's a thought-provoking observation, but I don't think it's true of most of those I know...I suppose many of them would've been considered more 'neurotic' than average, though! But imho there are aspects of doing a PhD that can grind down even very bright, capable people.

OP, I did my PhD pre-child (and there won't be another) but found it hard going financially for a few years afterwards to cobble together an academic career. Having a SL job already would alleviate that...so (depending on the specialism) it makes me wonder what's stopping you from e.g. trying to carve out some time to write papers and go for PhD by publication in a few years, as others suggested? But you'll obviously know whether that might work or not better than me, so I don't know if this is a very helpful suggestion!