What academia has taught you
Academia has taught me that...
1) I am not in academia to make friends - this never happens in my field. Academics (and PhD students) have more enemies / competitors than friends in their field.
2) There is not such a thing as 'sympathy'. In fact, most likely our supervisors and our department don't care about us.
3) There is too much gossip in academia, in the field, and of course in the department.
4) Academia is not for people with weak nerves.
5) Academia (and the process of completing a PhD) can cause serious mental and physical problems, from driving people mental to adding them several layers of fat around their waistline.
So, what has academia taught you so far?
From my own experience (obviously we all have very different experiences of the process)
1. Academia is not what I want to do as a permanent thing, but then I didn't think it was anyway - always a means to an end
2. Academia is not always as hard as is sometimes made out
3. Academia is also not super easy
4. I prefer working in project teams for a clear goal when compared to working on my own towards a moving target!
5. There is as much gossip and back stabbing in my department as there is/was in industry. Office politics are unavoidable in any work environment
6. Academia can be a lot more up and down than my previous jobs - probably because there is no team to talk things over with.
very much agree with all of these! though one thing springs to mind for me, especially considering the situation im in at the moment. am weeks from submission, with last bits of feedback trickling in very slowly from my supervisor. am also waiting to start a post-doc that i was interviewed for, but the start date for that has recently been put back to the autumn.
so the one thing i have learned is that things will happen when they happen. you might push for tasks to be finished by a certain date, you might get impatient and curse the fact that in academia, everything seems to take 10 times longer than it does in the 'real' world, from getting back supervisor comments on your writing or conference expenses. but the moment you stop fighting it, and accept the fact that things will just trundle along at their own pace, the more serene it is possible to feel!
at least that's what i'm trying to tell myself at the moment!
;-)
very much agree with all of these! though one thing springs to mind for me, especially considering the situation im in at the moment. am weeks from submission, with last bits of feedback trickling in very slowly from my supervisor. am also waiting to start a post-doc that i was interviewed for, but the start date for that has recently been put back to the autumn.
so the one thing i have learned is that things will happen when they happen. you might push for tasks to be finished by a certain date, you might get impatient and curse the fact that in academia, everything seems to take 10 times longer than it does in the 'real' world, from getting back supervisor comments on your writing or conference expenses. but the moment you stop fighting it, and accept the fact that things will just trundle along at their own pace, the more serene it is possible to feel!
at least that's what i'm trying to tell myself at the moment!
;-)
How did I forget to add this! Quite right.
EVERYTHING in academia takes absolutely forever. It took 6 months for them to sort my RA contract properly. I started a slightly different role in May and still haven't been given an updated contract. I was meant to be joined by three PhD students in my new office and only one is here (he was in a different office previously so none of the "new" ones have started). It's an absolute joke. Also, because funding is like gold dust it's hard to get hold of anything that costs money. In my previous jobs, if I needed something (from a pen to a piece of software) I simply spoke to my boss and he would sort it out for me. Because I needed it to do my job. I was always given high quality equipment too. Here it's a battle to get anything and I am using a 5-6 year old computer!
I think I had a very different PhD experience to a lot of people. I made a lot of friends, in my department and in my field, I got on well with my supervisots and didn't have any mental or physical problems.
I learnt -
1) it's important to keep a work life balance and not get totally absorbed in your project to the detriment of other life aspects. I knew far too many people who would work all hours and feel guilty for any time off. Ok so my PhD took four years to complete, but I got there without a break down.
2) a thesis doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough.
3) if you want to stay in academia publications are the most important thing you can have.
4) If you're recruiting from the NHS, clinicinas will promise you the world but wont deliver unless your sat in front of them.
5) In a similar vein academics will often say they'll do something and then not actually ever do it. They need to be subtlly managed.
6) NHS research ethics is one of the most painful procedures you can go through.
I think I had a very different PhD experience to a lot of people. I made a lot of friends, in my department and in my field, I got on well with my supervisots and didn't have any mental or physical problems.
I learnt -
1) it's important to keep a work life balance and not get totally absorbed in your project to the detriment of other life aspects. I knew far too many people who would work all hours and feel guilty for any time off. Ok so my PhD took four years to complete, but I got there without a break down.
2) a thesis doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough.
3) if you want to stay in academia publications are the most important thing you can have.
4) If you're recruiting from the NHS, clinicinas will promise you the world but wont deliver unless your sat in front of them.
5) In a similar vein academics will often say they'll do something and then not actually ever do it. They need to be subtlly managed.
6) NHS research ethics is one of the most painful procedures you can go through.
Some good points here too, just to add (promise it's the last addition on this thread!) something that I have said many times on this board but feel it is important to repeat. You will end up with a very skewed view of academia just reading this board. I have been no more stressed at my most stressed in academia than at my most stressed in the "real world" job I had before. People come to this board to vent and to deal with problems (as they should), this means that in general there are more people struggling/not enjoying it on this board than there are overall. In my opinion the difference between academia and a professional job is not some gaping chasm that it is sometimes made out to be. Caitlin's post reminded me about this and also that it's not all bad and all slog, there are some really high points too! Sorry for rambling a bit.
1) a PhD isn't 'a journey' its just a big project.
2) everyone you know will at some point say "I'm going to do a PhD next year" no they won't, they have no idea what it involves and think it will just be like an undergrad degree.
3) Male academics do not do admin or do it badly so female academics have to take up the slack at the detriment of their research (currently happening in my uni)
4) the Dr title is worth it, especially when you can casually pull it out when talking to cold callers. "is Mrs Sneaks there??" "No, Dr. Sneaks is here though"
1) a PhD isn't 'a journey' its just a big project.
How so?
I just got loads of people telling me it was a journey - like contestants on X-Factor, i.e. it will change your life and be a massive struggle. This made me far more apprehensive about the whole thing and made me think it was more difficult than it was. If I'd had people saying "actually its just a big work project" then I'd have got it done sooner IMO and wouldn't have been so diffident about aspects of the work.
