After 12 months and a few blog entries, my thoughts on being a PhD student

In about a month, it will be a year since I started my PhD. As this blog is entitled 'Accounts of a Confused Postgraduate', I thought I ought to break off from the musings to try and offer a few thoughts as to what to do if you ever start down this road:

1. Remember at all times that all secretaries are your friends. Your supervisor(s) may be the acknowledged world experts on your subject area, but secretaries are the one's who know where the forms go and where room X is.
   
   
2. Cultivate a hobby and stick with it. At this moment in time you love your proposed subject area and can't imagine anything better than researching it. Remember though that you are going to be spending the next three years concentrating exclusively on this topic. Have something to do that's not research-based, or you will go mad.
   
   
3. If you can't cook at all, learn. If you can cook, make sure you have a meal or two that you can always throw together in five minutes. Whatever happens, try and eat a well-balanced meal three times a day. Your brain is your key resource and it won't function at its best on junk food and beer.
   
   
4. It is possible to drink too much caffeine/eat too much chocolate. Remember 'a (reasonably) healthy mind in a (reasonably) healthy body'
   
   
5. Your chance of getting research funding varies according according to your proposal strength and subject area. Work like fury on that research proposal.
   
   
6. There will be point when you're tired, frazzled and can't think properly. You have no idea what to put into your thesis next, it's Friday night, and everyone outside seems to be having the time of their lives. Speaking as an humanities student, there are two ways of dealing with these moments. Firstly, have some other work you can go off and do while waiting for inspiration on your thesis (I chose either book reviews or papers) or just a random bit of escapism (video games for instance). The second is to simply press on and force a conclusion to what you're writing. It's up to you to learn when to use each technique.
   
   
7. Despite that though, remember that you are a human being. You are entitled to spend some time away from your work with friends. Don't let it overwhelm you and always have a clear idea as to what the aims of your research are. You will have to adapt any research plan as time goes on, but always have a few clear aims in mind as to why it is you're here.
   
   
8. Your supervisor(s) are immensely clever people, acknowledged experts in your area, with far better research skills than you. Remember though that they were once post-grad researchers themselves. Don't be afraid to ask them questions – that's what they're being paid to be supervisors for. If you have a question, don't be intrusive, but at the same time always ask if you think someone in your department/faculty can answer it. A question asked in honest inquiry is never unfruitful. What you learn might be that it's a bad question, but you have learnt something.
   
   
9. Learn the lingo and people involved. This year for instance I've been a HUSS SSLC PGR rep (school of Humanities and Social Sciences Staff-Student Liaison Committee Post-Graduate Researcher representative). Alright, that was perhaps an extreme example. Like all areas through of society post-graduate research has its own vocabulary and it is helpful to know it. Also, and this is more useful, learn the major bodies involved in your area. Know which is your Research Council, what the Leverhulme Trust is, and who the major society involved in your research is. Pick up on what are the major publications in your field. Learn the relevant deadlines for funding and make a note of them (buy a diary!). Get to know the important figures in research. Which leads us on to –
   
   
10. Officially your PhD is the process of your doing your thesis over 3-4 years (increasingly 3-4 years is the time limit research councils set universities). Unofficially there's more to it than that. Your PhD is the process of your becoming what it is you want to do next. If you want to be an academic, then you have to start submitting conference proposals and trying to get papers published. If there's an organising committee you can be on, get on it! If your university is offering a career development scheme, put your name down for as many classes as you can! The number of people leaving universities with PhDs in this country is far more than the number of available academic places. The Academy does not owe you a living; it's up to you to get yourself ready for the big wild world. Your thesis is still central to your doctorate, but there's a lot more to it than just that.

Whatever happens to you, remember that you're starting out on an exciting time in your life. Doing a doctorate enables you to do move onto a whole new level. You will be doing your own research, developing those skills and building on those experiences you've explored while doing your BA and MA. It is a lot of work, but there are a whole lot of great moments that make up for it – I got to leaf through a whole lot of Winston Churchill's handwritten letters this year, and as an historian let me tell you that that's pretty cool. You'll be mixing too with some of the fine young minds of this generation; cross-pollinating ideas and building the Academy of tomorrow.

Make sure you know what you're researching. Know which university and scholar you want to research with. Try your best to get calm, reasonable house-mates; it does matter a lot. Make mates, do your best and keep a level head while you're doing it.

God bless, and best of luck