Ross McFarlane's blog

Advice for New PhD Students

Advice for New PhD Students

Clare kindly asked me to contribute any advice I had for new PhD students. Unfortunately, as I’m up to my eyes in thesis-writing, I won’t be able to make the induction meeting. What you have here is everything I could think of in a 50-minute train journey from Liverpool to Manchester. If you’d like me to elucidate any of the points made here, feel free to get in touch. Just don’t expect a response any time before November.

I’m not going to pretend to tell you how to do your research. I wouldn’t have the first notion. Seriously. There are plenty of people with more experience of that than me—our department is full of them—who’ll happily help you in that regard. I will, however, offer some of my tips on how to handle PhD study in general—a few tools, habits and a couple of strategies that I’ve found helpful.

Congratulations

First of all, well done. You’re on your way to holding the highest academic qualification our system offers. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to wear a red cloak and have some extra-wide business cards printed with lots of letters after your name. Not bad. In the intervening years, you can expect to be inspired, excited, challenged, frustrated, upset and exhausted. I’m working on exhausted right now.

Over the next few years, you’re going to ingest, process, synthesise and produce a metric buttload of information. You have no chance of keeping track of it in your head. Even the most important information will slip your mind when you need it. That’s why you must…

Write Everything Down

Get into the habit of making notes on everything—minutes of meetings with your supervisor, summaries of papers you’ve read, plans, random thoughts you’ve had. Everything. Your writing needn’t be formal, or polished. Just do it. Despite having a folder full of notes, I wish I had kept even more.

There’s probably a whiteboard in your room. Use it. Wipe off whatever two-month-old scribble someone else left there and think big. Make a glorious mess of inter-related scribbles and, when you’re done, take a photo. I’ve found it immensely useful to solve any problems that have (even conceptually) moving parts.

From time to time, you should also write for an audience. Write little reports for your supervisor, write papers, write emails, write Write WRITE! Do it early and often. You’ll have to write a fair bit of nonsense before you produce anything of consequence, so it’s best to get started now. I’ve recently discovered a couple of half-written chapters that I made a year ago, which have saved me a load of time when writing up. Think of it as an investment.

Amidst all of the descriptions and details will be loads of little sparks; things you hoped you’d get round to at some point, or things you promised to someone. To avoid letting that stuff slip away you’ll need to…

Keep a To-Do List

Your life as a PhD student may lack the structure you’ve enjoyed in undergraduate study or work. I’ve found a to-do list to be really useful in regaining some of that structure. Make your tasks as granular as you bear and make them real, physical actions. If a task doesn’t start with a verb like “write”, “code” or “read”, then it’s not real. Half the battle with PhD work is turning vague notions into busy work you can do. A to-do list will help with that.

Don’t Worry About Your Workflow

If you’re anything like me, you’ll already have some ideas about how you can implement what I’ve described above. You’ll have a shortlist of To-Do apps to trial; you’ll have figured out how you’ll store and organise your notes, how you’ll name them. What about a web interface to search them…

After hours lost doing crap like that, I’ve come to the conclusion that we live in the 21st Century, and search is our friend. The majority of my stuff lives in a big folder called Archive. Email, too. Archive. Lost something? find. To aid search and to prevent further time loss, it’s also worth keeping your files in the most basic format you can. That’s plain text for most things. Markdown if necessary. LaTeX for maths and presentational work. Microsoft Word for when you lose the will to live.

Really, 90% of the fiddling I’ve done to “prepare” for work is just stalling. It’s the computerised equivalent of arranging all your coloured pencils in order of wavelength. It’s extremely easy to fritter time away doing this kind of thing and convincing yourself that it’s work. Try to be aware of what you’re doing and learn to…

Know When You’re Procrastinating

I had no idea that “procrastinate” was a transitive verb until I looked it up one day when I should have been working. Seriously, I see a lot of computer screens around the office showing BBC News and YouTube. A lot of people, myself included, could be mistaken for someone researching social networking.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a mental break from what you’re doing from time to time. Very often, though, I find that when I fire up Twitter, it’s because I’m avoiding doing something. Sometimes, letting your mind wander will help an answer to form. Other times, it’s better to…

Talk to Your Supervisor

Don’t ‘go dark’ for weeks on end. Get in touch with your supervisor and explain what’s bothering you. Don’t be afraid to present half-finished work or to ask embarrassingly basic questions (but do ask The Wikipedia first). Your supervisor should be your most useful resource. Keeping them in the loop will help them help you.

Most of the time, your supervisor will be happy to help you if you’re stuck with something and haven’t achieved much. If, however, you’ve just been skiving, here are a few tips for dodging the bullet at your next meeting (Supervisors: skip the next paragraph.):

• Arrive a few minutes early—catch them off-guard.
• Have an agenda, and drive the conversation—prevent your supervisor from asking questions.
• Ask difficult, big-picture questions; something that will give your supervisor scope to waffle for a while.
• Obfuscate with data—numbers, hand-drawn diagrams, badly labelled charts. Volume is key.

I can say that this technique has successfully covered my ass on several occasions. If it works for you, great. Just don’t try to use it more than once in any 6 month period.

Your relationship with your supervisor is by far the most important personal relationship you’ll have during your PhD study. It may be the only personal relationship you’ll have during your PhD study. They’ll expect you to work hard, and tackle problems independently, but they’ll also expect you to be rubbish for a time, so embrace that and make the most of their advice. You should be able to expect that your supervisor will give you the freedom to do independent work, but also make time for you and look at what you’re doing. If necessary, there’s nothing wrong with politely reminding them of that.

Your dependence on your supervisor can become a source of frustration. Indeed, it’s one of the many ways in which…

Shit Happens

Boredom, fear, anger, loss of confidence… It’s not uncommon to have a bit of a blow-up after a year or so. It can come from all sorts of places. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s your supervisor, maybe it’s the cold hand of fate. Whatever the situation, focus on what you can do to get things working again. Keep it professional. Seek the advice of others you trust. If necessary, take up drumming or Tae Kwon Do.

Whenever you hit the wall of academia, remind yourself of why you’re here in the first place, and try to imagine shaking the VC’s hand, or hearing your bank manager call you ‘Doctor’. Also, it may help you to achieve a sense of balance if you…

Get a Life

So far I’ve focused on getting your research done, but you will have some free time and should make the most of it. Take the time to pursue a hobby and hang out with some people outside academia. By hobby, I don’t mean playing dungeons and dragons or learning the oboe. Join a gym, throw shapes in the KrazyHouse on a Friday night, drive down to Tuebrook and get in fights…whatever. Just do something that doesn’t require thinking, with some people who don’t think for a living. It will help to broaden your outlook, and give you a better chance of overcoming the kind of stereotypes people outside academia (we call them ‘muggles’) have of PhD students.

If you get the chance, talk to some muggles about your research. Yes, you’ll have to dumb it down, no they won’t be interested, but verbalising your work is a really useful way of getting your head around it.

Finally, in all aspects of life, be sure to…

Have Fun

Don’t be afraid to play from time to time, even with your work. Who says you can’t put PacMan in your presentation slides? The more you enjoy what you’re doing, the better you’re likely to be at it. So smile at that blank screen and start typing.

PhD Workshop 2010

Well done to everyone who gave talks at today's PhD Workshop. It's one of the rare occasions that we get to see and support our peers in action, and always worth taking the time to attend.

This year, I decided to make a little Post-It Note caricature of each talk. They are by no means works of art and some will probably be a complete misrepresentation of the information given, but they will serve as a nice reminder of the day for me. With that in mind, I thought I'd share them with you.

Please accept my apologies if I've misspelled your name or, worse, drawn you. Also, if your picture is a little sparse, let's agree that's because I was paying particular attention to your talk, hmmkay?

Enjoy.

A Place for Us

This is the second of two articles on the Postgraduate Research Student Strategy. Read the first here.

Postraduate Research Student Strategy: A Consultation Paper makes several references to the desire for the Graduate School to have a more significant role in the life of graduate students by serving as a cultural and social hub. This would involve a physical presence on campus, by the creation of a 'Graduate Centre' and virtually through the creation of an online social network.

At the last Postgraduate Research Subcommittee, I expressed my concern that any such centralised social spaces would likely go largely unused. One of the document's authors was keen to stress that the intended use of the centre is still very much open for discussion, but I feel that we should seriously consider what it's really for before the first stone is laid, lest we have a Dome-like situation on our hands.

Friends

The majority of the friends and contacts I've made in my time here are fairly low on the BFF scale and, while I wouldn't be without them, I just can't see myself hiking across campus for the benefit of their company. Maybe rather than centralise social activity in the Mothership, we might improve facilities in the places already used by graduates. Of course, this could all get very myopic, so how can we make new connections across department boundaries? The Graduate School can foster a community by simply making introductions -- a course here, an evening lecture there, some free drinks over here. If anything, scattering these events around the campus might broaden the horizons of desk-bound students.

I should add here that, while many of my colleagues in sciencey subjects work collaboratively with their peers, in Computer Science we don't. My office has up to nine people in it at any one time. You can count on one hand the number of conversations heard in there daily. I'm not knocking our studious working environment, I just want to make it clear that I'm not being antisocial because my dance card is already full. Far from it.

I understand that life as a PGR student is a little solitary at times, but I'm struggling to imagine a situation in which a generic postgrad centre will have the reach, the soul even, to make a tangible difference. A Graduate Centre, while no doubt totemic in light of an increasing graduate cohort, seems unlikely to become the intellectual Byker Grove that the consultation paper suggests. I'm sure the university can accommodate whatever events the Graduate School might plan, while social activities happen anywhere else.

The Dark End of the Street

But precisely where should we meet? This discussion inevitably draws attention to the rather sparse selection of quality places to eat and drink on campus. There is The Guild, of course, but graduate students tend to see the Guild as a little undergrad-centric. I've felt a little out of place there ever since the people outside stopped handing me flyers for club nights. My reluctant ageing aside, we have on our doorstep a sizeable entertainment venue with a real understanding of catering to students. Given a relatively modest financial leg-up, I think we could trust the Guild to make a positive impact on graduate life and keep their finger firmly on the graduate pulse.

Show Me the Fiscal Restraint?

I appreciate that it's a little unusual for a student representative to ask that the University spend less. I promise not to do it again. My suspicion is that, judiciously spent, significantly less cash would be required to make a real difference to the student experience. Them white elephants sure do eat a lot of cupcakes.

One Glaring Omission

You might be thinking that I've said nothing about the Graduate School Social Network, and you'd be absolutely right.

Conclusion

I sincerely appreciate the ambition of the Graduate School to put graduates on the map, but I don't believe it's necessary to do so literally. Bottom-up support for the facilities and services already used by students seems like a more promising avenue to me. I hope this approach won't be overlooked just because there's nothing to cut a ribbon in front of.

Postgraduate Research Student Strategy

This is the first of two short articles on the Postgraduate Research Student Strategy

I have in my hands a document entitled Postraduate Research Student Strategy: A Consultation Paper. This post briefly discusses a few of the highlights of the paper, while Part 2 will take a look at a couple of specific issues.

The paper considers the complete lifecycle of a PGR student: from your first flirtations with the prospectus and subsequent sealing of the deal at registration, through arrival and mid-thesis crisis to completion, at which point your body of work will be finally laid to rest in the Research Archive. Having passed on, some alumni may even come back to haunt us.

The broad aim of the document is to bring the activities of PGR students in line with the university's drive to improve its research standing. Allied to this is the suggestion of inclusion, where appropriate, of PhD studentships in research grant applications. Tying studentships to projects in this way should not only involve students more closely in the university's core business, but also help students toward completion by providing well-formed projects with clear, scheduled objectives. This will likely be tempered by the needs of researchers to cost their bids competitively, but whatever practical movement can be made in this direction would be welcome.

A commendable suggestions in the document is the inclusion of an exit survey for PGR students. When it comes to reporting genuine concerns, I imagine that students will find their lips loosened once their viva is out of the way. An exit survey offers an excellent opportunity to capture students' feelings at their most candid. This, along with the document's emphasis on on obtaining student feedback at all stages, can only help to improve the student experience.

The opportunity for PGR students to develop their skills in tutoring and demonstrating is another welcome suggestion. Many PGR students contribute a great deal to their department's teaching and helping us improve in this capacity should benefit all concerned. It's also highly important that student teaching assistants are appropriately and fairly rewarded for their efforts, but's that's another story altogether.

Finally, I'm happy to report that early intervention from student representatives at the guild and some faculty reps (including yours truly) helped to soften some of the language in the document regarding the research outputs of PGRs. Students will now be strongly encouraged, rather than mandated, to publish two papers during their studies, where appropriate and with the necessary supervisory support. So long as it stays that way, Ed will keep his whoop-ass firmly in its can.

If you're thinking that I'm unusually glass-half-full today, there's always Part 2.

A new home.

Observant readers may notice that this blog is now being hosted on Typepad.

I've chosen to move my blog here to make posting easier and a little more reliable. It will also be nice to have a few other features, like comments, which have been sorely missing.

I've uploaded significant posts, but haven't bothered with day-to-day minutiae.

Here goes.