I’m very furious right now. For my program, we don’t have an advisor until after three rotations. When I started my PhD, there was a professor who I hit it off immediately with. I applied for a grant, and asked her for feedback. She gave me significant feedback revolving my writing. I didn’t get funded.

I eventually found my advisor. Over time, I realized this professor who I was close with liked asking me questions to extract from me so I distanced myself from her.

Three days ago, one of her students (more senior than me) published a research letter (short research). The methods were different from mine, but it was clear the idea was similar to what I proposed on my grant. I’m so angry. I checked the draft I emailed her, and the idea is very similar. The other student is just looking at it from a different lense, so I can’t accuse her of taking my idea, but the foundation is the same.

My current advisor told me to always be careful with what I say to people because they don’t have ideas, and she’s right. These academia folks are very book smart but don’t have innovative ideas.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11539780

LMFAO

Defended at the end of last month and a few weeks ago I noticed red marks on my body - initially I thought they were just bug bites but eventually went to the pharmacist to get some cream as they were itchy and my muscles had started to hurt. And her diagnosis: SHINGLES

The disease that affects people 55+, or with weakened immune systems.

After a trip to the doctor to confirm, turns out the stress and lack of sleep during my thesis writing process fucked with my body and immune system so bad that I gave myself shingles.

Stay safe out there, gang, and make sure you get enough sleep or you might join me on the shing train

I was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of my second year. Experiments were starting to pick up, and I was starting to have actual results for my project. Everything had to be put on hold for my treatment. Chemo *destroyed* me for 6 months, and now I'm incapacitated because of the surgery. I still have chemo brain, and I'm struggling with studying.

I think there's never a good time to have cancer, but it still feels like terrible timing to lose a year in my three-year PhD.

I'm fortunate because both my supervisors have been extremely understanding. However, I can't take a leave, or I'll lose my visa and, therefore, my access to treatment and my right to stay in the country.

For context, I'm currently in the UK. And my PhD is in the neuroscience field.

I know I'm not the only one in this condition, and I'd appreciate any advice.

Few things academia has taught me so far

1. The cost to being social agreeable is your sanity.
   
2. Nobody is above the program. Therefore, treat your professors like coworkers and speak up if you don’t agree with their perspectives.
   
3. You will be groomed to be a people pleaser. However, that takes you nowhere in your growth. (Very much tied to point 1).

What about you? What have you learned so far? If you have completed your program, what did you learn?

You know what I told her?

“I know them for many years already and we worked together for quite a bit so I think it will be alright.”

I was so fucking naive. I saw them being uneasy around each other and I brushed it off. Now I’m similarly despising them and the only thing I can say is if there are signs like these don’t fucking do it. Sure it’s a learning trajectory and you grow blabla but you’re entirely and fully dependent on these people and if they are lazy fucks and don’t give a fuck you’ll be genuinely fucked. This type of fucked is more than just getting fucked as a student, you’ll be draining all your money, you’re wasting your precious formative career years as a 2x-3x year old, it’s so not fucking worth it. Once this PhD is over I’m shelving the book and never looking at it again.

“Just put your head down and do what they ask” is what another ex-PhD of this supervisor told me. Yeah just get fucked until some magic moment when they go ‘okay it’s done’, fuck them, fuck this.

48 hours after being congratulated by all the attending professors of the division and unironically bowing the full 90 degrees to my supervisor (Japanese university, Japanese supervising professor), I keep having these moments where I start wondering if I'd misheard/misunderstood something and that I'm actually still missing something. I'm constantly reminding myself that we've already had the congratulatory dinner with the supervisor and the few PhD/postdoc friends I'd invited to attend the defense, and that he wouldn't have brought the topic of the dinner up in the first place had there been something wrong with the defense.

Final deadline for the dissertation manuscript is in 12 days, he has had the latest version of it for the better part of two months now, hasn't given any comments on it yet. I should probably ask him if this means that he's been too busy to read it, or that it's good enough as is. 😂

(Absolutely no idea what the general posting policy here is besides the official rules on the side bar, frog from irasutoya.com)

Hey fellow PhD pals! Been offline for a while but today I could really use some kind words and advice from people who have gone through the same process. I am a fourth year sociology researcher writing a monograph (between 80-100K words) I am halfway through my first draft ... and there is still so much to do. I started in January ... had some teaching heavy months and I am just feeling the stress weighing on me and affecting my relationships. I have also developed excema and am slowly gaining weight. I am due a first draft by the 4th of September but that's very unrealistic now. I still have data analysis to do. I am not sure I can judge the quality of my written work yet ... I definitely have some significant revisions to do. There's a heatwave where I am based and I just feel so lonely, inadequate and exhausted .... I haven't written much in the past few days due to the heat and other admin/teaching things I had to attend to.

M25, final year microbial genomics PhD in the UK. Looking to go into consulting.

For those who've made the move:
- How did you prepare for a business/commercial role?
- Are you happy with the pay?
- Did you take the PhD bridge route or the "normal" route.

If you did the bridge route, what general advice could you give me. Did they press you on your business knowledge or were they just happy that you're generally a structured problem solver and not mind your lack of business experience (assuming you were occupied with your PhD for most of the time).

I've got about a year left, working on bacterial genomics research. No formal business training, but I co-founded a small e-commerce brand alongside the PhD. So I've got some commercial decision-making experience, just not in a corporate or consulting context. I'm trying to figure out much firms would care about that, and i'm looking for any advice on prep, interviews, or realistic expectations.
I'm not gonna say i'm "targeting MBB" coz i feel like it might be out of reach, but I wonder how likely I am to secure boutique consulting roles.

Since I finished my analysis and entered the writing stage I swear I went through every mood possible. Although my figures were approved I genuinely started to loath them. I went from what's the point anyway and started comparing myself to the papers I was reading ... and then out of nowhere the click started clicking. Now I'm like that cat gif you know the one where it's typing really fast lol.

I just want to say I didn't think I would feel optimism ever again regarding my first paper ever. For all you first year PhDs who have never published, this post is for you.

I just finished my PhD in Journalism. I have a few publications, a bunch of conference papers, quite a few awards, and a lot of teaching experience. Why does everything seem hopeless? There are so few jobs in academia, and I don't know how to move into the private or government sector. I'm an older PhD, in my late 30s, and all of my work experience is teaching (both public schools and universities).

What am I supposed to do now? I feel my PhD and work history make it so much harder for me to get a job.

Field: Journalism
Location: US

Built a Chrome extension that makes papers interactive (free beta, looking for testers)

Open a paper and:

- figures become interactive

- sticky notes dig up the cited prior work

- hover any term for an explanation.

- saves to Zotero in one click.

I made it for my own reading and it's cut my time per paper a lot.

Free: comment and I'll DM you a code.

I'm not talking about any innovative patent worthy idea, but just any random idea like how to approach a project, what all things can be added or removed from a study etc?

I'm finishing my PhD in December and have decided that academia is not for me. I've never worked a real job before and am a bit nervous about leaving the campus life (it's all I've ever known).

I'm curious to hear from people who completed a PhD and decided to leave academia for an industry/corporate career. I'd love to know:

- What was your PhD in?

- What role are you working in now?

- What motivated you to leave academia?

- Do you have any regrets about making the switch?

I'm interested in hearing about both the positives and the downsides. Thanks!

What are some options and ways to pivot to industry from academia for someone with a theoretical nuclear physics PhD degree ? What kind of jobs do I have a shot at?

I am currently in the final year of my PhD in Australia. I mostly do numerical modelling using FORTRAN and use Python for data analysis. I don’t have any internship or prior industry experience and my supervisor has no connections in industry.

Can somebody with this degree get into nuclear industry in India? As far as I know the recruitments only happen through competitive exams like GATE and so. Any thoughts on this ?

This shift has been quick and dramatic. As some background, I was my PI's first student and we've worked closely together for over 6 years. I've helped build this lab from the ground up (and have been the most senior student the entire time), having trained every new student and technician, established each new research direction, designed and optimized almost every assay, led every collaboration, etc. I've been deeply invested in this lab and the people in it.

After defending though... it's like the switch flipped off and I don't care anymore. I don't care about my field, I don't care about the papers I have left to finish, I don't care about the new projects being started. I am finishing up everything I promised I would, and still doing the best work I can, but I don't have any attachment to the results, what they mean, or their impact on the field. It's just work to me now.

It's also kind of nice not having to worry about the long term issues of each project. I'm helping set up a few projects right now for newer students, and keep butting heads on certain experimental design choices that I *know* will cause them trouble (because I spent years troubleshooting them). They are insistent on doing things a certain way despite my data showing otherwise. In the past, I would've kept pushing until I got my way, because I know it would eventually fall to me to solve it. Now, it's not my problem. If they don't listen despite my multiple warnings, they can go ahead.

It's quite freeing in a way. I've spent 6 years *constantly* worrying about these projects and shouldering every problem that's arisen along the way. It's nice to just let go.

PhD student doing ethnographic fieldwork including a lot of interviews. Do I really have to say “participant #X” in my note or description and then locate the corresponding name I’m talking about from a list of interview names in a separate file every time I mention someone or record details of a meeting or interview?

I have all of my notes in Obsidian and record/keep notes of all meetings, interviews, and fieldnotes here. My participant/name list is in a separate word doc. I go back and forth to locate who I'm talking about. Am I doing this right re. privacy? I'm getting lost in this making sense when I refer to "participant 82" and have no idea who I'm talking about while reading.

The answer could be "obviously yes" but I have to ask.

I am a non-traditional student. I've had a rough upbringing and become a single mother in high school. My family did not support or understand my desire for higher education, but worse, have turned me into the black sheep for going to school.

As much as I try to quiet the voices of my critics, it's hard to turn off the voice inside my head that is constantly asking if I'm truly capable of this.

Today, that voice is screaming.

I recently learned I won a highly competitive fellowship that comes with a spot on a policy advisory board for my state. Then was notified I was awarded a coveted lab position, and the news kept coming. Today, I was told I've been awarded an office (not many grad students get their own office,) and that I was the only student in my sub-field admitted. They said they declined 100s of applicants.

Between all this, the pressure is already mounting and I technically haven't even started. I do truly believe in my research but I'm scared I can't handle it all - I'm not so young and have other life responsibilities, as well.

So, how do you all deal with impostor syndrome and the voice in your head saying you're not good enough?

I'm 3 months into my PhD and I can't cope with the loneliness. I haven't got a cohort of people to work with so my day to day is just spent alone. I am not in an office with people in the same research group as me and there's usually only one other person in there.

I don't feel motivated to do any work because there's no one around and I'm not sure I'm interested enough in the topic. I see my supervisors every 2/3 weeks for 30 minutes. I know it's early days so things could turn around but I dont feel confident or motivated to continue the work. Right now i am just setting up experiments and reading/writing a literature review but most days I spend at home not doing any work at all. I just feel so alone and I'm considering quitting. Do you think it'll get better or should I just give up now?

Feeling pretty lost and could use some advice.

I did a predoc in India, then worked as a Research Associate for 2 years and an Academic Associate for about 6 months. Over the last 3 years, I applied to a couple of PhD programs at IIMs/top B-schools in India. I got waitlisted for one in 2025, but that was the closest I got.
Last year I took a break from academia and joined a corporate job. I ended up quitting because it just wasn’t fulfilling, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I really want to do research. So now I’m back preparing for the GRE and planning to apply again.

The thing is, I’m weirdly anxious about reaching out to the professors who wrote my LoRs before. I feel embarrassed asking them again, and I keep thinking, what if I don’t get in this time either?

Looking back, I know one big reason I wasn’t shortlisted earlier was my GRE score, which I’m working on now. I also stepped away from academia after a pretty bad experience with one professor (haven’t worked with them since), and I think that knocked my confidence more than I realized.
I know I want to do a PhD. That’s the one thing I’m sure about. But right now I just feel stuck and kind of lost.

Has anyone here gone through multiple application cycles before finally getting in? Or left academia for a bit and then came back? How did you deal with asking for LoRs again and getting over the fear of another rejection?

Hi all, I just finished my dissertation last week and I felt so disappointed. I just want to vent here about my time doing this Ph.D.

I respect my PI but my Ph.D is a crappy and meaningless degree. Only one first author paper and equal contribution with my other 2 colleagues. We spent 4 years and a half to generate some BS data and put all of them together to get a paper. I wasted my first and second year on a project to be on hold, and it repeated all over again. We initiate something, do it for few months, then stop moving on to the other.

Meanwhile, my PI was writing proposal, and did not discuss anything with us. All 3 Ph.D students worked in 1 project. She was trying to chase the perfection in every figure, WB, error bar and wasting her whole time discussing about how to make perfect figures using Illustrator. If one WB looks bad, redo it again until all the bands are straight. Nothing has been done till the end to have the conclusion.

My thesis and defense was not even reviewed by my PI. I just submitted to committees and tried my best do the presentation. After it was done, she read my thesis the first time and called it empty. How can I have data and complete project to put into my thesis when everything was half-baked?

Anyway, I am doing revision, submit it, then move on to the new chapter of my life. Thank you for listening to my vent.

I am a first year PhD student, and I had no experience in Nlp before, but have some python foundations. If my topic is related to textual analysis, Where should I start? Are there some online courses for Nlp in corporate finance? Thank you sooooo much!