This is the most important factor in doing a PhD. I know every supervisor is different and the working relationship will depend on your age, the research culture, and the wider context, but if you can, be sure about your supervisor. If you hear any potential red flags walk away. I was lucky to receive a scholarship that gave me the freedom to choose a supervisor (who I proposed a body of research too) but I spent time being sure (had a chat with a couple of former PhD students). We even met for a pint before I moved country just to be sure. 4 years later I am about to submit, we still get on really well, and he provided great support to my wife and I when our son was born in the summer.
You can't avoid critical mistakes when selecting a supervisor unless you've worked with this person for quite some time. Asking someone for feedback about a potential supervisor may also be biased. Each PhD is unique and it's going to have a unique supervisorship.
Ya. Based on my own experience and observation, I think you are right. In the end whether you have a good or bad supervisor, but especially if you have a bad supervisor, it's your own work, you take responsibility of it, you manage it, you finish it to the best of your ability. If that is really not possible, quit, don't prolong an unsolvable problem.
In many cases you don’t get to choose your supervisor unless you have your own funding. But generally you have no choice. It depends on who offers you the most funding. That’s the Canadian system. Many PhD students are international students and chances are they will be overjoyed whoever makes them an offer.
It's still your choice to apply and say yes or no to the offer. Don't let the "overjoy" influence your decision. Why do you choose a supervisor based on who offers you the most funding? I won't even choose a job based on who offers me the highest salary.
I was doing a PHD at Warwick Uni in the UK from 2002 to 2007. I’m not sure I got a choice in supervisor. The supervisor had no experience in the topic - and her industry experience was in biotech when my PhD was in the IT sector. I saw her frequently so that could have been positive (about once a month) but every time we sat down she needed a refresher on everything I’d done to that point. She would get out a piece of A4 and draw random thoughts meaning the direction of research was constantly changing. She was Chinese and had exclusively Chinese PhD students - I was the only one from the UK - and she twice complained about text in e-mails I’d sent to her as she felt they weren’t respectful enough (one was a single line that was a reply that simply asked for details on papers on the IT industry - an area she knew nothing about). I got the distinct impression this was a cultural thing as her other students were incredibly deferential and quiet. She wanted me to write 3 papers and to put her name on all of them. The university also selected a second supervisor who was brilliant as a thinker and person but I didn’t see him for 3 years. When I finally saw him - after a year of training and 2 years of research - he pointed out a methodological flaw that meant I would have to redo all of my interviews (80) with industry. A flaw that my first supervisor had never even mentioned. I tried to conduct some interviews but eventually the depression meant I just had to leave. I was offered a job at a global tech firm (where I still am) on 7 times what I was being paid by Warwick as an ESRC studentship. The first supervisor got promoted. 15 years later I still have a 120,000 word thesis and 80+ fully written up and analysed interviews on my laptop. I’ve had numerous offers from universities to adopt the research and with a 6 month update turn it into a MRes - I’ve even been offered support of a grad student to help. But I just can/t - the experience has just jaded me so much.
A PhD advisor that is (allegedly) busy with admin work, never schedules a research meeting on a regular basis, free-rides on your work to get a pub. Yeah, it happens.
My advisor went into administration towards the end of my thesis, which caused him to vanish. I literally parked myself outside his office when I needed to discuss or sign something critical, since I never received any email responses. He also prevented me from publishing my research. It took some time, but I was able to move past it all
From my academic / research experiences in Australia and The Netherlands, only around 5 - 10% of doctoral graduates find a long-term career in a university or a research institute (NB: I don't have the exact statistics, or sources, at my fingertips). If your ambition is a research career, this needs to be considered. My advice (after almost 30 years post-doctoral) is to pursue a PhD if you dream about advancing knowledge, but choose another path if the ambition is to find a secure job (noting that there are many terrific options nowadays for doctoral graduates outside of the Academy).
I joined a prestigious group, and absolutely hated it. I'm transferring to a different group in a different university this month. I wish I had this video two years ago.
As someone who completed a PhD, in a less than ideal situation, I agree this is really crucial. If possible at all, you should not only talk to your prospective supervisor's PhD students, but also try to find out how many PhD students they have, what their topics are (you're spot on on the boring thesis title issue), but also on how long it takes them to complete their degree, and where they end up afterwards. Also, if possible, it might be helpful to listen to your prospective supervisor give a paper at an academic conference. Do they mention their PhD students and postdocs, and their contribution to their own projects? Do they seem to be interested in their students' career development? At the same time, though, as I found out myself, you're not always in a situation to choose your supervisor. Does it make sense to enter a programme when you have funding, but aren't entirely convinced about the person who would supervise you? Those can be quite tough decisions, with no obvious right or wrong answer.
My supervisor was an idiot, who didn't know anything about the field or anything in general. Your advice is spot on. Wish I was not so naive back then. I did not know how this works.
So hard to find supervisor even with the money. I would choose one who is very much involved with industry: consulting, projects, grants etc. Not a paper type writing professor. Now when students sent me proposals - I am not interested. Had to look at research areas as well.
@@mr.heuhoi1446 oooh my word you are right hahaha!! Now you say it, it’s super obvious - like the rabbit or woman illusion rofl - OK OK I still can’t get my head around that weird ass fake brick wall - what even is this room!? So many questions - DO A ROOM TOUR ANDY! ;)
I recommend the self-funded option. Yes, it sucks to try to hold down a full or part-time job but you'll end up making more money AND not be emotionally and intellectually indebted to a supervisor. This takes off a ton of stress.
I didn’t have a choice, mine are always reminding me how busy they are. I do feel my first year was wasted in so many ways. I am a bit unhappy and panicking slightly …
You have a few options: 1. Be more independent, it's your research. With the type of supervisor you have, you treat them like a collaborator. 2. Change supervisor or school. 3. Start looking for job, trust me it's never too early even if your phd is going well.
@@GrahamHilton-lf5zp Sorry. I assumed you will need a job? You will need a job whatever happens to your phd. Having job offers might also give you motivation to complete your phd timely. Or it can give you an option to quit your phd if it is becoming real bad. I know people who were stuck in a bad phd experience for years. Nothing happened. Years wasted. Stress, unhappiness, life stood still. Eventually they still needed to leave and find jobs. I am not asking you to give up every time there is an obstacle. I am asking you to be realistic, pragmatic and give yourself more options.
A question from a student who's gonna begin his master time, I want to know is supervisor that important in master time? I was studied in NMT(Neural Machine Translation) before but I want to switch to LLM's fine-tuning now, but there is really don't have any professor here in my colledge who is studied in this area, I choosed a professor who's working on related area but she really don't pay much attention on me, we have one meeting every week but that's it, most of the time I can't find him and when I'm trying to ask some question, I think she might not even get it or understand my question in the first place...
They will often have big grants listed on their profile page of the university they work in. You can also google their name and look for any recent news about them - the universities love to promote their grant wins.
1:26 I do not think it is bad to work with a prestigious super busy advisor IF he/she has great post-doc who invest in grad students. If not (aka no post-doc and/or they do not care about dealing with grad students), run away!
I feel I would have been a really good researcher, probably at least TOP 100 in the world in my field (or probably even better), but I had a really mediocre supervisor. I just left academia. I always think I could have done much better. But there have been smarter people than me who did not have the opportunity.
![7 PhD Mistakes You Don't Know You're Making [Avoid These 7 Disasters]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5_siSiamymk/mqdefault.jpg)
This is the most important factor in doing a PhD. I know every supervisor is different and the working relationship will depend on your age, the research culture, and the wider context, but if you can, be sure about your supervisor. If you hear any potential red flags walk away. I was lucky to receive a scholarship that gave me the freedom to choose a supervisor (who I proposed a body of research too) but I spent time being sure (had a chat with a couple of former PhD students). We even met for a pint before I moved country just to be sure. 4 years later I am about to submit, we still get on really well, and he provided great support to my wife and I when our son was born in the summer.
You can't avoid critical mistakes when selecting a supervisor unless you've worked with this person for quite some time. Asking someone for feedback about a potential supervisor may also be biased. Each PhD is unique and it's going to have a unique supervisorship.
Ya. Based on my own experience and observation, I think you are right. In the end whether you have a good or bad supervisor, but especially if you have a bad supervisor, it's your own work, you take responsibility of it, you manage it, you finish it to the best of your ability. If that is really not possible, quit, don't prolong an unsolvable problem.
In many cases you don’t get to choose your supervisor unless you have your own funding. But generally you have no choice. It depends on who offers you the most funding. That’s the Canadian system. Many PhD students are international students and chances are they will be overjoyed whoever makes them an offer.
It's still your choice to apply and say yes or no to the offer. Don't let the "overjoy" influence your decision. Why do you choose a supervisor based on who offers you the most funding? I won't even choose a job based on who offers me the highest salary.
@@sunway1374may be the only.
@@DSScully You mean maybe the only option you might get? Well, at least then choose it with eyes wide open. And saying no is still an option.
@sunway1374 yes perhaps it is
I was doing a PHD at Warwick Uni in the UK from 2002 to 2007. I’m not sure I got a choice in supervisor. The supervisor had no experience in the topic - and her industry experience was in biotech when my PhD was in the IT sector. I saw her frequently so that could have been positive (about once a month) but every time we sat down she needed a refresher on everything I’d done to that point. She would get out a piece of A4 and draw random thoughts meaning the direction of research was constantly changing. She was Chinese and had exclusively Chinese PhD students - I was the only one from the UK - and she twice complained about text in e-mails I’d sent to her as she felt they weren’t respectful enough (one was a single line that was a reply that simply asked for details on papers on the IT industry - an area she knew nothing about). I got the distinct impression this was a cultural thing as her other students were incredibly deferential and quiet. She wanted me to write 3 papers and to put her name on all of them. The university also selected a second supervisor who was brilliant as a thinker and person but I didn’t see him for 3 years. When I finally saw him - after a year of training and 2 years of research - he pointed out a methodological flaw that meant I would have to redo all of my interviews (80) with industry. A flaw that my first supervisor had never even mentioned. I tried to conduct some interviews but eventually the depression meant I just had to leave. I was offered a job at a global tech firm (where I still am) on 7 times what I was being paid by Warwick as an ESRC studentship. The first supervisor got promoted. 15 years later I still have a 120,000 word thesis and 80+ fully written up and analysed interviews on my laptop. I’ve had numerous offers from universities to adopt the research and with a 6 month update turn it into a MRes - I’ve even been offered support of a grad student to help. But I just can/t - the experience has just jaded me so much.
A PhD advisor that is (allegedly) busy with admin work, never schedules a research meeting on a regular basis, free-rides on your work to get a pub. Yeah, it happens.
My advisor went into administration towards the end of my thesis, which caused him to vanish. I literally parked myself outside his office when I needed to discuss or sign something critical, since I never received any email responses. He also prevented me from publishing my research. It took some time, but I was able to move past it all
From my academic / research experiences in Australia and The Netherlands, only around 5 - 10% of doctoral graduates find a long-term career in a university or a research institute (NB: I don't have the exact statistics, or sources, at my fingertips). If your ambition is a research career, this needs to be considered. My advice (after almost 30 years post-doctoral) is to pursue a PhD if you dream about advancing knowledge, but choose another path if the ambition is to find a secure job (noting that there are many terrific options nowadays for doctoral graduates outside of the Academy).
Good advice. You can still end up with a clanger though. At the end of the day, you will need to be capable of looking after yourself
I joined a prestigious group, and absolutely hated it. I'm transferring to a different group in a different university this month. I wish I had this video two years ago.
do you care to share more specifically?
It can be both ways. For my master thesis I joined a very large and prestigious group. The team spirit there is just amazing!
Choose a research group not a supervisor.
As someone who completed a PhD, in a less than ideal situation, I agree this is really crucial. If possible at all, you should not only talk to your prospective supervisor's PhD students, but also try to find out how many PhD students they have, what their topics are (you're spot on on the boring thesis title issue), but also on how long it takes them to complete their degree, and where they end up afterwards. Also, if possible, it might be helpful to listen to your prospective supervisor give a paper at an academic conference. Do they mention their PhD students and postdocs, and their contribution to their own projects? Do they seem to be interested in their students' career development? At the same time, though, as I found out myself, you're not always in a situation to choose your supervisor. Does it make sense to enter a programme when you have funding, but aren't entirely convinced about the person who would supervise you? Those can be quite tough decisions, with no obvious right or wrong answer.
My supervisor was an idiot, who didn't know anything about the field or anything in general. Your advice is spot on. Wish I was not so naive back then. I did not know how this works.
@@workforyouraims Yeah, in my impression, many PhD students only find out when it's too late to really change the situation.
So hard to find supervisor even with the money. I would choose one who is very much involved with industry: consulting, projects, grants etc. Not a paper type writing professor. Now when students sent me proposals - I am not interested. Had to look at research areas as well.
Thank you for this video Andy
Much appreciated 👍
Where are you sitting!? Your window goes into another room - what is going on!!!? Hahahaha
I'm pretty sure that is just the reflection of the room he is sitting in
@@mr.heuhoi1446 oooh my word you are right hahaha!! Now you say it, it’s super obvious - like the rabbit or woman illusion rofl - OK OK I still can’t get my head around that weird ass fake brick wall - what even is this room!? So many questions - DO A ROOM TOUR ANDY! ;)
Also, this means Andy’s NEVER filmed in daylight right!? Every video is at night… this people.. is the reality of being an academic hahahah ;)
Apart from in his TH-cam shorts ;)
I recommend the self-funded option. Yes, it sucks to try to hold down a full or part-time job but you'll end up making more money AND not be emotionally and intellectually indebted to a supervisor. This takes off a ton of stress.
Ur videos are very informative, Happy new year from India. ❤
I didn’t have a choice, mine are always reminding me how busy they are. I do feel my first year was wasted in so many ways. I am a bit unhappy and panicking slightly …
You have a few options: 1. Be more independent, it's your research. With the type of supervisor you have, you treat them like a collaborator. 2. Change supervisor or school. 3. Start looking for job, trust me it's never too early even if your phd is going well.
@@sunway1374 how does looking for a job help?
@@GrahamHilton-lf5zp Sorry. I assumed you will need a job? You will need a job whatever happens to your phd. Having job offers might also give you motivation to complete your phd timely. Or it can give you an option to quit your phd if it is becoming real bad.
I know people who were stuck in a bad phd experience for years. Nothing happened. Years wasted. Stress, unhappiness, life stood still. Eventually they still needed to leave and find jobs.
I am not asking you to give up every time there is an obstacle. I am asking you to be realistic, pragmatic and give yourself more options.
@@sunway1374 thanks for the explanation and totally agree with you :)
the problem is that there is no source for these information, not always
A question from a student who's gonna begin his master time, I want to know is supervisor that important in master time? I was studied in NMT(Neural Machine Translation) before but I want to switch to LLM's fine-tuning now, but there is really don't have any professor here in my colledge who is studied in this area, I choosed a professor who's working on related area but she really don't pay much attention on me, we have one meeting every week but that's it, most of the time I can't find him and when I'm trying to ask some question, I think she might not even get it or understand my question in the first place...
Dear Andy, you cannot choose your supervisor. You can try, but my supervisor didn't want to be chosen, he was the one who did the choosing
Wish I had known this 6 years ago
Good tips
Prestige ..... ?
How do you check if professors have grant money?
They will often have big grants listed on their profile page of the university they work in. You can also google their name and look for any recent news about them - the universities love to promote their grant wins.
@@DrAndyStapleton I see, thank you very much! :)
1:26 I do not think it is bad to work with a prestigious super busy advisor IF he/she has great post-doc who invest in grad students. If not (aka no post-doc and/or they do not care about dealing with grad students), run away!
Will you be my PhD supervisor Dr Andy?🎓
GOLD
Imagine making a critical mistake inside a critical mistake. Only thing more dog shit than a PhD is a shitty PhD
I feel I would have been a really good researcher, probably at least TOP 100 in the world in my field (or probably even better), but I had a really mediocre supervisor. I just left academia. I always think I could have done much better. But there have been smarter people than me who did not have the opportunity.