Speaker 1: The first brutally honest lesson about doing a PhD is that your PhD will fall short of your expectations in so many ways. When you start a PhD, your expectations are high. You don't only want to get a PhD, you want to get the best PhD. But let me tell you this, over the course of your PhD, things will fail. Your supervisors won't be there for you like they should be. The university is a big engine which you are only one cog in a huge machine. And just remember this, is that everyone when they start wants to get the best PhD. However, any PhD is worthwhile. You just need to get a PhD. You don't need to get the best PhD, remember that. So when things are falling away, when your expectations are up here and the reality is here or much lower, just remember that you only need to convince some crusty old people in a lab somewhere that you have produced novel interesting results and it is surprisingly much easier than you think. Produce hypotheses, test those hypotheses, write it up, make sure you communicate it efficiently. Do that over and over again throughout those three to four years of your PhD and you will get there. But it's not sexy, it's not trendy, it just is. So your PhD will fall short of your expectations. When I started my PhD, I wanted everyone to be like, go Andy, go Andy. Like that there would be this awesome team that would be like, wow, you're amazing all the time. Because in undergraduate, you get that kind of feedback from exams. And when you get the good grades, everyone's like, well done, well done. But no one really understands what a good PhD is because a good PhD is a lot of failure. And so everyone just like expects you to trudge on through. And when you get those big wins, academia doesn't go, well done, you're the best. It goes like this, okay, what's next? So don't expect a cheer team. Don't expect a team that is going to be there saying, you are the best, carry on. You have to work that out for yourself. You have to go, you know what, I'm proud of what I've managed to do this week, this day, and that's all you can expect. Even your supervisor may not even say, well done. It's a really weird relationship. So you have to rely on yourself to make sure you go, you know what, I'm doing all right. That's it. That's the cheer team. You're the cheer team. No one else. Remember that. The third thing is that all academics at some point are assholes. They really, really are. Even the nicest academic that I've been supervised by has become an asshole throughout their career at some point. Even to me, you know, they're really nice in the lunchroom, and then when I ask them for something, they're like, well, no, this isn't the deal with your supervisor. You have to do... And I'm like, well, okay, what's going on? This is because academics are selfish, and they act in their own self-interest a lot of the time. And here's the brutal truth. You're going to have to do that at some point as well. Nice people tend to get stomped on a bit in academia. It's the egos. It's the big professors. They have got there not just by being great researchers, but also by being really mean and self-centered for a lot of the decisions they make. And so sometimes for you, you are just going to have to switch on academic mode, where you're like, you know what? This is best for me. I know it's the best for me. I'm sorry, but it just has to happen this way because I need to be a little bit selfish. And unfortunately, that is a brutal reality of doing a PhD and surviving in academia. In academia, peer-reviewed papers that are published are like the bread and butter. And it just is so focused around publishing. Have you got the results to publish? Have you written up that thing to publish? Have you submitted that journal to publish? Have you submitted all the bits to publish? Publish, publish, publish. But then outside academia, no one even knows what that means. No one cares. I actually really like to have things outside of academia, where I could be like just a normal person, not focused on impact factors, metrics, on citations. All of those things are a little bit, I'll be honest, pointless. Unless you're in academia. There is no real-world impact necessarily from these citations that people outside care about. So don't try to impress the people outside because you'll become really, really annoying. Trust me. There is only one thing that's going to get you through your PhD and it's not inspiration. Too many people sit around waiting to have something like a lightning bolt hit their head. And then they'll go, you know what? Now I'm going to do that thing. I'm going to write that thing. I'm going to speak to my supervisor. I'm going to trudge through all of that data. It doesn't happen like that. The best people I've known that got to the end of a PhD have got there because they've got systems, structures and processes in place that they execute on. That is it. So get up. Stop waiting for that moment of inspiration to do something and just start working. If you do these things over and over again, you will get to a PhD. Not by sort of like waiting. Just like, I feel a bit sad. So I'm not going to work today. I get it. I've been there. But that's not going to get you any closer to a PhD. So set up a system. When do you write? When do you sit down and analyze data? When do you have your meetings? I actually make sure that all of my structures and systems are anchored around meetings. I produce a PowerPoint of the stories I've produced for the two weeks before and I make sure there's systems in place so that I can create a story in a PowerPoint. PowerPoint, PowerPoint, PowerPoint. To present every two weeks. Even if I'm not giving it to my supervisors in like a meeting, I make sure that I send it to them via email. That's the only way to get to the end. So stop waiting for inspiration to strike because it's worthless. I cannot tell you how many times during my PhD I felt stupid. I failed at understanding certain key concepts for a long time. I didn't know how really basic equipment worked in the lab. I had to ask people. I remember I spent a year outside of academia in an explosives company before going back into academia and when I went back, I was like, oh no, this lab is so confusing. What are the steps for using the filter? What are the steps for measuring out carbon nanotubes? All of those things I had to learn again because I just wiped them from my mind. It wasn't important to me. So just get over it. You're going to feel stupid at some point. That's the brutal truth. You're going to feel stupid in so many ways, but use it as a way to learn and grow. Do not put yourself in a little kind of like bubble of safety. So safe, please don't hurt me. You need to burst through and everyone feels stupid and the problem is that when a lot of people feel stupid, they act out, they get angry, they get frustrated. That's because they can't understand that underneath that, they're feeling scared and stupid. So accept that everyone goes through this, especially when you're learning something new and at the front of the field as you are in a PhD. So embrace the stupidity, ask questions and move on, move forward. Learn your way out of problems. Get over it. I think PhD students rely too much on their supervisor for pushing progress. I've spoken to a range of different PhD students and they're like, oh, my PhD supervisor is not doing this. Oh, my PhD supervisor is not doing that. You are in the driver's seat. You need to grab onto that wheel and put your foot on the accelerator and go. It doesn't matter if your supervisor is in the back seat, they'll catch up eventually, but too many people aren't in the driver's seat of their own PhD. So if your supervisor isn't giving you what you need, go find it somewhere else. There are a number of different things a supervisor is meant to provide, such as inspiration, field and general knowledge about the experiments that you're going to be creating. They should also be able to connect you to individuals. They should also be able to give you feedback on writing, such as your papers or thesis or dissertations or posters. But they're often only able to do one or two things really well. So find where they're lacking and slot in other people, experienced PhD students or senior postdocs that can help fill the gaps. You're in the driver's seat. Don't let them allow you to coast. Put your foot on that gas because that's how you move forward quickly. This is one I really don't like to admit, but every so often you have to kiss ass. And I mean like seriously kiss ass. There were some academics that I really didn't like interacting with, that I really didn't like working with, but they were a gatekeeper to something I needed. So get used to being nice and working out what you need to say to certain people to get them to allow you through whatever sort of barriers they've put in. For example, there is a well-known academic who is a pain in the ass to speak to. He boasts. He doesn't understand that he has to, you know, just dial it down a little bit. Also, he'll spend hours speaking to you. Sometimes you just need to embrace that personality characteristic and tell him what he wants. Tell him he's amazing. Tell him that he's the best scientist ever. And it's really annoying. It feels like sucking up, but sometimes you've just got to do it. I spent too many hours worrying over stuff I couldn't change. Worry will get you nowhere through a PhD. So the only way to get out of worry is action. At least that's my experience. If I'm sat there and I'm ruminating, I'm worried about this, I'm worried about that, I've got two options. First of all, I can say it's not in my control, so therefore I'm not going to worry about it. That is something that has got me through so many hard times, even after my time in academia, that it's a foundation to my understanding and the way I interact with the world. Or, on the other hand, if you can do something about it, it is within your sphere of influence, action is the way forward. What have you got to do to move this problem further and solve whatever issue you're having? Worrying does not help. Worrying really far in the future as well does not help. You have to make sure that you're going to get to your goal in the future by working on today, working on the next hour. Is the next hour going to get you closer to your goals? The last thing is that a PhD is hard for everyone in different ways. Sometimes you look across at your lab mate and their research is just going so incredibly well and you're like, oh, that is so annoying. Why is everything working for them? But don't worry, this kind of success is always, in my opinion and my experience, short-lived. It comes in waves, ups and downs, ups and downs. So this person is going to go through a difficult time in the future but right now they're on the wave. They're enjoying everything that academia is bringing to them and let them enjoy it. But don't worry, later on their PhD is going to be difficult for maybe a completely different reason. Maybe your difficulty is your supervisor. Maybe they've got a great supervisor but they can't access certain things, certain really important materials they need to move forward. So the message of this one is that a PhD is difficult for everyone in different ways. It's hard but work through the valleys and trust me, work up across. Why are there so many bloody metaphors in this video? I don't know but work your way through the valleys, up the mountain and then as you get to the mountain you'll be able to glide down the other side and that's what it is. Up and down, up and down, up and down until you graduate. So there we have it. There are the 10 brutally honest lessons that you get when you're doing a PhD. If you like this video, let me know in the comments what you think but also go check out this one where I talk about the harsh truth for a happy PhD. It's a really great watch.