Speaker 1: Make no mistake about it. This is the most important decision you will ever make throughout your PhD. A PhD is full of uncertainty. You are entering the unknown, but you can make it much easier on yourself by a very important decision that happens well before you even start doing any sort of research, and that is choosing the right supervisor. The problem is too many people make the wrong decision when they choose their PhD supervisor because they have no system or structure in place to work out who is best for them. There are some very, very important ones that no one ever tells you about, and we're talking about them in this video. The first biggest mistake I see people make is choosing an academic research supervisor based on prestige alone. That is the worst thing you can do. In my experience, the most prestigious researchers that are high up in their field, are respected, have a massive research group are often the worst supervisors, and that's because they are busy. They have massive research groups. Sometimes the PhD students don't even get to see the research supervisor very often. That's the worst thing for you to do during your PhD. There are loads of things that we need to focus on. Prestige actually is one of the least important ones unless you really, really want a career in academia because obviously your PhD supervisor really dictates the sorts of prestige that you'll soak up, you'll absorb, and you'll carry that through your career. But in my experience, it doesn't really matter for most people. Look at this guy from MIT. He's got all of the fancy stuff on his webpage. He's got all of the honors and awards, all of the prestige. Here is my PhD supervisor. She's got all of the grants, all of the funding. Look at that, $46 million of grant funding. She's attracted throughout her career. But this prestige is not important, and there are loads of mistakes that people make. It's really, really important that you look beyond this fancy marketing. Most people don't know what the important things about choosing a PhD supervisor are. They look at prestige. They look at how much money they've brought in. But in the day-to-day reality of doing a PhD, this is not enough. You should be looking at things like how many PhD graduates they've created, how many people are currently in their research team, the types of theses that they are creating. If you look at the theses list of their recent PhD graduates and you find it boring, that's likely going to be a reflection on how you'll feel about your research going forward. There's loads of other metrics that are really, really important, and we don't talk about them enough. In fact, I've barely seen anyone ever talk about the most important factors, and it goes beyond what's on their webpage. And there's loads of information that we can actually find online that scratches below the surface of this prestige where we can find indicators of whether or not they're going to be a good supervisor for us. So, research supervision. This is the sort of thing we want to look at. We also want to look at the thesis titles. We also want to look at the amount of students they graduate per year. This will show you that they are a seasoned academic that's able to understand that PhD treadmill. You want them to be regularly pushing out PhD students because that shows that they understand the system and the game of a PhD. You don't want someone that has PhD students that has a massive, massive gap in between signing up and graduating. That's not a good sign. Quite often, I see people choose a PhD supervisor based on how good of a lecturer they are. Now, here is the biggest thing you need to understand about PhD supervisors. They are a separate being when they're teaching to when they're researching. Teaching, actually, for some supervisors is really fun. It's low pressure. They enjoy the interaction. They don't need to sort of like convince anyone here. They are just teaching. Whereas on the other hand, in the research world, it is highly competitive. It is highly stressful. They are continually sort of like fighting for funding, publishing papers. And this can bring out the worst in them. Teaching, the best. Research, the worst personality traits that I've ever seen. And the two should not be conflated. So if you've got a great lecturer, you cannot assume that they're going to be an awesome research supervisor. They may be incompetent in a number of different ways, but they may be a brilliant teacher. And so it's not always an overlap. Therefore, if you have an excellent lecturer that you're sort of bonding with, that you feel is funny and is amazing in all these ways, you have to look at the metrics that are important that aren't just like, oh, this is a good lecturer, so I can go with them. Surely they're a good research supervisor. No, don't make that mistake. This is something that became really apparent to me throughout my PhD and my postdocs. And that is a PhD supervisor with money is a completely different entity to a PhD supervisor without money. The two are very, very different. A PhD supervisor with lots of money has this ability to kind of like move stuff along. They chuck money at problems. There are a lot more kind of flexibility in the sorts of ideas that you want to explore. They have the money for it. Whereas this person without any money is very, very strict, is very micromanaging, and is panicked because they don't have the runway necessary to keep their research going. So one thing I would always look for when choosing a PhD supervisor is evidence of recent large-scale grant funding. If you can go through and see that recently they've had a big bolster of money land in their lap after a grant application, that is what you want. Money, money, money. And also never ever do a PhD, in my opinion, this is by the way, never ever do a PhD that is self-funded unless you are convinced there is a great job at the end of it for you, or you're just rich. Because it is so stressful to balance not only sort of like a monetary sort of life where you have to pay for adult things, but also a research life. You want this taken care of by a scholarship. So please do not do a PhD that's self-funded unless you are absolutely sure that it won't affect your research, you can fund it yourself, or that there's a job waiting on the other side of this PhD that will just make you rich. Show me the money. If you're thinking about doing a PhD, this course is for you. Now, this is the Ultimate PhD Kickstart, and it contains the 12-point success system that means you'll be able to start your PhD super strong. It's really hard to sort of separate the signal from the noise when you're trying to decide on who to do your PhD with, what topic to do it on, and what research group you should enter. So in this course, I've included all of the important indicators that are important, first of all, for everyone doing a PhD, but also for those wanting to get a career in academia, what you need to make sure you know before you start your PhD. Otherwise, you're going to end up in a world of pain two or three years into your PhD, realizing that you've made the wrong choice. I cannot stress how important this decision is, which is why I made this course. It is the insider secrets that no one else tells you, and really, if every PhD student did this, they would be on a much better path through their PhD because too many people go in without their eyes wide open to the realities of certain research groups. And all of this information is completely easy to find and really sort of valuable to collate and think about. So not only do you get the course, but you also get some bonuses. You get my PhD application resource pack, which is really valuable, my PhD survival guide, so you know exactly what PhD important factors you need to think of before even going in. And also you get this, every course that I create has a Dr. Andy Stapleton PhD mentor AI. I've trained an AI on all of my videos, on all of the eBooks, all of the resources I've made, so that you have a personal mentor through this AI throughout your PhD. So go check it out because if you're starting a PhD, I think this will be really, really valuable and super worth it for you. So go check it out. If you like this video, go check out this really old school one, which is how to choose your PhD supervisor, the five secrets that no one will tell you. It's a great watch. Go check it out.