{"id":2525,"date":"2024-01-23T09:34:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T09:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/?p=2525"},"modified":"2024-01-23T10:42:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T10:42:22","slug":"get-what-you-need-from-your-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/2024\/01\/23\/get-what-you-need-from-your-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Get what you need from your PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally from Greece and before getting into the research world, Georgios was a Support Worker in health and social care services.<\/p>\n

\"PhD<\/a>
PhD student Georgios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am glad that the University and my supervisors are flexible and provide online meeting opportunities<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

What made you decide to undertake a PhD at Kent?<\/h3>\n

I felt that research can further our understanding of care practices and contribute to bettering the working conditions of staff, and the lives of the people receiving care.<\/p>\n

I came across the Tizard Centre when I was looking for research opportunities in Kent. I put forward a PhD application due to the Tizard Centre\u2019s research significance in the fields of learning disability, autism, and beyond.<\/p>\n

How often do you commute to campus? How accessible is the campus?<\/h3>\n

As I do not live in Kent, I am not often on campus, and I am glad that the University and my supervisors are flexible and provide online meeting opportunities.<\/p>\n

How many hours do you dedicate to studying for your PhD? And how do you manage your time effectively?<\/h3>\n

Conducting PhD research is my full-time job and I aim to work five days a week, eight hours per day, usually during office hours. Research can become a wild journey and I wanted to ensure that I stick to my work schedule, take two days off a week, and not burn out. Three years in, I am happy to say that this approach has so far worked for me, at least for the most part.<\/p>\n

Any advice for prospective postgraduate students?<\/h3>\n

I feel that the word advice is a strong word, so I will not provide advice per se, instead, I will share some thoughts on my PhD journey hoping that prospective candidates might find some of it useful:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Secure funding if you can, for example, a University or other scholarship to cover your tuition fees and provide you with a stipend. PhD research is hard and important work, and we all deserve to get paid for the work we do.<\/li>\n
  2. Try to build a positive, honest, and supportive relationship with your supervisors as they are key people in your research journey. Of course, relationships are two-way, and you should expect that your supervisors will also try and do the same.<\/li>\n
  3. Speak to your PhD peers as together you can make sense of the PhD journey and learn from each other.<\/li>\n
  4. Remember that doing research is a malleable process and resembles living organisms in real life: developing, adapting, making mistakes, collaborating, solving problems, and so on.<\/li>\n
  5. Be persistent and have faith in yourself and others! Rejection is part of the process and there is always the next Conference\/Journal\/audience that might be interested in your work.<\/li>\n
  6. Finally, tame your PhD, do not let it run wild! As discussed above, treating it as a job (\u2026with everything that a job entails) did the trick for me. Find what helps you to have an as smooth and balanced journey as possible.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Originally from Greece and before getting into the research world, Georgios was a Support Worker in health and social care services. I am glad that … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40559,"featured_media":2537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[143728,789],"tags":[135294,397,43796,74],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2525"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2538,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525\/revisions\/2538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}