What do you picture when someone says they are doing a PhD? Let me guess – a person with dark circles under their eyes working in a laboratory at night? Or a person frowning, surrounded by books, furiously taking notes? What if I told you that’s not always true? Do you want to know what a PhD entails and what it’s really like for the students?
In this article, I give you a glimpse of what motivates students to do a PhD, what we expect from it, and how our expectations align with reality. I discuss the experiences of 16 PhD students (including myself), mainly from the University of Helsinki, working in the fields of natural, medical, and veterinary sciences. Let’s try to break the regular PhD stereotypes, shall we?
Why do a PHD?
I thought that all PhD students wanted to become scientists and, like me, were only passionate about doing research. However, doing these interviews, I learnt that a passion for research is not the only motivation to pursue a PhD.
For five interviewees, a PhD is just a stepping stone for their non-academic career: “I need a PhD to apply for a position as a hospital microbiologist,” remarked one, as an example. These interviewees are aiming for specialised positions outside universities, such as medical consultants, hospital diagnostician, and experts in public health agencies, which expect applicants to have a PhD. Others viewed their PhD as a curveball thrown by life: “I was looking for a job but was offered a PhD position at the university, which paid me to study. So, I thought, why not?” What intrigued me most was an interviewee who took on a PhD as a challenge, just to prove to others that it is not difficult.
“I thought, why not”
These perspectives were fascinating for me as a person who embarked on a PhD with an academic career in mind. During my introspection sparked by these interviews, I realised that despite a PhD being regarded as highly academic, my studies also equip me with many transferable skills like project, time, and resource management, as well as problem-solving and communication skills.
Do experiences correspond with expectations?
I’m sure you’ve heard of the common myths of a PhD – that it is a long, lonely, and gruelling journey. While some got into a PhD with no expectations, most of us, including me, had quite a few. But did our expectations match reality?
1.You solely work on your research – you take ownership of an individual research project and see it to completion
As a novice to the academic world, this is what I envisioned for my PhD, but experience has taught me and other PhDs that it is not always the case. You are juggling more than just your research: changes in project goals, expectations from the project team or project lead, and a limited budget mean that you are never fully in control.
Not being able to explore interesting avenues in research due to lack of funding was brought up as a limitation to PhD ambitions. Elsewhere, limits were set from above: “My supervisor decides the direction of the project, so I have to work within the scope decided by them.” We learn to make the best of our limited time and resources to come up with creative solutions – and that’s what a PhD is about.
Another responsibility of PhD students in Finland is applying for funding, which takes up a lot of the time that you would rather spend developing your research. One surprised novice said: “I thought we would all be working on our PhDs with full scholarships. I was quite surprised that most of the PhDs apply for grants yearly [for salary].” Only a few are lucky enough to get a fully funded PhD position and get paid a fixed salary for the whole duration of their studies. Otherwise, you as a PhD student are regularly applying for grants for your salary, research project, or conference travel while pursuing your PhD research.
2. You can design and keep to your own work schedules
Some of the participants turned to a PhD in search of a good work-life balance, expecting flexible working hours and an escape from stressful work environments.
Our experiences in this regard have been mostly positive, even though some feared it might be an excruciatingly long journey filled with stressful days. Most of us have been able to design our work schedules and have a life after work, but there are always exceptions: “My boss expects me to be in the lab for more than eight hours every day and micro-manages my work.”
3. A PhD is structured and well organised
Before starting your PhD, it is standard to submit a research plan detailing your project/s and how long you intend to spend on it/them. Taking such pains to plan everything beforehand, surely, you follow through till the end, right? Not quite.
As experiments or projects fail, you may have to change the course of the research and its objectives, make alternative plans, and adapt quickly, never knowing if this is the plan you will stick with until graduation. “I applied for a PhD with one research proposal, and barely six months into my PhD, I could see the plans changing drastically. Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD, as the project did not work out as planned” – oof, that’s one crazy roller coaster ride!
“Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD.”
As if constant changes in your research plan weren’t enough, you also have to worry about publication deadlines. Students at the University of Helsinki apply to the programme with a publication plan indicating what papers they will publish, how many they will publish, and by when. The expectation is typically one paper every one and a half to two years. In truth, though, you most likely wrap up publications only towards the end of your PhD, when your research is coming to an end. You must have most of your papers published before you graduate (some can be in manuscript or draft form, waiting to be published). So, towards the end of graduation, you pile up stress from publications, thesis writing, thesis defence, and all the final administrative documentation.
4. You become an expert in a niche field of work
When doing a PhD, our topics are so niche that we might be the sole experts in that subject. With a laser focus on our work, we sometimes don’t see the various other things we learn along the way.
Despite most interviewees being from the field of biology, they still do a lot of statistics, learn programming languages, and use AI for their work. One interviewee stated that despite starting off as a physicist, they have now become an expert in chemistry. Also, while managing our projects and students, we learn many transferable skills like project and resource management.
The bottom line is, in addition to being an expert in a particular topic or field, you learn so many things throughout your journey that you could use anywhere!
5. To develop professionally, you should learn to communicate and network
“As a poster presenter at my first conference, I was able to get some great tips to improve my work, found people interested in my work or doing similar work, learnt about the latest tech developments, and made new friends from across the world,” recounted one participant. You need the opportunity to attend conferences and seminars where you present your work in order to network, practice your communication skills, and develop professionally.
Most of our experiences were also positive in this regard, with many of us learning the ropes by attending local and international events as presenters. But for some, plans for networking fell through: “I could not go to conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said one interviewee, while another simply stated: “I did not receive a travel grant.” One interviewee lamented that they had no conferences specific to their field, so they only attended one conference during their whole PhD.
6. You receive support from your supervisor/s and the university throughout your PhD journey
The most important thing for a PhD student is supervision. The supervisors and the research group are meant to guide, mentor, and support you throughout the entire PhD process. At the start of your PhD, you and your supervisors agree on how you want to be supervised and what your supervisors expect of you – all detailed in a document called the supervision plan. You must have good rapport with your supervisor and a supervision agreement that supports your work style.
Some of us managed to do just that: “I just started my PhD, but I am quite happy with my experience so far as my supervisor is available for any questions I have.” For others, the supervision relationship was more difficult: “My supervisor would be looming over me all day, controlling my working hours and even limiting my creativity, as I had to blindly follow her orders” and in some cases, guidance was lacking: “My group leader is barely in the lab or not available for discussions; hence I mostly work on my own.”
Another form of support you need is that of the university. You need to be aware of the facilities and services the university has to offer and what they expect of you as PhD students – most of which is usually clarified during the orientation event. However, for those who started our degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no in-person events, including orientations. This hindered our opportunity to meet university representatives, get familiar with the university and their expectations, and network. So, an orientation presenting what the university can offer its students and what they expect of PhDs would be helpful for new students.
Embracing the unknown
Some interviewees who had just started their PhD raised some very pertaining questions (a few of which even I had when starting): What makes a successful PhD? What is good science? How do you perform good science, and what makes a good scientist – does it depend on your funding, publications, or the work you do? Nearing the end of my PhD, I agree with the senior interviewees who said that some of these questions get answered during your PhD journey, but “Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
“Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
Despite having a well-planned PhD, one must be malleable and adapt to changes throughout the course of one’s PhD. This can be very hard to cope with as it is both physically and mentally draining. One of the interviewees said: “As there are ups and down at work, so is the case with your mental health.” Many PhD students, including me, completely cut off from work after work hours to try and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Many recommend having a challenging hobby which makes you feel accomplished to counter the stress at work.
Two interviewees – one from and one outside of Finland – said that they feel that academia is for introverts (so it’s not just because Finns are too shy to talk 😉). I’m inclined to agree with them. People are usually working on their own, and for extroverts like me who like having a rubber duck to bounce off ideas with, it’s very difficult to find people to talk to about your work. There are, of course, exceptions but this has been the case so far in many of our experiences. Some PhD students raised their concerns about managing communications, especially with collaborative work. “Collaborations are very difficult for me as communication is the main barrier,” agonised one interviewee. Mastering how communication works in a research group, among group leaders, in your institute, and with collaborators is something you’ll practise throughout your PhD, and you surely find the ropes by the end.
Signing off!
Hopefully, this article gave you an insight into why people do a PhD, how they do it and their reflections, especially for students in Finland. You can use this information to plan your PhD journey. Prospective students: let us know why you want to do a PhD and what you expect from it – for ongoing PhDs, it would be lovely if you could share your experience with people as well on this interactive Canva board:
What do you picture when someone says they are doing a PhD? Let me guess – a person with dark circles under their eyes working in a laboratory at night? Or a person frowning, surrounded by books, furiously taking notes? What if I told you that’s not always true? Do you want to know what a PhD entails and what it’s really like for the students?
In this article, I give you a glimpse of what motivates students to do a PhD, what we expect from it, and how our expectations align with reality. I discuss the experiences of 16 PhD students (including myself), mainly from the University of Helsinki, working in the fields of natural, medical, and veterinary sciences. Let’s try to break the regular PhD stereotypes, shall we?
Why do a PHD?
I thought that all PhD students wanted to become scientists and, like me, were only passionate about doing research. However, doing these interviews, I learnt that a passion for research is not the only motivation to pursue a PhD.
For five interviewees, a PhD is just a stepping stone for their non-academic career: “I need a PhD to apply for a position as a hospital microbiologist,” remarked one, as an example. These interviewees are aiming for specialised positions outside universities, such as medical consultants, hospital diagnostician, and experts in public health agencies, which expect applicants to have a PhD. Others viewed their PhD as a curveball thrown by life: “I was looking for a job but was offered a PhD position at the university, which paid me to study. So, I thought, why not?” What intrigued me most was an interviewee who took on a PhD as a challenge, just to prove to others that it is not difficult.
“I thought, why not”
These perspectives were fascinating for me as a person who embarked on a PhD with an academic career in mind. During my introspection sparked by these interviews, I realised that despite a PhD being regarded as highly academic, my studies also equip me with many transferable skills like project, time, and resource management, as well as problem-solving and communication skills.
Do experiences correspond with expectations?
I’m sure you’ve heard of the common myths of a PhD – that it is a long, lonely, and gruelling journey. While some got into a PhD with no expectations, most of us, including me, had quite a few. But did our expectations match reality?
1.You solely work on your research – you take ownership of an individual research project and see it to completion
As a novice to the academic world, this is what I envisioned for my PhD, but experience has taught me and other PhDs that it is not always the case. You are juggling more than just your research: changes in project goals, expectations from the project team or project lead, and a limited budget mean that you are never fully in control.
Not being able to explore interesting avenues in research due to lack of funding was brought up as a limitation to PhD ambitions. Elsewhere, limits were set from above: “My supervisor decides the direction of the project, so I have to work within the scope decided by them.” We learn to make the best of our limited time and resources to come up with creative solutions – and that’s what a PhD is about.
Another responsibility of PhD students in Finland is applying for funding, which takes up a lot of the time that you would rather spend developing your research. One surprised novice said: “I thought we would all be working on our PhDs with full scholarships. I was quite surprised that most of the PhDs apply for grants yearly [for salary].” Only a few are lucky enough to get a fully funded PhD position and get paid a fixed salary for the whole duration of their studies. Otherwise, you as a PhD student are regularly applying for grants for your salary, research project, or conference travel while pursuing your PhD research.
2. You can design and keep to your own work schedules
Some of the participants turned to a PhD in search of a good work-life balance, expecting flexible working hours and an escape from stressful work environments.
Our experiences in this regard have been mostly positive, even though some feared it might be an excruciatingly long journey filled with stressful days. Most of us have been able to design our work schedules and have a life after work, but there are always exceptions: “My boss expects me to be in the lab for more than eight hours every day and micro-manages my work.”
3. A PhD is structured and well organised
Before starting your PhD, it is standard to submit a research plan detailing your project/s and how long you intend to spend on it/them. Taking such pains to plan everything beforehand, surely, you follow through till the end, right? Not quite.
As experiments or projects fail, you may have to change the course of the research and its objectives, make alternative plans, and adapt quickly, never knowing if this is the plan you will stick with until graduation. “I applied for a PhD with one research proposal, and barely six months into my PhD, I could see the plans changing drastically. Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD, as the project did not work out as planned” – oof, that’s one crazy roller coaster ride!
“Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD.”
As if constant changes in your research plan weren’t enough, you also have to worry about publication deadlines. Students at the University of Helsinki apply to the programme with a publication plan indicating what papers they will publish, how many they will publish, and by when. The expectation is typically one paper every one and a half to two years. In truth, though, you most likely wrap up publications only towards the end of your PhD, when your research is coming to an end. You must have most of your papers published before you graduate (some can be in manuscript or draft form, waiting to be published). So, towards the end of graduation, you pile up stress from publications, thesis writing, thesis defence, and all the final administrative documentation.
4. You become an expert in a niche field of work
When doing a PhD, our topics are so niche that we might be the sole experts in that subject. With a laser focus on our work, we sometimes don’t see the various other things we learn along the way.
Despite most interviewees being from the field of biology, they still do a lot of statistics, learn programming languages, and use AI for their work. One interviewee stated that despite starting off as a physicist, they have now become an expert in chemistry. Also, while managing our projects and students, we learn many transferable skills like project and resource management.
The bottom line is, in addition to being an expert in a particular topic or field, you learn so many things throughout your journey that you could use anywhere!
5. To develop professionally, you should learn to communicate and network
“As a poster presenter at my first conference, I was able to get some great tips to improve my work, found people interested in my work or doing similar work, learnt about the latest tech developments, and made new friends from across the world,” recounted one participant. You need the opportunity to attend conferences and seminars where you present your work in order to network, practice your communication skills, and develop professionally.
Most of our experiences were also positive in this regard, with many of us learning the ropes by attending local and international events as presenters. But for some, plans for networking fell through: “I could not go to conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said one interviewee, while another simply stated: “I did not receive a travel grant.” One interviewee lamented that they had no conferences specific to their field, so they only attended one conference during their whole PhD.
6. You receive support from your supervisor/s and the university throughout your PhD journey
The most important thing for a PhD student is supervision. The supervisors and the research group are meant to guide, mentor, and support you throughout the entire PhD process. At the start of your PhD, you and your supervisors agree on how you want to be supervised and what your supervisors expect of you – all detailed in a document called the supervision plan. You must have good rapport with your supervisor and a supervision agreement that supports your work style.
Some of us managed to do just that: “I just started my PhD, but I am quite happy with my experience so far as my supervisor is available for any questions I have.” For others, the supervision relationship was more difficult: “My supervisor would be looming over me all day, controlling my working hours and even limiting my creativity, as I had to blindly follow her orders” and in some cases, guidance was lacking: “My group leader is barely in the lab or not available for discussions; hence I mostly work on my own.”
Another form of support you need is that of the university. You need to be aware of the facilities and services the university has to offer and what they expect of you as PhD students – most of which is usually clarified during the orientation event. However, for those who started our degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no in-person events, including orientations. This hindered our opportunity to meet university representatives, get familiar with the university and their expectations, and network. So, an orientation presenting what the university can offer its students and what they expect of PhDs would be helpful for new students.
Embracing the unknown
Some interviewees who had just started their PhD raised some very pertaining questions (a few of which even I had when starting): What makes a successful PhD? What is good science? How do you perform good science, and what makes a good scientist – does it depend on your funding, publications, or the work you do? Nearing the end of my PhD, I agree with the senior interviewees who said that some of these questions get answered during your PhD journey, but “Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
“Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
Despite having a well-planned PhD, one must be malleable and adapt to changes throughout the course of one’s PhD. This can be very hard to cope with as it is both physically and mentally draining. One of the interviewees said: “As there are ups and down at work, so is the case with your mental health.” Many PhD students, including me, completely cut off from work after work hours to try and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Many recommend having a challenging hobby which makes you feel accomplished to counter the stress at work.
Two interviewees – one from and one outside of Finland – said that they feel that academia is for introverts (so it’s not just because Finns are too shy to talk 😉). I’m inclined to agree with them. People are usually working on their own, and for extroverts like me who like having a rubber duck to bounce off ideas with, it’s very difficult to find people to talk to about your work. There are, of course, exceptions but this has been the case so far in many of our experiences. Some PhD students raised their concerns about managing communications, especially with collaborative work. “Collaborations are very difficult for me as communication is the main barrier,” agonised one interviewee. Mastering how communication works in a research group, among group leaders, in your institute, and with collaborators is something you’ll practise throughout your PhD, and you surely find the ropes by the end.
Signing off!
Hopefully, this article gave you an insight into why people do a PhD, how they do it and their reflections, especially for students in Finland. You can use this information to plan your PhD journey. Prospective students: let us know why you want to do a PhD and what you expect from it – for ongoing PhDs, it would be lovely if you could share your experience with people as well on this interactive Canva board:
Vinaya Venkat is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki, diving into the world of respiratory viruses and how our immune system responds to them. She has a soft spot for rhinoviruses (check out her SciCrisp from 2022, if you’re curious!), but her real passion lies in making science more relatable and engaging for everyone. At TSB, she’s part of the blogging science team as an editor and is interested in pursuing a career in science communication, so if you know of any cool opportunities or projects – or if you just want to chat about the field – Reach out!
What do you picture when someone says they are doing a PhD? Let me guess – a person with dark circles under their eyes working in a laboratory at night? Or a person frowning, surrounded by books, furiously taking notes? What if I told you that’s not always true? Do you want to know what a PhD entails and what it’s really like for the students?
In this article, I give you a glimpse of what motivates students to do a PhD, what we expect from it, and how our expectations align with reality. I discuss the experiences of 16 PhD students (including myself), mainly from the University of Helsinki, working in the fields of natural, medical, and veterinary sciences. Let’s try to break the regular PhD stereotypes, shall we?
Why do a PHD?
I thought that all PhD students wanted to become scientists and, like me, were only passionate about doing research. However, doing these interviews, I learnt that a passion for research is not the only motivation to pursue a PhD.
For five interviewees, a PhD is just a stepping stone for their non-academic career: “I need a PhD to apply for a position as a hospital microbiologist,” remarked one, as an example. These interviewees are aiming for specialised positions outside universities, such as medical consultants, hospital diagnostician, and experts in public health agencies, which expect applicants to have a PhD. Others viewed their PhD as a curveball thrown by life: “I was looking for a job but was offered a PhD position at the university, which paid me to study. So, I thought, why not?” What intrigued me most was an interviewee who took on a PhD as a challenge, just to prove to others that it is not difficult.
“I thought, why not”
These perspectives were fascinating for me as a person who embarked on a PhD with an academic career in mind. During my introspection sparked by these interviews, I realised that despite a PhD being regarded as highly academic, my studies also equip me with many transferable skills like project, time, and resource management, as well as problem-solving and communication skills.
Do experiences correspond with expectations?
I’m sure you’ve heard of the common myths of a PhD – that it is a long, lonely, and gruelling journey. While some got into a PhD with no expectations, most of us, including me, had quite a few. But did our expectations match reality?
1.You solely work on your research – you take ownership of an individual research project and see it to completion
As a novice to the academic world, this is what I envisioned for my PhD, but experience has taught me and other PhDs that it is not always the case. You are juggling more than just your research: changes in project goals, expectations from the project team or project lead, and a limited budget mean that you are never fully in control.
Not being able to explore interesting avenues in research due to lack of funding was brought up as a limitation to PhD ambitions. Elsewhere, limits were set from above: “My supervisor decides the direction of the project, so I have to work within the scope decided by them.” We learn to make the best of our limited time and resources to come up with creative solutions – and that’s what a PhD is about.
Another responsibility of PhD students in Finland is applying for funding, which takes up a lot of the time that you would rather spend developing your research. One surprised novice said: “I thought we would all be working on our PhDs with full scholarships. I was quite surprised that most of the PhDs apply for grants yearly [for salary].” Only a few are lucky enough to get a fully funded PhD position and get paid a fixed salary for the whole duration of their studies. Otherwise, you as a PhD student are regularly applying for grants for your salary, research project, or conference travel while pursuing your PhD research.
2. You can design and keep to your own work schedules
Some of the participants turned to a PhD in search of a good work-life balance, expecting flexible working hours and an escape from stressful work environments.
Our experiences in this regard have been mostly positive, even though some feared it might be an excruciatingly long journey filled with stressful days. Most of us have been able to design our work schedules and have a life after work, but there are always exceptions: “My boss expects me to be in the lab for more than eight hours every day and micro-manages my work.”
3. A PhD is structured and well organised
Before starting your PhD, it is standard to submit a research plan detailing your project/s and how long you intend to spend on it/them. Taking such pains to plan everything beforehand, surely, you follow through till the end, right? Not quite.
As experiments or projects fail, you may have to change the course of the research and its objectives, make alternative plans, and adapt quickly, never knowing if this is the plan you will stick with until graduation. “I applied for a PhD with one research proposal, and barely six months into my PhD, I could see the plans changing drastically. Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD, as the project did not work out as planned” – oof, that’s one crazy roller coaster ride!
“Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD.”
As if constant changes in your research plan weren’t enough, you also have to worry about publication deadlines. Students at the University of Helsinki apply to the programme with a publication plan indicating what papers they will publish, how many they will publish, and by when. The expectation is typically one paper every one and a half to two years. In truth, though, you most likely wrap up publications only towards the end of your PhD, when your research is coming to an end. You must have most of your papers published before you graduate (some can be in manuscript or draft form, waiting to be published). So, towards the end of graduation, you pile up stress from publications, thesis writing, thesis defence, and all the final administrative documentation.
4. You become an expert in a niche field of work
When doing a PhD, our topics are so niche that we might be the sole experts in that subject. With a laser focus on our work, we sometimes don’t see the various other things we learn along the way.
Despite most interviewees being from the field of biology, they still do a lot of statistics, learn programming languages, and use AI for their work. One interviewee stated that despite starting off as a physicist, they have now become an expert in chemistry. Also, while managing our projects and students, we learn many transferable skills like project and resource management.
The bottom line is, in addition to being an expert in a particular topic or field, you learn so many things throughout your journey that you could use anywhere!
5. To develop professionally, you should learn to communicate and network
“As a poster presenter at my first conference, I was able to get some great tips to improve my work, found people interested in my work or doing similar work, learnt about the latest tech developments, and made new friends from across the world,” recounted one participant. You need the opportunity to attend conferences and seminars where you present your work in order to network, practice your communication skills, and develop professionally.
Most of our experiences were also positive in this regard, with many of us learning the ropes by attending local and international events as presenters. But for some, plans for networking fell through: “I could not go to conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said one interviewee, while another simply stated: “I did not receive a travel grant.” One interviewee lamented that they had no conferences specific to their field, so they only attended one conference during their whole PhD.
6. You receive support from your supervisor/s and the university throughout your PhD journey
The most important thing for a PhD student is supervision. The supervisors and the research group are meant to guide, mentor, and support you throughout the entire PhD process. At the start of your PhD, you and your supervisors agree on how you want to be supervised and what your supervisors expect of you – all detailed in a document called the supervision plan. You must have good rapport with your supervisor and a supervision agreement that supports your work style.
Some of us managed to do just that: “I just started my PhD, but I am quite happy with my experience so far as my supervisor is available for any questions I have.” For others, the supervision relationship was more difficult: “My supervisor would be looming over me all day, controlling my working hours and even limiting my creativity, as I had to blindly follow her orders” and in some cases, guidance was lacking: “My group leader is barely in the lab or not available for discussions; hence I mostly work on my own.”
Another form of support you need is that of the university. You need to be aware of the facilities and services the university has to offer and what they expect of you as PhD students – most of which is usually clarified during the orientation event. However, for those who started our degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no in-person events, including orientations. This hindered our opportunity to meet university representatives, get familiar with the university and their expectations, and network. So, an orientation presenting what the university can offer its students and what they expect of PhDs would be helpful for new students.
Embracing the unknown
Some interviewees who had just started their PhD raised some very pertaining questions (a few of which even I had when starting): What makes a successful PhD? What is good science? How do you perform good science, and what makes a good scientist – does it depend on your funding, publications, or the work you do? Nearing the end of my PhD, I agree with the senior interviewees who said that some of these questions get answered during your PhD journey, but “Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
“Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
Despite having a well-planned PhD, one must be malleable and adapt to changes throughout the course of one’s PhD. This can be very hard to cope with as it is both physically and mentally draining. One of the interviewees said: “As there are ups and down at work, so is the case with your mental health.” Many PhD students, including me, completely cut off from work after work hours to try and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Many recommend having a challenging hobby which makes you feel accomplished to counter the stress at work.
Two interviewees – one from and one outside of Finland – said that they feel that academia is for introverts (so it’s not just because Finns are too shy to talk 😉). I’m inclined to agree with them. People are usually working on their own, and for extroverts like me who like having a rubber duck to bounce off ideas with, it’s very difficult to find people to talk to about your work. There are, of course, exceptions but this has been the case so far in many of our experiences. Some PhD students raised their concerns about managing communications, especially with collaborative work. “Collaborations are very difficult for me as communication is the main barrier,” agonised one interviewee. Mastering how communication works in a research group, among group leaders, in your institute, and with collaborators is something you’ll practise throughout your PhD, and you surely find the ropes by the end.
Signing off!
Hopefully, this article gave you an insight into why people do a PhD, how they do it and their reflections, especially for students in Finland. You can use this information to plan your PhD journey. Prospective students: let us know why you want to do a PhD and what you expect from it – for ongoing PhDs, it would be lovely if you could share your experience with people as well on this interactive Canva board:
Vinaya Venkat is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki, diving into the world of respiratory viruses and how our immune system responds to them. She has a soft spot for rhinoviruses (check out her SciCrisp from 2022, if you’re curious!), but her real passion lies in making science more relatable and engaging for everyone. At TSB, she’s part of the blogging science team as an editor and is interested in pursuing a career in science communication, so if you know of any cool opportunities or projects – or if you just want to chat about the field – Reach out!
What do you picture when someone says they are doing a PhD? Let me guess – a person with dark circles under their eyes working in a laboratory at night? Or a person frowning, surrounded by books, furiously taking notes? What if I told you that’s not always true? Do you want to know what a PhD entails and what it’s really like for the students?
In this article, I give you a glimpse of what motivates students to do a PhD, what we expect from it, and how our expectations align with reality. I discuss the experiences of 16 PhD students (including myself), mainly from the University of Helsinki, working in the fields of natural, medical, and veterinary sciences. Let’s try to break the regular PhD stereotypes, shall we?
Why do a PHD?
I thought that all PhD students wanted to become scientists and, like me, were only passionate about doing research. However, doing these interviews, I learnt that a passion for research is not the only motivation to pursue a PhD.
For five interviewees, a PhD is just a stepping stone for their non-academic career: “I need a PhD to apply for a position as a hospital microbiologist,” remarked one, as an example. These interviewees are aiming for specialised positions outside universities, such as medical consultants, hospital diagnostician, and experts in public health agencies, which expect applicants to have a PhD. Others viewed their PhD as a curveball thrown by life: “I was looking for a job but was offered a PhD position at the university, which paid me to study. So, I thought, why not?” What intrigued me most was an interviewee who took on a PhD as a challenge, just to prove to others that it is not difficult.
“I thought, why not”
These perspectives were fascinating for me as a person who embarked on a PhD with an academic career in mind. During my introspection sparked by these interviews, I realised that despite a PhD being regarded as highly academic, my studies also equip me with many transferable skills like project, time, and resource management, as well as problem-solving and communication skills.
Do experiences correspond with expectations?
I’m sure you’ve heard of the common myths of a PhD – that it is a long, lonely, and gruelling journey. While some got into a PhD with no expectations, most of us, including me, had quite a few. But did our expectations match reality?
1.You solely work on your research – you take ownership of an individual research project and see it to completion
As a novice to the academic world, this is what I envisioned for my PhD, but experience has taught me and other PhDs that it is not always the case. You are juggling more than just your research: changes in project goals, expectations from the project team or project lead, and a limited budget mean that you are never fully in control.
Not being able to explore interesting avenues in research due to lack of funding was brought up as a limitation to PhD ambitions. Elsewhere, limits were set from above: “My supervisor decides the direction of the project, so I have to work within the scope decided by them.” We learn to make the best of our limited time and resources to come up with creative solutions – and that’s what a PhD is about.
Another responsibility of PhD students in Finland is applying for funding, which takes up a lot of the time that you would rather spend developing your research. One surprised novice said: “I thought we would all be working on our PhDs with full scholarships. I was quite surprised that most of the PhDs apply for grants yearly [for salary].” Only a few are lucky enough to get a fully funded PhD position and get paid a fixed salary for the whole duration of their studies. Otherwise, you as a PhD student are regularly applying for grants for your salary, research project, or conference travel while pursuing your PhD research.
2. You can design and keep to your own work schedules
Some of the participants turned to a PhD in search of a good work-life balance, expecting flexible working hours and an escape from stressful work environments.
Our experiences in this regard have been mostly positive, even though some feared it might be an excruciatingly long journey filled with stressful days. Most of us have been able to design our work schedules and have a life after work, but there are always exceptions: “My boss expects me to be in the lab for more than eight hours every day and micro-manages my work.”
3. A PhD is structured and well organised
Before starting your PhD, it is standard to submit a research plan detailing your project/s and how long you intend to spend on it/them. Taking such pains to plan everything beforehand, surely, you follow through till the end, right? Not quite.
As experiments or projects fail, you may have to change the course of the research and its objectives, make alternative plans, and adapt quickly, never knowing if this is the plan you will stick with until graduation. “I applied for a PhD with one research proposal, and barely six months into my PhD, I could see the plans changing drastically. Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD, as the project did not work out as planned” – oof, that’s one crazy roller coaster ride!
“Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD.”
As if constant changes in your research plan weren’t enough, you also have to worry about publication deadlines. Students at the University of Helsinki apply to the programme with a publication plan indicating what papers they will publish, how many they will publish, and by when. The expectation is typically one paper every one and a half to two years. In truth, though, you most likely wrap up publications only towards the end of your PhD, when your research is coming to an end. You must have most of your papers published before you graduate (some can be in manuscript or draft form, waiting to be published). So, towards the end of graduation, you pile up stress from publications, thesis writing, thesis defence, and all the final administrative documentation.
4. You become an expert in a niche field of work
When doing a PhD, our topics are so niche that we might be the sole experts in that subject. With a laser focus on our work, we sometimes don’t see the various other things we learn along the way.
Despite most interviewees being from the field of biology, they still do a lot of statistics, learn programming languages, and use AI for their work. One interviewee stated that despite starting off as a physicist, they have now become an expert in chemistry. Also, while managing our projects and students, we learn many transferable skills like project and resource management.
The bottom line is, in addition to being an expert in a particular topic or field, you learn so many things throughout your journey that you could use anywhere!
5. To develop professionally, you should learn to communicate and network
“As a poster presenter at my first conference, I was able to get some great tips to improve my work, found people interested in my work or doing similar work, learnt about the latest tech developments, and made new friends from across the world,” recounted one participant. You need the opportunity to attend conferences and seminars where you present your work in order to network, practice your communication skills, and develop professionally.
Most of our experiences were also positive in this regard, with many of us learning the ropes by attending local and international events as presenters. But for some, plans for networking fell through: “I could not go to conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said one interviewee, while another simply stated: “I did not receive a travel grant.” One interviewee lamented that they had no conferences specific to their field, so they only attended one conference during their whole PhD.
6. You receive support from your supervisor/s and the university throughout your PhD journey
The most important thing for a PhD student is supervision. The supervisors and the research group are meant to guide, mentor, and support you throughout the entire PhD process. At the start of your PhD, you and your supervisors agree on how you want to be supervised and what your supervisors expect of you – all detailed in a document called the supervision plan. You must have good rapport with your supervisor and a supervision agreement that supports your work style.
Some of us managed to do just that: “I just started my PhD, but I am quite happy with my experience so far as my supervisor is available for any questions I have.” For others, the supervision relationship was more difficult: “My supervisor would be looming over me all day, controlling my working hours and even limiting my creativity, as I had to blindly follow her orders” and in some cases, guidance was lacking: “My group leader is barely in the lab or not available for discussions; hence I mostly work on my own.”
Another form of support you need is that of the university. You need to be aware of the facilities and services the university has to offer and what they expect of you as PhD students – most of which is usually clarified during the orientation event. However, for those who started our degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no in-person events, including orientations. This hindered our opportunity to meet university representatives, get familiar with the university and their expectations, and network. So, an orientation presenting what the university can offer its students and what they expect of PhDs would be helpful for new students.
Embracing the unknown
Some interviewees who had just started their PhD raised some very pertaining questions (a few of which even I had when starting): What makes a successful PhD? What is good science? How do you perform good science, and what makes a good scientist – does it depend on your funding, publications, or the work you do? Nearing the end of my PhD, I agree with the senior interviewees who said that some of these questions get answered during your PhD journey, but “Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
“Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
Despite having a well-planned PhD, one must be malleable and adapt to changes throughout the course of one’s PhD. This can be very hard to cope with as it is both physically and mentally draining. One of the interviewees said: “As there are ups and down at work, so is the case with your mental health.” Many PhD students, including me, completely cut off from work after work hours to try and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Many recommend having a challenging hobby which makes you feel accomplished to counter the stress at work.
Two interviewees – one from and one outside of Finland – said that they feel that academia is for introverts (so it’s not just because Finns are too shy to talk 😉). I’m inclined to agree with them. People are usually working on their own, and for extroverts like me who like having a rubber duck to bounce off ideas with, it’s very difficult to find people to talk to about your work. There are, of course, exceptions but this has been the case so far in many of our experiences. Some PhD students raised their concerns about managing communications, especially with collaborative work. “Collaborations are very difficult for me as communication is the main barrier,” agonised one interviewee. Mastering how communication works in a research group, among group leaders, in your institute, and with collaborators is something you’ll practise throughout your PhD, and you surely find the ropes by the end.
Signing off!
Hopefully, this article gave you an insight into why people do a PhD, how they do it and their reflections, especially for students in Finland. You can use this information to plan your PhD journey. Prospective students: let us know why you want to do a PhD and what you expect from it – for ongoing PhDs, it would be lovely if you could share your experience with people as well on this interactive Canva board:
Vinaya Venkat is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki, diving into the world of respiratory viruses and how our immune system responds to them. She has a soft spot for rhinoviruses (check out her SciCrisp from 2022, if you’re curious!), but her real passion lies in making science more relatable and engaging for everyone. At TSB, she’s part of the blogging science team as an editor and is interested in pursuing a career in science communication, so if you know of any cool opportunities or projects – or if you just want to chat about the field – Reach out!
What do you picture when someone says they are doing a PhD? Let me guess – a person with dark circles under their eyes working in a laboratory at night? Or a person frowning, surrounded by books, furiously taking notes? What if I told you that’s not always true? Do you want to know what a PhD entails and what it’s really like for the students?
In this article, I give you a glimpse of what motivates students to do a PhD, what we expect from it, and how our expectations align with reality. I discuss the experiences of 16 PhD students (including myself), mainly from the University of Helsinki, working in the fields of natural, medical, and veterinary sciences. Let’s try to break the regular PhD stereotypes, shall we?
Why do a PHD?
I thought that all PhD students wanted to become scientists and, like me, were only passionate about doing research. However, doing these interviews, I learnt that a passion for research is not the only motivation to pursue a PhD.
For five interviewees, a PhD is just a stepping stone for their non-academic career: “I need a PhD to apply for a position as a hospital microbiologist,” remarked one, as an example. These interviewees are aiming for specialised positions outside universities, such as medical consultants, hospital diagnostician, and experts in public health agencies, which expect applicants to have a PhD. Others viewed their PhD as a curveball thrown by life: “I was looking for a job but was offered a PhD position at the university, which paid me to study. So, I thought, why not?” What intrigued me most was an interviewee who took on a PhD as a challenge, just to prove to others that it is not difficult.
“I thought, why not”
These perspectives were fascinating for me as a person who embarked on a PhD with an academic career in mind. During my introspection sparked by these interviews, I realised that despite a PhD being regarded as highly academic, my studies also equip me with many transferable skills like project, time, and resource management, as well as problem-solving and communication skills.
Do experiences correspond with expectations?
I’m sure you’ve heard of the common myths of a PhD – that it is a long, lonely, and gruelling journey. While some got into a PhD with no expectations, most of us, including me, had quite a few. But did our expectations match reality?
1.You solely work on your research – you take ownership of an individual research project and see it to completion
As a novice to the academic world, this is what I envisioned for my PhD, but experience has taught me and other PhDs that it is not always the case. You are juggling more than just your research: changes in project goals, expectations from the project team or project lead, and a limited budget mean that you are never fully in control.
Not being able to explore interesting avenues in research due to lack of funding was brought up as a limitation to PhD ambitions. Elsewhere, limits were set from above: “My supervisor decides the direction of the project, so I have to work within the scope decided by them.” We learn to make the best of our limited time and resources to come up with creative solutions – and that’s what a PhD is about.
Another responsibility of PhD students in Finland is applying for funding, which takes up a lot of the time that you would rather spend developing your research. One surprised novice said: “I thought we would all be working on our PhDs with full scholarships. I was quite surprised that most of the PhDs apply for grants yearly [for salary].” Only a few are lucky enough to get a fully funded PhD position and get paid a fixed salary for the whole duration of their studies. Otherwise, you as a PhD student are regularly applying for grants for your salary, research project, or conference travel while pursuing your PhD research.
2. You can design and keep to your own work schedules
Some of the participants turned to a PhD in search of a good work-life balance, expecting flexible working hours and an escape from stressful work environments.
Our experiences in this regard have been mostly positive, even though some feared it might be an excruciatingly long journey filled with stressful days. Most of us have been able to design our work schedules and have a life after work, but there are always exceptions: “My boss expects me to be in the lab for more than eight hours every day and micro-manages my work.”
3. A PhD is structured and well organised
Before starting your PhD, it is standard to submit a research plan detailing your project/s and how long you intend to spend on it/them. Taking such pains to plan everything beforehand, surely, you follow through till the end, right? Not quite.
As experiments or projects fail, you may have to change the course of the research and its objectives, make alternative plans, and adapt quickly, never knowing if this is the plan you will stick with until graduation. “I applied for a PhD with one research proposal, and barely six months into my PhD, I could see the plans changing drastically. Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD, as the project did not work out as planned” – oof, that’s one crazy roller coaster ride!
“Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD.”
As if constant changes in your research plan weren’t enough, you also have to worry about publication deadlines. Students at the University of Helsinki apply to the programme with a publication plan indicating what papers they will publish, how many they will publish, and by when. The expectation is typically one paper every one and a half to two years. In truth, though, you most likely wrap up publications only towards the end of your PhD, when your research is coming to an end. You must have most of your papers published before you graduate (some can be in manuscript or draft form, waiting to be published). So, towards the end of graduation, you pile up stress from publications, thesis writing, thesis defence, and all the final administrative documentation.
4. You become an expert in a niche field of work
When doing a PhD, our topics are so niche that we might be the sole experts in that subject. With a laser focus on our work, we sometimes don’t see the various other things we learn along the way.
Despite most interviewees being from the field of biology, they still do a lot of statistics, learn programming languages, and use AI for their work. One interviewee stated that despite starting off as a physicist, they have now become an expert in chemistry. Also, while managing our projects and students, we learn many transferable skills like project and resource management.
The bottom line is, in addition to being an expert in a particular topic or field, you learn so many things throughout your journey that you could use anywhere!
5. To develop professionally, you should learn to communicate and network
“As a poster presenter at my first conference, I was able to get some great tips to improve my work, found people interested in my work or doing similar work, learnt about the latest tech developments, and made new friends from across the world,” recounted one participant. You need the opportunity to attend conferences and seminars where you present your work in order to network, practice your communication skills, and develop professionally.
Most of our experiences were also positive in this regard, with many of us learning the ropes by attending local and international events as presenters. But for some, plans for networking fell through: “I could not go to conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said one interviewee, while another simply stated: “I did not receive a travel grant.” One interviewee lamented that they had no conferences specific to their field, so they only attended one conference during their whole PhD.
6. You receive support from your supervisor/s and the university throughout your PhD journey
The most important thing for a PhD student is supervision. The supervisors and the research group are meant to guide, mentor, and support you throughout the entire PhD process. At the start of your PhD, you and your supervisors agree on how you want to be supervised and what your supervisors expect of you – all detailed in a document called the supervision plan. You must have good rapport with your supervisor and a supervision agreement that supports your work style.
Some of us managed to do just that: “I just started my PhD, but I am quite happy with my experience so far as my supervisor is available for any questions I have.” For others, the supervision relationship was more difficult: “My supervisor would be looming over me all day, controlling my working hours and even limiting my creativity, as I had to blindly follow her orders” and in some cases, guidance was lacking: “My group leader is barely in the lab or not available for discussions; hence I mostly work on my own.”
Another form of support you need is that of the university. You need to be aware of the facilities and services the university has to offer and what they expect of you as PhD students – most of which is usually clarified during the orientation event. However, for those who started our degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no in-person events, including orientations. This hindered our opportunity to meet university representatives, get familiar with the university and their expectations, and network. So, an orientation presenting what the university can offer its students and what they expect of PhDs would be helpful for new students.
Embracing the unknown
Some interviewees who had just started their PhD raised some very pertaining questions (a few of which even I had when starting): What makes a successful PhD? What is good science? How do you perform good science, and what makes a good scientist – does it depend on your funding, publications, or the work you do? Nearing the end of my PhD, I agree with the senior interviewees who said that some of these questions get answered during your PhD journey, but “Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
“Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
Despite having a well-planned PhD, one must be malleable and adapt to changes throughout the course of one’s PhD. This can be very hard to cope with as it is both physically and mentally draining. One of the interviewees said: “As there are ups and down at work, so is the case with your mental health.” Many PhD students, including me, completely cut off from work after work hours to try and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Many recommend having a challenging hobby which makes you feel accomplished to counter the stress at work.
Two interviewees – one from and one outside of Finland – said that they feel that academia is for introverts (so it’s not just because Finns are too shy to talk 😉). I’m inclined to agree with them. People are usually working on their own, and for extroverts like me who like having a rubber duck to bounce off ideas with, it’s very difficult to find people to talk to about your work. There are, of course, exceptions but this has been the case so far in many of our experiences. Some PhD students raised their concerns about managing communications, especially with collaborative work. “Collaborations are very difficult for me as communication is the main barrier,” agonised one interviewee. Mastering how communication works in a research group, among group leaders, in your institute, and with collaborators is something you’ll practise throughout your PhD, and you surely find the ropes by the end.
Signing off!
Hopefully, this article gave you an insight into why people do a PhD, how they do it and their reflections, especially for students in Finland. You can use this information to plan your PhD journey. Prospective students: let us know why you want to do a PhD and what you expect from it – for ongoing PhDs, it would be lovely if you could share your experience with people as well on this interactive Canva board:
Vinaya Venkat is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki, diving into the world of respiratory viruses and how our immune system responds to them. She has a soft spot for rhinoviruses (check out her SciCrisp from 2022, if you’re curious!), but her real passion lies in making science more relatable and engaging for everyone. At TSB, she’s part of the blogging science team as an editor and is interested in pursuing a career in science communication, so if you know of any cool opportunities or projects – or if you just want to chat about the field – Reach out!
What do you picture when someone says they are doing a PhD? Let me guess – a person with dark circles under their eyes working in a laboratory at night? Or a person frowning, surrounded by books, furiously taking notes? What if I told you that’s not always true? Do you want to know what a PhD entails and what it’s really like for the students?
In this article, I give you a glimpse of what motivates students to do a PhD, what we expect from it, and how our expectations align with reality. I discuss the experiences of 16 PhD students (including myself), mainly from the University of Helsinki, working in the fields of natural, medical, and veterinary sciences. Let’s try to break the regular PhD stereotypes, shall we?
Why do a PHD?
I thought that all PhD students wanted to become scientists and, like me, were only passionate about doing research. However, doing these interviews, I learnt that a passion for research is not the only motivation to pursue a PhD.
For five interviewees, a PhD is just a stepping stone for their non-academic career: “I need a PhD to apply for a position as a hospital microbiologist,” remarked one, as an example. These interviewees are aiming for specialised positions outside universities, such as medical consultants, hospital diagnostician, and experts in public health agencies, which expect applicants to have a PhD. Others viewed their PhD as a curveball thrown by life: “I was looking for a job but was offered a PhD position at the university, which paid me to study. So, I thought, why not?” What intrigued me most was an interviewee who took on a PhD as a challenge, just to prove to others that it is not difficult.
“I thought, why not”
These perspectives were fascinating for me as a person who embarked on a PhD with an academic career in mind. During my introspection sparked by these interviews, I realised that despite a PhD being regarded as highly academic, my studies also equip me with many transferable skills like project, time, and resource management, as well as problem-solving and communication skills.
Do experiences correspond with expectations?
I’m sure you’ve heard of the common myths of a PhD – that it is a long, lonely, and gruelling journey. While some got into a PhD with no expectations, most of us, including me, had quite a few. But did our expectations match reality?
1.You solely work on your research – you take ownership of an individual research project and see it to completion
As a novice to the academic world, this is what I envisioned for my PhD, but experience has taught me and other PhDs that it is not always the case. You are juggling more than just your research: changes in project goals, expectations from the project team or project lead, and a limited budget mean that you are never fully in control.
Not being able to explore interesting avenues in research due to lack of funding was brought up as a limitation to PhD ambitions. Elsewhere, limits were set from above: “My supervisor decides the direction of the project, so I have to work within the scope decided by them.” We learn to make the best of our limited time and resources to come up with creative solutions – and that’s what a PhD is about.
Another responsibility of PhD students in Finland is applying for funding, which takes up a lot of the time that you would rather spend developing your research. One surprised novice said: “I thought we would all be working on our PhDs with full scholarships. I was quite surprised that most of the PhDs apply for grants yearly [for salary].” Only a few are lucky enough to get a fully funded PhD position and get paid a fixed salary for the whole duration of their studies. Otherwise, you as a PhD student are regularly applying for grants for your salary, research project, or conference travel while pursuing your PhD research.
2. You can design and keep to your own work schedules
Some of the participants turned to a PhD in search of a good work-life balance, expecting flexible working hours and an escape from stressful work environments.
Our experiences in this regard have been mostly positive, even though some feared it might be an excruciatingly long journey filled with stressful days. Most of us have been able to design our work schedules and have a life after work, but there are always exceptions: “My boss expects me to be in the lab for more than eight hours every day and micro-manages my work.”
3. A PhD is structured and well organised
Before starting your PhD, it is standard to submit a research plan detailing your project/s and how long you intend to spend on it/them. Taking such pains to plan everything beforehand, surely, you follow through till the end, right? Not quite.
As experiments or projects fail, you may have to change the course of the research and its objectives, make alternative plans, and adapt quickly, never knowing if this is the plan you will stick with until graduation. “I applied for a PhD with one research proposal, and barely six months into my PhD, I could see the plans changing drastically. Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD, as the project did not work out as planned” – oof, that’s one crazy roller coaster ride!
“Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD.”
As if constant changes in your research plan weren’t enough, you also have to worry about publication deadlines. Students at the University of Helsinki apply to the programme with a publication plan indicating what papers they will publish, how many they will publish, and by when. The expectation is typically one paper every one and a half to two years. In truth, though, you most likely wrap up publications only towards the end of your PhD, when your research is coming to an end. You must have most of your papers published before you graduate (some can be in manuscript or draft form, waiting to be published). So, towards the end of graduation, you pile up stress from publications, thesis writing, thesis defence, and all the final administrative documentation.
4. You become an expert in a niche field of work
When doing a PhD, our topics are so niche that we might be the sole experts in that subject. With a laser focus on our work, we sometimes don’t see the various other things we learn along the way.
Despite most interviewees being from the field of biology, they still do a lot of statistics, learn programming languages, and use AI for their work. One interviewee stated that despite starting off as a physicist, they have now become an expert in chemistry. Also, while managing our projects and students, we learn many transferable skills like project and resource management.
The bottom line is, in addition to being an expert in a particular topic or field, you learn so many things throughout your journey that you could use anywhere!
5. To develop professionally, you should learn to communicate and network
“As a poster presenter at my first conference, I was able to get some great tips to improve my work, found people interested in my work or doing similar work, learnt about the latest tech developments, and made new friends from across the world,” recounted one participant. You need the opportunity to attend conferences and seminars where you present your work in order to network, practice your communication skills, and develop professionally.
Most of our experiences were also positive in this regard, with many of us learning the ropes by attending local and international events as presenters. But for some, plans for networking fell through: “I could not go to conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said one interviewee, while another simply stated: “I did not receive a travel grant.” One interviewee lamented that they had no conferences specific to their field, so they only attended one conference during their whole PhD.
6. You receive support from your supervisor/s and the university throughout your PhD journey
The most important thing for a PhD student is supervision. The supervisors and the research group are meant to guide, mentor, and support you throughout the entire PhD process. At the start of your PhD, you and your supervisors agree on how you want to be supervised and what your supervisors expect of you – all detailed in a document called the supervision plan. You must have good rapport with your supervisor and a supervision agreement that supports your work style.
Some of us managed to do just that: “I just started my PhD, but I am quite happy with my experience so far as my supervisor is available for any questions I have.” For others, the supervision relationship was more difficult: “My supervisor would be looming over me all day, controlling my working hours and even limiting my creativity, as I had to blindly follow her orders” and in some cases, guidance was lacking: “My group leader is barely in the lab or not available for discussions; hence I mostly work on my own.”
Another form of support you need is that of the university. You need to be aware of the facilities and services the university has to offer and what they expect of you as PhD students – most of which is usually clarified during the orientation event. However, for those who started our degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no in-person events, including orientations. This hindered our opportunity to meet university representatives, get familiar with the university and their expectations, and network. So, an orientation presenting what the university can offer its students and what they expect of PhDs would be helpful for new students.
Embracing the unknown
Some interviewees who had just started their PhD raised some very pertaining questions (a few of which even I had when starting): What makes a successful PhD? What is good science? How do you perform good science, and what makes a good scientist – does it depend on your funding, publications, or the work you do? Nearing the end of my PhD, I agree with the senior interviewees who said that some of these questions get answered during your PhD journey, but “Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
“Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
Despite having a well-planned PhD, one must be malleable and adapt to changes throughout the course of one’s PhD. This can be very hard to cope with as it is both physically and mentally draining. One of the interviewees said: “As there are ups and down at work, so is the case with your mental health.” Many PhD students, including me, completely cut off from work after work hours to try and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Many recommend having a challenging hobby which makes you feel accomplished to counter the stress at work.
Two interviewees – one from and one outside of Finland – said that they feel that academia is for introverts (so it’s not just because Finns are too shy to talk 😉). I’m inclined to agree with them. People are usually working on their own, and for extroverts like me who like having a rubber duck to bounce off ideas with, it’s very difficult to find people to talk to about your work. There are, of course, exceptions but this has been the case so far in many of our experiences. Some PhD students raised their concerns about managing communications, especially with collaborative work. “Collaborations are very difficult for me as communication is the main barrier,” agonised one interviewee. Mastering how communication works in a research group, among group leaders, in your institute, and with collaborators is something you’ll practise throughout your PhD, and you surely find the ropes by the end.
Signing off!
Hopefully, this article gave you an insight into why people do a PhD, how they do it and their reflections, especially for students in Finland. You can use this information to plan your PhD journey. Prospective students: let us know why you want to do a PhD and what you expect from it – for ongoing PhDs, it would be lovely if you could share your experience with people as well on this interactive Canva board:
Vinaya Venkat is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki, diving into the world of respiratory viruses and how our immune system responds to them. She has a soft spot for rhinoviruses (check out her SciCrisp from 2022, if you’re curious!), but her real passion lies in making science more relatable and engaging for everyone. At TSB, she’s part of the blogging science team as an editor and is interested in pursuing a career in science communication, so if you know of any cool opportunities or projects – or if you just want to chat about the field – Reach out!
What do you picture when someone says they are doing a PhD? Let me guess – a person with dark circles under their eyes working in a laboratory at night? Or a person frowning, surrounded by books, furiously taking notes? What if I told you that’s not always true? Do you want to know what a PhD entails and what it’s really like for the students?
In this article, I give you a glimpse of what motivates students to do a PhD, what we expect from it, and how our expectations align with reality. I discuss the experiences of 16 PhD students (including myself), mainly from the University of Helsinki, working in the fields of natural, medical, and veterinary sciences. Let’s try to break the regular PhD stereotypes, shall we?
Why do a PHD?
I thought that all PhD students wanted to become scientists and, like me, were only passionate about doing research. However, doing these interviews, I learnt that a passion for research is not the only motivation to pursue a PhD.
For five interviewees, a PhD is just a stepping stone for their non-academic career: “I need a PhD to apply for a position as a hospital microbiologist,” remarked one, as an example. These interviewees are aiming for specialised positions outside universities, such as medical consultants, hospital diagnostician, and experts in public health agencies, which expect applicants to have a PhD. Others viewed their PhD as a curveball thrown by life: “I was looking for a job but was offered a PhD position at the university, which paid me to study. So, I thought, why not?” What intrigued me most was an interviewee who took on a PhD as a challenge, just to prove to others that it is not difficult.
“I thought, why not”
These perspectives were fascinating for me as a person who embarked on a PhD with an academic career in mind. During my introspection sparked by these interviews, I realised that despite a PhD being regarded as highly academic, my studies also equip me with many transferable skills like project, time, and resource management, as well as problem-solving and communication skills.
Do experiences correspond with expectations?
I’m sure you’ve heard of the common myths of a PhD – that it is a long, lonely, and gruelling journey. While some got into a PhD with no expectations, most of us, including me, had quite a few. But did our expectations match reality?
1.You solely work on your research – you take ownership of an individual research project and see it to completion
As a novice to the academic world, this is what I envisioned for my PhD, but experience has taught me and other PhDs that it is not always the case. You are juggling more than just your research: changes in project goals, expectations from the project team or project lead, and a limited budget mean that you are never fully in control.
Not being able to explore interesting avenues in research due to lack of funding was brought up as a limitation to PhD ambitions. Elsewhere, limits were set from above: “My supervisor decides the direction of the project, so I have to work within the scope decided by them.” We learn to make the best of our limited time and resources to come up with creative solutions – and that’s what a PhD is about.
Another responsibility of PhD students in Finland is applying for funding, which takes up a lot of the time that you would rather spend developing your research. One surprised novice said: “I thought we would all be working on our PhDs with full scholarships. I was quite surprised that most of the PhDs apply for grants yearly [for salary].” Only a few are lucky enough to get a fully funded PhD position and get paid a fixed salary for the whole duration of their studies. Otherwise, you as a PhD student are regularly applying for grants for your salary, research project, or conference travel while pursuing your PhD research.
2. You can design and keep to your own work schedules
Some of the participants turned to a PhD in search of a good work-life balance, expecting flexible working hours and an escape from stressful work environments.
Our experiences in this regard have been mostly positive, even though some feared it might be an excruciatingly long journey filled with stressful days. Most of us have been able to design our work schedules and have a life after work, but there are always exceptions: “My boss expects me to be in the lab for more than eight hours every day and micro-manages my work.”
3. A PhD is structured and well organised
Before starting your PhD, it is standard to submit a research plan detailing your project/s and how long you intend to spend on it/them. Taking such pains to plan everything beforehand, surely, you follow through till the end, right? Not quite.
As experiments or projects fail, you may have to change the course of the research and its objectives, make alternative plans, and adapt quickly, never knowing if this is the plan you will stick with until graduation. “I applied for a PhD with one research proposal, and barely six months into my PhD, I could see the plans changing drastically. Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD, as the project did not work out as planned” – oof, that’s one crazy roller coaster ride!
“Two years down the line, I had to practically restart my PhD.”
As if constant changes in your research plan weren’t enough, you also have to worry about publication deadlines. Students at the University of Helsinki apply to the programme with a publication plan indicating what papers they will publish, how many they will publish, and by when. The expectation is typically one paper every one and a half to two years. In truth, though, you most likely wrap up publications only towards the end of your PhD, when your research is coming to an end. You must have most of your papers published before you graduate (some can be in manuscript or draft form, waiting to be published). So, towards the end of graduation, you pile up stress from publications, thesis writing, thesis defence, and all the final administrative documentation.
4. You become an expert in a niche field of work
When doing a PhD, our topics are so niche that we might be the sole experts in that subject. With a laser focus on our work, we sometimes don’t see the various other things we learn along the way.
Despite most interviewees being from the field of biology, they still do a lot of statistics, learn programming languages, and use AI for their work. One interviewee stated that despite starting off as a physicist, they have now become an expert in chemistry. Also, while managing our projects and students, we learn many transferable skills like project and resource management.
The bottom line is, in addition to being an expert in a particular topic or field, you learn so many things throughout your journey that you could use anywhere!
5. To develop professionally, you should learn to communicate and network
“As a poster presenter at my first conference, I was able to get some great tips to improve my work, found people interested in my work or doing similar work, learnt about the latest tech developments, and made new friends from across the world,” recounted one participant. You need the opportunity to attend conferences and seminars where you present your work in order to network, practice your communication skills, and develop professionally.
Most of our experiences were also positive in this regard, with many of us learning the ropes by attending local and international events as presenters. But for some, plans for networking fell through: “I could not go to conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said one interviewee, while another simply stated: “I did not receive a travel grant.” One interviewee lamented that they had no conferences specific to their field, so they only attended one conference during their whole PhD.
6. You receive support from your supervisor/s and the university throughout your PhD journey
The most important thing for a PhD student is supervision. The supervisors and the research group are meant to guide, mentor, and support you throughout the entire PhD process. At the start of your PhD, you and your supervisors agree on how you want to be supervised and what your supervisors expect of you – all detailed in a document called the supervision plan. You must have good rapport with your supervisor and a supervision agreement that supports your work style.
Some of us managed to do just that: “I just started my PhD, but I am quite happy with my experience so far as my supervisor is available for any questions I have.” For others, the supervision relationship was more difficult: “My supervisor would be looming over me all day, controlling my working hours and even limiting my creativity, as I had to blindly follow her orders” and in some cases, guidance was lacking: “My group leader is barely in the lab or not available for discussions; hence I mostly work on my own.”
Another form of support you need is that of the university. You need to be aware of the facilities and services the university has to offer and what they expect of you as PhD students – most of which is usually clarified during the orientation event. However, for those who started our degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no in-person events, including orientations. This hindered our opportunity to meet university representatives, get familiar with the university and their expectations, and network. So, an orientation presenting what the university can offer its students and what they expect of PhDs would be helpful for new students.
Embracing the unknown
Some interviewees who had just started their PhD raised some very pertaining questions (a few of which even I had when starting): What makes a successful PhD? What is good science? How do you perform good science, and what makes a good scientist – does it depend on your funding, publications, or the work you do? Nearing the end of my PhD, I agree with the senior interviewees who said that some of these questions get answered during your PhD journey, but “Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
“Uncertainty is part of the process, and you cannot control everything.”
Despite having a well-planned PhD, one must be malleable and adapt to changes throughout the course of one’s PhD. This can be very hard to cope with as it is both physically and mentally draining. One of the interviewees said: “As there are ups and down at work, so is the case with your mental health.” Many PhD students, including me, completely cut off from work after work hours to try and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Many recommend having a challenging hobby which makes you feel accomplished to counter the stress at work.
Two interviewees – one from and one outside of Finland – said that they feel that academia is for introverts (so it’s not just because Finns are too shy to talk 😉). I’m inclined to agree with them. People are usually working on their own, and for extroverts like me who like having a rubber duck to bounce off ideas with, it’s very difficult to find people to talk to about your work. There are, of course, exceptions but this has been the case so far in many of our experiences. Some PhD students raised their concerns about managing communications, especially with collaborative work. “Collaborations are very difficult for me as communication is the main barrier,” agonised one interviewee. Mastering how communication works in a research group, among group leaders, in your institute, and with collaborators is something you’ll practise throughout your PhD, and you surely find the ropes by the end.
Signing off!
Hopefully, this article gave you an insight into why people do a PhD, how they do it and their reflections, especially for students in Finland. You can use this information to plan your PhD journey. Prospective students: let us know why you want to do a PhD and what you expect from it – for ongoing PhDs, it would be lovely if you could share your experience with people as well on this interactive Canva board:
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