Episode 4 - 13 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Starting My PhD Program: Part 1 [Challenges]
What are some things that you think an individual should know before they begin a PhD journey? On this episode, I share 5 out of 13 things that I wish I had known before starting my PhD program. This episode is part one of a three part segment, so please also check out the other parts/episodes.
Listen to full episode :
Here is a transcription of Episode 3:
0:17: Hello and welcome to the Broke PhD Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. G.
0:23: This episode of Broke PhD Podcast will be part one of a three-part segment titled “13 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Starting My PhD Program.” Some of the things will be more positive and some of the things will be more negative, but all of them were things that I thought you, the listeners, would be interested in having some insight around. I am a qualitative researcher at heart and as such, when reviewing and further analyzing the collective list of the things I wish I had known, I realized that they all fell under one of three themes. Those three themes being Challenges, Connection, and Writing. This realization aided me to group the things that I shared based on the theme that they fit under.
1:07: On this episode, I will share the first five things that I wish I had known. The theme that these five things collectively fell under was that of challenges. All of these things in some way reflected the challenges I encountered while navigating my PhD journey. After going through these things, I wish I had known about them before beginning my journey. Which is why I'm sharing them with you in hopes that they can better aid you all with navigating your own journeys.
1:38: The first thing that I wish I would have known about was the challenging emotions that one will feel when they go through a program. When going through my PhD program, I truly went on a roller coaster ride of emotions. There were several moments where I felt as though I wanted to give up and I wanted to quit. I definitely felt as though I wanted to just walk away. That I didn't have to do it. That I was over everything in my program and those collection of negative emotions definitely made me feel as though I was just going to throw in the towel and end my time at my program. There were numerous times that I would break down in tears and just say I'm done, I'm over it, I'm through, I don't want to deal with this anymore. But on the flip side, I felt so many positive emotions. I would just be in awe of my … myself and all that I accomplished and all that I achieved. I was so proud of overcoming and so proud of the things I was able to do. I would also feel happiness from being able to deep dive and to hyper fixate on the topics that I was passionate about and that made me love my field. I'm hoping for you, the listeners, that when you are going through your own journey that you will have more positive moments of emotions than negative. And I wish that I myself have been better prepared for all of the emotions that I encountered when riding that emotional roller coaster along my PhD journey.
3:13: The second thing I wish I had known was just how challenging and how hard the program itself was going to be. I've always been someone who has loved school and has loved education and I have to say I would definitely love to be a forever student. But I honestly did not know how hard a PhD program was, and I was not fully prepared for the gravity of a PhD program. As I shared earlier, there were some times that I wish I would have quit. I was definitely not prepared for the amount of tears I would shed over the program, over my assignments, over my work, and namely over my dissertation and the whole process with it. The coursework was pretty straightforward. There were assignments and there were due dates, and that part I was used to. I had encountered it in my undergraduate years. I had encountered it during my master’s program, and so that part was familiar for me. But when it came to the dissertation portion and the examinations that I had to pass before beginning my dissertation research, that part was unfamiliar for me. And I found that it really tested my self-management skills and the progress that I made was solely dependent on how much effort and focus that I put into my PhD process. While I had my advisors and they were there to guide me and ask questions if I needed, they're not really holding your hand throughout everything you do. And so to stay on track, I had to make sure that I managed my time and I managed the things that I had completed, what was left to be done, where I was, what I needed to get done, and I was responsible for setting those self-deadlines and setting those self-due dates, so that I could reach the end goal of completing my dissertation, manuscript and research. So I would say I definitely was not fully prepared for just how much self-management and time management skills were necessary in order to aid me with being successful in completing my PhD program.
5:24: The third thing that I wish I would have known is that you will feel challenged by not being able to have all the answers. Now that I've ended my program, I feel like I have more unanswered questions than when I began. With knowing that I have so many unanswered questions, it has brought a feeling of uneasiness. One would think that after I've gone through a PhD program and I've primarily focused on a niche area of my field that I would truly become an expert, but I feel as though there is still so much more I need to know and so much more I've yet to learn. I've come to realize that the more you research, it opens more doors of information that you didn't even know existed. And so now that my program's over, I feel as though I know less about my field and about my topic and about the world in general than when I started. I guess sometimes, like they say, ignorant is bliss. But in hindsight, I'm glad I know the information, and I'd rather be informed and empowered through knowing information and through having the knowledge, than not.
6:26: The fourth thing that I wish I would have known before starting my PhD journey is that one might feel challenged by not being able to solve all the problems in their field through their sole dissertation research study. When I entered my program, I was ready to tackle all of the problems of my field and thought I would be able to uncover key solutions that could act as avenues to not just address the issues, but to eradicate them altogether. I now recognize that this perspective reflected the naivete in me. As my program progressed, I soon realized that, as the phrase goes - a good dissertation is a done dissertation. I heard that from several people, and while I had high hopes of trying to conquer and solve all the issues, I recognized that my dissertation had to be focused enough so that I could complete it in a timely manner. Not to say that I wanted to lose the quality of the study, but I had to be realistic in recognizing the resources I had access to, the time I was trying to complete it in, so that I didn't take on a huge elaborate study.
7:33: The fifth thing that I wish I had known about was the sheer number of sacrifices that one will have to make when going through a PhD journey. I was not truly prepared for the gravity of all of the sacrifices that I had to make when going through my own program. I know I'm speaking about my own experience and fortunately my program was only three years long. There are probably several listeners out there where you, yourselves, or you know, somebody who's going to go through a program that would be much longer than three years. So I can only imagine how much you all in those longer programs will have to sacrifice by the end. The main sacrifices that come to mind for me are time, effort, energy, and the financial sacrifice that I had to make going through a PhD program. I sit here and just think about all the time, all the effort and the energy that I put into my program. And additionally, I definitely think about the financial sacrifice that I had to make with paying for things for my program, but also with going further into debt for my program. While some of you listeners out there might be fortunate to get scholarships or grant, and I hope that everyone who is listening is able to get a scholarship or grant for your program, I unfortunately was not in that position. And so with that came financial sacrifices.
8:54: So in summary, the first five things that I wish I would have known before starting my PhD journey, were one, that you will go through a roller coaster of emotions, two, that a PhD program is hard, three, that by the end of your program, you will have more unanswered questions than when you began, four, that your research study will not be able to solve all of the problems in your field, and five, just knowing about the sheer gravity of the time, effort, energy, and financial sacrifices that an individual will encounter when going through a PhD program.
9:32: After hearing these first five things that I wish I would have known before starting my PhD journey, I call on you, the listeners, to pause and reflect about any additional things that you would add to this list. What are some things that you think an individual should know before they begin a PhD journey? I asked you to please share your ideas via the podcast website -brokephdpodcast.com - or via any of the social media platforms. Please also check out parts two and three of this three-part segment and hopefully all of the things I share can aid you as you navigate along your doctoral or graduate school journey.
10:09: Again, I share about my experiences with the hopes that even one listener out there can feel less alone. I know that embarking on a graduate school journey or any type of educational journey is not easy. I know I personally felt alone when I know I personally felt alone when going through this process. But it did help me when I was able to talk with peers and it allowed me to realize that there were others out there who had similar experiences or similar thoughts as my own. So I call on you, the listeners, to share this podcast with peers and to engage in conversations with your colleagues. So that you all can navigate this journey collectively rather than feeling as though you each are braving storms on your own.
10:48: Well that concludes this episode. But I am so excited to have you on this journey with me. So please hit that subscribe button or that follow button and please check out the website - brokephdpodcast.com - to continue to follow along.
11:02: Thank you for listening and no matter where you are in your own journey remember -YOU GOT THIS!
11:08: I'm your host Dr. G and I hope you have a wonderful day!