Lindawati Cracking a Ph.D Revelation of Stages in Doctoral Journey www.ebook3000.com Cracking a Ph.D www.ebook3000.com Lindawati Cracking a Ph.D Revelation of Stages in Doctoral Journey 123 www.ebook3000.com Lindawati The Logistics Institute–Asia Pacific National University of Singapore Singapore Singapore ISBN 978-981-10-2151-0 DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2152-7 ISBN 978-981-10-2152-7 (eBook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2016946956 © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Science+Business Media Singapore Pte Ltd www.ebook3000.com I dedicate this book to my loving husband, Woelly William, and my loving mother, Sim Tiaw Nio They always believe in me more than I believe in myself www.ebook3000.com Preface When I am looking back to my Ph.D journey, I realize how far I have grown not only technically, but also personally When I first started, I did not even know what I should I only knew that I wanted to have a Ph.D degree I went to many bumpy rides, depressed moment, rejections, and many other unhappy moments At one time, I even think to just forget everything and quit my Ph.D Fortunately, I had a second thought I kept striving on and finally finished my Ph.D program and got a good job after My Ph.D journey had provided me with good journey, good experiences, good friends, good mentors, good jobs, and many more That is what I also want for you when you decide to take this Ph.D journey This book is loaded with my personal experiences as well as many other people around me that went through similar experience, surviving a Ph.D I have arranged this book to cover five stages that a Ph.D student would gone through: joining Ph.D., starting Ph.D., conducting research, writing dissertation, and finally, looking for an ideal job This book serves as cheat sheet that explains the options, tips, and guidance in each stage of Ph.D journey With a bonus chapter in each stage that describe the perspective and expectation from different people or organizations to a Ph.D student or graduate, this book reveals vital lessons in each stage and shows how to apply them in a successful Ph.D ecosystem For you as a candidate considering to get a Ph.D degree, this book would give some insight and considerations to be a Ph.D It also shares an overview of what you can expect in a Ph.D study For you that have committed yourself as a Ph.D student, this book would give motivation and guidance to go through your Ph.D stages and how to get the best out of your Ph.D study and use it to your advantage for your future career For you as a graduating Ph.D student, this book gives an overview of what kind of career options available for you It also provides practical tips to work successfully in any industry vii www.ebook3000.com viii Preface There is no fix rule how to use this book You can flip through this book and get the overview of a complete Ph.D journey Or go to specific chapter that represents your current condition You can whatever you like and have fun on your Ph.D journey Have a blast Ph.D journey!!! Singapore Lindawati www.ebook3000.com Acknowledgement During my Ph.D journey and the writing of this book, many people have given their generous supports and feedback They generously spent their time to listen to my sorrow and provided me comfort and in the same time talk to me about their own experiences I am particularly grateful to my family and my closest friends that always support my decisions They always believe that I would be able to finish my Ph.D and also my book Thank would not be enough I am thankful to my Ph.D supervisor, my mentors, my professors, my close friends, my Ph.D classmates, and my laboratory mates in Singapore Management University that make my Ph.D journey so memorable I also thank all the university staffs that always helped me to this and that I am thankful to all my mentors and my colleagues that show me the fun in working on industry projects and working in industry They teach me how to love and appreciate my job Lastly, I thank all my friends that have help me writing this book They literally spent their time helping me read it and provided me with their feedback I also thank my publisher who has made all of this happen ix www.ebook3000.com Contents Part I Are You Ready for a Ph.D.? Up-close and Personal with the Ph.D Program Ph.D Program and Its Value Propositions Is Ph.D Degree Really Your Goal? Ph.D Financial Aid Scholarship Company Sponsorship Study Loan References 8 9 So What Are Your Motivations to Get a Ph.D Degree? Common Reasons for Getting a Ph.D Degree Future Career Stimulating Intellectual Atmosphere Self-actualization Contribute to the World The Importance of Motivations Sources of Motivation Inner-self Positive Ecosystem Maintain Your Motivation Motivate Yourself Talk About It to Your Ecosystem Plan, Log, and Track Celebrate Your Small Win References 11 12 12 13 13 13 14 14 14 15 15 15 16 16 16 17 Ph.D., Ready or Not, Here I Come Ph.D Program Opening Information Major and Research Area Submission Requirements 19 20 20 21 xi www.ebook3000.com xii Contents Intake and Deadline Necessary Documents Application Documents Completeness Tidiness Writing a Research and Personal Statement Research Statement Personal Statement Other Necessary Documents References 22 22 22 22 23 23 24 25 25 26 Nail the Ph.D Interview The Interviewers Professor in Your Research Area Committee Member Representative of the Funding Agency Interview Preparation Knowing Yourself Knowing Your Interviewer Knowing Your Interview During the Interview Follow-Up After Interview Reference 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 31 31 31 32 32 What the Professor Is Looking for in a Ph.D Applicant? Outstanding Education Background Proven Track Record Research Interest Motivation and Aspiration Adaptability to the Team Culture Communication References 33 34 34 35 35 36 36 38 41 42 42 43 43 44 44 44 45 Part II Get your Ph.D Started Know Your New Ph.D Ecosystem Ph.D Ecosystem Your Supervisor Other Professors Your Research Team Members Your Fellow Ph.D Students Other Researchers Other University’s Staffs Physical Work Environment www.ebook3000.com Chapter 23 Ready for Industry Job Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all —Helen Keller After you decide that you want to get an industry job, now it is the time to look for the job You can find the job vacancies in newspapers, job portal, or by doing a Web search You can also explore Web sites of the companies that you want to work for They should have the information about job vacancies in their Web sites Most of the time, the job vacancy titles are not too straightforward as in academic It may not have any “research” or “researcher” word in the title or job description The companies like to put a fancy name in the job titles You need to be creative when you search for jobs You need to include more popular job titles as the keywords The vacancy for the similar job in different industries may have different titles, descriptions, and requirements There are no general guidelines on it To get more exposure to these keywords, you can browse through job portals and explore any matching criteria Possible job positions in industry are discussed in Chap 22 You can also use people in your Ph.D ecosystem to find your ideal job People in your Ph.D ecosystem can help you in your job hunting They may have information about job vacancies in their companies You should inform them that you are looking for an industry job They can help you to look out for your ideal job You should be specific on the description of the job that you want to have They can help you to filter the job vacancies If needed, you can also send them your CV The job vacancies in industries may not require a Ph.D degree This means that you need to compete with more people that may or may not have a Ph.D degree You need to carefully match your profile and skills with the requirements stated in the job vacancy This chapter would provide you with tips to land in an industry job It starts by preparing and distributing your CV This includes things that you should or should not put in your CV Next, tips for applying for job are discussed, followed by a job interview preparation Lastly, tips to impress and align your research with your company are provided © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 Lindawati, Cracking a Ph.D., DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2152-7_23 183 184 23 Ready for Industry Job Preparing Your CV The first thing you should before applying for a job is to prepare your CV Putting all your research skills, projects, papers in conferences, and journals may be too much for the recruiters You should put enough information that would attract them but not too much that it would overwhelm them You may need to personalize your CV based on the job you are going to apply You need to turn your CV into resume [1] You can take a look of the job description and match it with your skills and put it in your CV It does not mean that you should exaggerate your skills and your accomplishments You should not that But, you should choose the most appropriate skills and accomplishments to be included in your CV that can make your CV noticed For industry job, you should not make a very long CV Three pages are already enough [3] The recruiter may not be interested on your long list of papers and does not have time and effort to go through your list Your CV needs to be short and concise It should highlight your qualities and your experiences or qualifications that are relevant to the job you are applying You should always put your recent or the best quality in the beginning It would attract the recruiters’ attention To shorten your CV, it would be better if you not put your extensive list of papers; instead, you can offer to provide it upon requested Tips to make your CV more presentable for industry jobs are as follows: Professional format You should use simple but professional format for your CV It does not need to be fancy or colorful It needs to be well organized and arranged It should reflect that you are a professional and have spent time to prepare your CV Chronological order Your academic achievements as well as your experiences should be presented in a chronological order It would help the recruiter to understand your strength Industry working experience Working experiences in industry, even as an intern, can help to boost your CV You should briefly describe your duties there It would be a bonus point if you can provide a referee from industry to add value to your CV Involvement in real project The recruiter from a private company want to see whether you have been involved in a real product or implementation project The company may have concern if you have not involved in any project During your Ph.D study, you may have done industry projects It can be included in your CV Skills You should list down your strongest skills that are matched with the job’s requirements It would help the recruiters to understand that you are a suitable candidate for the job by matching your skills with the requirements Preparing Your CV 185 Your contact Remember to put your contact in your CV You can put your name, e-mail, and phone in your CV header that would appear in each page It makes it easy for the recruiters to look for this information You should not put any offensive or harsh views in your CV The recruiters may be offended or have concern about it The recruiters want to find a good candidate that would not give them or the company any problem during interview or during your job placement They may simply ignore or reject your CV when they find those words They may not give you any chance to explain your view You should also pay attention to the posts or comments that you put in your Web site or any other social media The recruiter may conduct a background check on the Internet If they find anything that they not like or raise a red flag, they may reject your CV Other than sending your CV directly to the recruiters, you can also upload your CV in your personal Web site and job portals You should also create a profile in job portals or business-oriented social media Your CV should always up to date Your profile and CV should be open to the public or recruiters This would increase your chances to be contacted by the recruiters You would never know when they would browse your CV and offer you to attend an interview with them Applying for a Job After preparing your CV, you are ready to apply for jobs There are various sources where you can look for jobs such as newspapers, job portals, social media, job agencies, and company’s Web sites You can try all sources It can increase your chances to get your ideal job Nowadays, you can simply send your CV via e-mail to apply for a job Even if you find the job from newspaper, the recruiter would ask you to send your CV via e-mail rather than traditional mail delivery service Having digital version of your CV can help the recruiter assess your suitability for the job When you send your CV, you should include a cover letter to communicate your intention to apply for a particular job vacancy You should mention the position you want to apply and summarize your qualities You should make a compelling argument that you are a good candidate for this job position Your interview availability may also be stated in your cover letter If you are away or not available on a period of time, you need to communicate such request in your cover letter You can also apply job vacancies directly from the job portal or company’s Web sites You may need to fill up an application form to submit your CV The form would ask everything the recruiters need for assessing your application, from your personal detail to your academic achievements and your job experiences You should be aware when you fill in the form You need to key in the correct and 186 23 Ready for Industry Job relevant information for the job you are applying The first evaluation can be done automatically by the job portal system If you not put suitable information, your job application can be rejected even before the recruiters read it Job Interview With your application sent to the recruiters, you will be called up for an interview You should make yourself available for the interview and try to be flexible on the interview time You may not get an interview for all the jobs you applied If you get an interview invitation, you can assume that your CV has passed the first filtering stage Now, you must prepare yourself for interview You should show the interviewers who you are and why they should hire you Interview is an important step to get a job You can be accepted or rejected because of what happened in your interview In some companies, you need to go through more than one round of interviews If you are short-listed, you would be invited for the subsequent interview You should spend time to prepare yourself and give the best impression to the interviewers Before going to the interview, you may want to find a brief background information about the company and your interviewers You can check the company’s background in its Web site For the interviewers’ background, you can check it in social media portal or the company’s Web site It would give you a brief idea about your potential employer You can use this information to align your talk during interview You should also prepare all the required documents The company and interviewers may want to see your actual certificates and so on Make sure you remember to bring it on your interview session You may need to check the interview location in prior and estimate the time you need to get there Do provide enough buffer in case of bad traffic You need to be there on time or 15 earlier The interviewers are most likely busy, and they would not appreciate and feel offended if you waste their time to wait for you You also should not come too early You may need to wait for a long time before you are called for your interview On the day of your interview, you should dress professionally Most of the Ph.D students like to wear T-shirts and jeans You should not wear those on your interview You may want to invest on a formal attire to be worn on the interview It helps to show to the interviewers that you are professional and ready to join their company During your interview, you should be on your best behavior It would give a good impression to the interviewers Show your interest to what the interviewers have to say and prepare to respond confidently You should not feel shy You should maintain an eye contact with the reviewers You should also maintain your nonverbal communication You should show that you are interested of the possibility to work in their company Job Interview 187 Just like in your dissertation defense, everything can happen in the interview session The interviewers may ask you questions that you could not answer You should answer to the best of your knowledge and be honest to them about it Some interviewers may appreciate your honesty The interview session is used to get to know each other The interviewers want to assess whether you are the right candidate for the job, while you would like to know whether the company and the job position are good for you You can also ask questions to your interviewers But, you should limit your questions You should not ask more questions than the interviewers It is a two-way communication Use your interview session to impress your interviewers as well as evaluate the company and understand the job description and responsibility better After the interview, you can send the interviewers a thank you note for spending time with you This is a small token of appreciation that might land you on the job Aligning Your Research with Company Direction Your interview may land you on a job offer In this offer, the company would display the employment terms and conditions including your remuneration package You can still negotiate with the company You may be able to get a better offer than the original Once you accept the offer, you are ready to join the company In your first few days joining the company, you may be given a list of expectations that your new boss has You can discuss and negotiate those expectations with him It is the chance for you to align your research with the company’s direction as illustrated in Fig 23.1 You may still be able to conduct the research that you want within the boundaries from the company [2] You are also free to suggest or add new items to those expectations based on your abilities, skills, and your interests As long as it is aligned with the company’s direction, your boss would be likely to accept it But remember, after your boss approved your suggestion, you would be held responsible to meet the expectations So you should not agree to something that you know you cannot It would hurt your reputation in the company After you and your boss agreed with the expectations, these expectations would be penned down to a formal document known as key performance indicator (KPI) It would help you and your boss to track your progress in completing those expectations Generally, a company would conduct a KPI review every year It can be done in several ways: (1) top-bottom where your boss would evaluate your work performance against your KPI, (2) peer review where your colleagues would evaluate you and (3) bottom-up where your subordinates, if any, would evaluate you It would determine your performance grade within that year It can influence your performance bonus, remuneration package increment, and promotion As long as you are consistently meeting or exceeding your employer’s expectations, it will not be long before you climb up the top of the ladder 188 23 Ready for Industry Job Fig 23.1 Aligning industry research with your research -Company research interest -Company research direction -Company expectations KPI -Your research interest -Your skills -Your capabilities -What you want to If this is your first time trying to find an industry job, you may get a cultural shock Industry is different from academic You may need to readjust your CV and choose your best skills and experiences to be included in the CV You need to impress your potential employer during your interview And after you officially join the company, you need to align your research interests with your company’s direction Your job hunting may not be a smooth journey, and it may include several bumpy rides The tips in this chapter would help you to ease your job-hunting processes The next chapter would discuss the employer’s perspective when looking for the right candidate for a job position in its company References Basalla S, Debelius M (2007) “So what are you going to with that?”: finding careers outside academia The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (revised revision) Feibelman P (2011) A Ph.D is not enough Basic Books, New York McGee P (2001) Write a great CV: prepare a powerful CV that really works How To Books Ltd., Oxford Chapter 24 What Your Future Employer Is Looking for? Don’t lower your expectations to meet your performance Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations —Ralph Marston From the first interview for industry job, your potential future employer is already expecting highly of you just because you have a Ph.D degree If the job does not exclusively require a Ph.D degree, he may receive a lot of applications from non-Ph.D graduates and he expects a lot more from you compared to the others He may assume that you as a Ph.D graduate are the expert and would know everything there is to know about your area He may ask you difficult questions and he feels very disappointed if you cannot answer it Or, he may be skeptical about your ability and willingness to work in a more “mundane” job He would compare the job scope with the highly interesting and innovative experiments that he assumes you did during your Ph.D study Or, he may have concerns hiring you because of higher remuneration package that he needs to provide for you [1] You may not realize that your future employer may also feel stress going through the whole processes You and your future employer can feel a lot of pressure just from one interview Your future employer needs to find the right candidate from numerous applicants He needs to assess whether the candidates are able to conduct the job well, able to collaborate with the existing team, able to contribute their knowledge to achieve the company’s goals, and so on The employer would only have or h to decide whether you are suitable for the job before he can hire you In this bonus chapter, a perspective of your future employer when he evaluates your job application is reveal There are six criteria that he is looking for from the right candidate © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 Lindawati, Cracking a Ph.D., DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2152-7_24 189 190 24 What Your Future Employer Is Looking for? Academic Background Academic background would be one of the first few things that your future employer would consider during his evaluation process He would assess whether you have the right academic qualification for the job If you are a fresh graduate and not have a prior job or project experiences, he would mostly rely on these criteria to support his decision In most of the job vacancies, the employer puts the academic requirements for the job This consists of the minimum level of education as well as the appropriate major(s) In some cases, this is just a guideline and does not serve as a fixed requirement Even though you not exactly meet the criteria, you would still be able to apply for the job The employer would still consider your application But when you submit your application via application portal that may have automatic filtering mechanism, your application may get rejected even before it is evaluated directly by your future employer The system would automatically remove all applications that not meet the requirements Your future employer wants to see whether your academic is matched with the requirement It is to evaluate your capability and ability to conduct your responsibilities As a Ph.D graduate, you would have additional advantages compared to other candidates, regardless of the level of academic education required by the company In most counties, Ph.D degree is the highest degree [2, 3] So, from the academic level, you are already eligible to apply for most of the jobs If the job vacancy is not specific for Ph.D graduates, having the highest academic degree would make your application stand out compared to the rest Your future employer may assume that you would have a sufficient knowledge for the job If the job vacancy is only for Ph.D graduates, you would have less competitors Skills Your future employer would also assess your skills He would like to see that you have the skills to the job properly The skills can be technical or non-technical Technical skills include proficiency with certain methods or techniques or tools For example, a quantitative research analyst position would require you to proficient in at least one statistical analysis software, while non-technical skills include communication, project management, and negotiation skills For example, a business development position would require you to have a communication skill to help you communicate the business strategies to other stakeholders Several generic skills that you have learned during your Ph.D study can be used across industries Examples of these skills are project management, communication, Skills 191 problem analytics, and presentation skills You need to show your future employer you have the skills that he needs You should not underestimate your own skills and sell yourself short Some job positions require a unique skill Not many people would have that skill If your future employer is convinced that you have the unique skill he needs, he would be willing to offer very interesting benefits to persuade you to join his company Skills are often difficult to evaluate The non-technical skills are harder to evaluate compared to technical skills It is difficult to evaluate the validity of your skills Your future employer would sometime use his own judgment to evaluate whether you really have those skills that the job required He may need to use an interview session to evaluate He would ask questions related to your skills to evaluate your skills For some skills, the future employer is able to evaluate by giving you a problem or scenario that needs to be solved using those skills As an example, skills in programming language can be evaluated by asking you to develop a short program to solve a particular problem Your ability to make the program correctly in a limited amount of time would prove your programming language skill You can help your future employer to evaluate your skills by providing example of activities, projects, or tasks where you have implemented these skills successfully A referee that can testify on that would give a bonus point for you For technical skills, you can show your portfolio to your future employer Industry Project Experiences In the industry job, you are most likely to be involved in real projects These projects would investigate and analyze problems in the company You need to come up with a smart solution to solve that problem This solution can be privately consumed by the company to reduce cost and increase efficiency and productivity Or, the solution can also be productized as a new product or service that can be sold to its customers to create a new profit stream for the company If the company is expecting your solution to be productized, your solution needs to be smart and innovative that can compete with the competitors’ products The company expects you to be able to implement your knowledge and expertise you gain from your Ph D study to come up with the smart and innovative solution Industry project experiences would help to convince your future employer that you have what it takes to that Your future employer wants to see that you are able and capable in translating your theoretical research to a more practically used one He wants you to give him solid proofs that you are able to solve real-world problem using your research, skills, and expertise Having solved or involved in solving in real-world problems that aligned with your future employer needs would help your job application tremendously Your future employer may want to use your knowledge to come up and productize the solutions faster, especially if the industry is competitive For example, if you are 192 24 What Your Future Employer Is Looking for? researching on a new vaccine that may be able to cure a new disease, a pharmaceutical company would want to hire you to come up with the new vaccine that he can sell Although your projects are not aligned with the company’s needs, you can still impress your future employer with your industry project experiences With your experiences, you can claim that you would be able to use your skills and implement your knowledge in different projects to solve different problems It would be best if you can support these claims by proving your involvement in more than one project Regardless of the size of your industry projects, you should mention it in your job experiences Your project can be just a small case study project involving limited dataset from specific industry Or, your project can be a straightforward implementation of your recent research in a particular industry Your future employer needs to know that you are able to work in an industry problem He can only evaluate it if you elaborate it in your CV or during your interview If you have a lot of industry project experiences, you should select the most successful and impactful projects Good Attitude Other than academic background, skills, and experiences, your future employer needs to assess your attitude He needs to be convinced that you have a good attitude in working and socializing with your future colleagues Good working attitudes include but not limited to ability to follow direction, accept criticism and feedback, diligent, hardworking, and able to take initiatives, while good socializing attitudes include able to work with other people and respect other people Your future employer would not like if you show bad working attitudes such as offensive or cunning attitudes You may create problems for the company Your future employer may not be able to tolerate bad attitudes Your future employer would be able to assess your attitudes during the interview session He may ask questions about your behavior and your perspective toward some conditions and circumstances that may happen in the company If for some reasons, you keep interrupting him while he speaks, he may assume that you cannot respect other people He also assesses your nonverbal communication such as your body language Your body is more honest than your verbal communication If you despise something during your interview, your body language would be able to tell that Able to Work Independently and Within a Team Another criterion that your future employer would evaluate is your ability to work independently and within a team You need to show him that you can work on your own, but in the same time, you can be a good team player He needs to know that Able to Work Independently and Within a Team 193 you can complete your work unsupervised and independently You should also show that you can contribute to a team and work together with other team member to achieve the goal Your future employer may assess this by asking you to elaborate your projects and your involvement in the projects in more detail He would ask about your role in the project and how you contribute to the project He may ask whether you have any conflict with your team members and how you solve that conflict You need to show your future employer that you can balance these two You can work independently without the need of close supervision In the same time, you can support your team member to reach the same goal You can both depending on what the job needs Show Interest to Work in the Company Your future employer would like to see that you have interest to work for his company He needs to see your enthusiasm and attentiveness He needs to see that you are willing to dedicate your time and give your best effort for the company Your future employer is usually assessing these criteria from your CV and your interview session If you have a messy and untidy CV, he may assume that you are not too interested to work in the company since you not even spend time to polish your CV This is one of the reasons why you need to organize your CV nicely In the interview session, if you look bored and tired, your future employer would assume that you not interested in anything that he says You should look interested and excited when you discuss the job position and the company with your future employer Other than those six criteria, there are a lot of other criteria that your future employer can use to his assessment He also needs to compare your assessment result with the results of other candidates Although you are good and meet all the criteria, you may not be chosen for the job simply because your future employer finds a better candidate Or, your future employer may decide to reject your application because of directional changes which happen a lot in industry If you not get a job that you want, you should not feel depressed You should try again and learn from your mistakes In the end, you would get a job that best suits you Deciding your ideal job is not easy As a Ph.D graduate, you would have a lot of options from academic career path to industry career path, from working in a university to working on your own You need to consider your interest as well as the current job market You should explore all your options before your decide You should not force yourself to find an academic job if you not like it You can consider finding an industry job Working in industry can be fun, and you would have more job options You can work in a related industry as your research area or in different industries You can apply your expertise to a particular industry or 194 24 What Your Future Employer Is Looking for? cross-industries The opportunities are abundance You just need to decide and prepare yourself to get that job Information, tips, and tricks in this section are described to help you consider all your options and get an ideal job after you get your Ph.D degree This section is about the last stage in the five stages in your Ph.D journey References Feibelman P (2011) A Ph.D is not enough Basic Books, New York Green H, Powell S (2005) Doctoral study in contemporary higher education Open University Press, McGraw-Hill Education, Maidenhead Nerad M, Evans B (eds) (2014) Globalization and its impacts on the quality of Ph.D education: forces and forms in doctoral education worldwide Sense Publishers, Rotterdam Closing Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying —Brian Dyson A Ph.D journey is not easy You need to go through long working hour to conduct your research You need to sacrifice your free time to complete the necessary experiments You need to cancel your happy hour just to rush for a paper deadline But a Ph.D study offers a lot of rewards and benefits A Ph.D study is the place to train you to become an independent researcher It is the place to freely explore your research interest It is the place to gain a lot of expertise, skills, and knowledge Generally, there are five stages that you need to go through within a Ph.D journey as described in this book It starts with a Ph.D application stage, starting a Ph.D stage, conducting research stage, dissertation stage, and life after Ph.D stage Summary of important lessons in each stage is discussed below Stage 1: Are you ready for a Ph.D.? It is the first stage before you start your Ph.D journey This is where you decide you will get or not get a Ph.D degree Several lessons learn from this stage are as follows: – You should get a full information about a Ph.D program before deciding to apply or not to apply for a Ph.D program You should not make a decision based on poor information – You should have strong motivations to join a Ph.D program The Ph.D program would have ups and downs You would need strong motivations to keep you moving forward in your Ph.D journey – A Ph.D program with scholarship is very competitive You need to prepare yourself and your documents carefully to get in – You should write your research and personal statement honestly These two statements should show your strong intention in terms of research and personality for joining a Ph.D program – You should not come to a Ph.D interview unprepared © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 Lindawati, Cracking a Ph.D., DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2152-7 195 196 Closing Stage 2: Get your Ph.D Started The second stage is the beginning of your Ph.D journey This is where you need to learn about your new Ph.D environment and adapt to it Several lessons learn from this stage are as follows: – You should align your expectations with your supervisor and university They would have their own expectations on you You should discuss with them and adjust your expectations accordingly – You should build your positive Ph.D ecosystem You need to make a good relationship with your new friends, new peers, new supervisor, and new professors You would rely on them to go through your Ph.D journey – You should choose courseworks that are align or can support your research – Other than courseworks and research, there are other experiences that you can get during your Ph.D journey such as internship, teaching assistantship, and research assistantship You should take this opportunity to enrich your Ph.D experience and prepare yourself for your future career beyond Ph.D Stage 3: Research, research, and research The third stage is the center of your Ph.D., your research This is where you choose your research topic and create your research contributions through high-quality research Several lessons learn from this stage are as follows: – You should choose the topic that you are passionate about It would make you work harder to complete your research – Writing your first paper is fun and sometime can be frustrating You should complete your first draft quickly and continue to revise it – When you need to present your paper in a conference, you should it confidently You are the expert on this, you should proudly communicate your research objective and result to your audience – You should use the conference to expand your network It would help you to collaborate with other people and build your profile in your community Stage 4: Ph.D Last Mile The fourth and final stage in your Ph.D program is the dissertation stage, the last mile of your Ph.D journey This is where you need to write, revise, and defense your dissertation Several lessons learn from this stage are as follows: – You should make a plan to complete your dissertation writing and defense You should discuss it with your supervisor and complete it according to the plan – Proposal is like a contract between you and your supervisor You need to make sure that you can execute your contract Closing 197 – Writing dissertation is painful It needs a lot of time and effort You should it step by step and not rush it on your last one or two months – Dissertation defense is an exciting as well as a terrifying experience It can give you anxiety, but it is well worth all the stress Stage 5: Life after Ph.D The fifth stage is your life after you get a Ph.D degree This is where you need to go to the real world and find a job using your Ph.D degree Several lessons learn from this stage are as follows: – There are a lot of opportunities for you as a Ph.D graduate You can work in academia, industry, or other environment You just need to decide where you want to work – Industry hires a lot of Ph.D graduate It provides a lot of variety of jobs with its own benefits You should explore it further and find the one that you like – When you work in industry, your research would be bounded by the company’s interest and direction As long as you can align your research with the company’s interest, you would have a freedom to conduct your research ...Cracking a Ph. D www.ebook3000.com Lindawati Cracking a Ph. D Revelation of Stages in Doctoral Journey 123 www.ebook3000.com Lindawati The Logistics Institute–Asia Pacific National University of. .. you Deciding to get a Ph. D degree needs a lot of consideration You need to have a basic understanding of Ph. D program and align it with your personal goals Using the information in this chapter,... importance Analyze the list carefully and asses whether Ph. D program can fulfill your needs Ph. D Financial Aid Fig 1.1 Ph. D program summaries Ph. D Financial Aid Ph. D program can be done in full-time