The job of a PhD advisor is to guide the student to become an independent researcher. That is: someone able to conceive of research-worthy ideas, separate the g

The job of a PhD advisor is to guide the student to become an independent researcher. That is: someone able to conceive of research-worthy ideas, separate the good from the bad, execute the research and write it all up in a paper. I have seen very hands-off approaches and very structured approaches. Both have their merits and pitfalls: the first may leave a student stranded in the proverbial forest, while the second may turn into nothing more than a 4 year long series of related tasks to be executed, set at day one, with no input from the student. On the other hand, I've also seen both approaches work well. Basically, you want a daily supervisor that cares, and with whom you have a click.