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I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a PhD student. Imho it might be the only time in your career when you are truly, 100% your own boss. You own your PhD thesis. W
by KindAndFriendly 4y ago
I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a PhD student.
Imho it might be the only time in your career when you are truly, 100% your own boss. You own your PhD thesis. While your professor/advisors give input and feedback you ultimately decide what goes in there and what not. You have the freedom to explore anything you deem as relevant and there are no customers/co-workers/VCs etc who tell you otherwise.
- jiggunjer 4y agoLucky you. In many places, if the supervisor doesn't like it they won't sign off on the submission. They treat it like a paper, by demanding that it contains positive findings (i.e. p-values < 0.05) and must have wide appeal in the field. So much for freedom.
- epups 4y agoYou are your boss in these regards, but you are very much not your boss when it comes to a world of other issues. While I enjoyed the freedom, I experienced all sorts of abuses from higher-ups and my career was harmed by how lopsided the hierarchy is.
- Balgair 4y agoIt sounds like you had a really good advisor. My limited world view saw that nearly all grad students had to work on the projects that their PI got funding for. Their own research was never financially possible unless they got significant funding from outside their lab. Even my SO, who got grad school fully paid for by a smaller government agency, couldn't work on individual research and had to do what the PI said.
- slotrans 4y ago> 100% your own boss I don't think those words mean what you think they mean. A more accurate description would be that you are your advisor's slave.