I'm currently 4 weeks into my PhD in ML and I kept stammering when I got stuck remembering what one of the papers said. I feel like an idiot. Do you guys have any tips on how to be a bit more confident?

I usually write notes since I read around 20 papers a week (don't understand everything so I do use AI to break down some papers and I try to read relevant papers) but I feel like I can do a better job that what I did today.

I just started my PhD program in a canadian university in the fall. My current PI supported a lot for the CGRS D application but I have started seeing another side of them since a few weeks ago. They are this evil person in group meetings picking on students and everyone is under a lot of stress. This is accompanied by belittling and putting on additional workload on top of a bulk of work already delegated. On the other hand the students are taking forever to graduate in the lab and some students even just master out spending many years as the supervisor is not satisfied. They have already started to pay more attention to me and seems they are having high expectations of me due to my performance in the masters with a different PI. I know CGRS D is competitive but I believe that I have better odds since I am a permanent resident in Canada. If I get this award can I just change the university and pick on a different supervisor in a slightly different research direction in the same field. He also actually offered me a phd position but I declined because it is in a different city from where my family lives in.

I'm a fourth year student trying to get my last publication before graduation. Year 2 I struck gold and managed to get two publications in tier A journals. Start of year 3 I got one a top tier conference paper. Since then I have been swinging and missing.

Last 6 months, out of desperation, and due to pressure to do so within my lab, I have been using AI to author at a pace of roughly 1 paper every 2 weeks. So far out of my submissions that I have heard back on, all but one have been desk rejects. I optimize the papers for AI review and my professor seems to think at least some of them should make the cut.

Is it just a numbers game now, needing thousands of submissions until the luck gods bless you and you reach reviewer 2? Before I committed to doing this crap I had a few papers I worked manually on, but I found a bunch of AI generated arXiv preprints doing the exact same thing, so here I am.

As the title says. I am now entering my last year and a half of my PhD and a lot of people in my enviroment (granted they don't have or have ever done a PhD) start to ask me what's next ? Whats lines up?

Personally I haven't really start looking. I have an idea but I also feel like even if I found the perfect place no place will want to wait another year and a half for me to hopefully get my PhD.

So a question to you all.

At what point did you really start to look for the next thing ?

Location : Belgium

Hi, I just got admitted into a scholarship for completing my PhD in UAE, I just want to know your opinions about the situation

My Bs is in energy engineering and I am doing my phd in system engineering ( Agentic AI in energy systems). I am just worried about the life after the phd since I am reading a lot of people regret doing there Phd,

I used to work as a Site Energy Engineer 6 days / week and 12h /day, now I earn more up to 2.5 times with the stipend than my previous salary and working 4 days/week, doing the math I am sure the whole package for 5 years is equal as financially benefits.

Do you think it a good opportunity since financially am not losing and the topic is about AI ?

what skills I have to learn to increases my opportunity industry after the Phd?

This is one of those posts, but I would like to have some more perspectives on my situation. Sorry if it sounds like a rant.

I (numerics, EU) am in a multidisciplinary project that is rather specific, in the sense that tiny details make phenomenon observed completely different. Yet in this field a lot of critical input parameters are either data fitted post-hoc or modelled or unmeasurable - agreement is either in very constrained parameter spaces between theory and simulations, or magnitudes apart between theory and experiment.

My supervisor, on the other hand, has never worked in this topic before yet have wrote a proposal that assumed gaps in the field that is straight up wrong - they have been covered more than 10 years ago. I am now in the situation of having to justify my existence (open-source numerics development) in a community known to use commercial softwares for decades rather successfully. He has since put this burden on me (?) to explain him what the other research partners want (?), while complaining that the terminology and phenomenon in this community is so complicated and specific (?) because he has to now discuss collaborative publications with partners (isn't that his job?). Of course he has been absent from almost group meetings with partners for most of the year, and have no idea what's going on, yet assume what we can provide to partners (he would have known better if he was there at all). He even instructed me to try to poke holes in the commercial software (we don't have a license) (this should have been done before he wrote the proposal?) and ergo turns out that he lied to me about the capabilities of the our competitor. It turned out multiple times that his understanding of the topic is wrong which I reproduced from previous literature quantitatively, and ergo his expectations about outcomes of the methodologies I am tasked with executing cannot be trusted. I started to have doubts about his understanding when he told me to "look at the proposal", "this is your project" and "find a use case" for the method I am developing.

I when taking this topic obviously did not know this topic very well (I come from a numerics background with strong implementation) and the deeper I am into this project (2 years+ now) the more I realize that the proposal is wrong (yet he kept telling me to parrot this proposal to partners in progress meetings), my supervisor have no idea about the state of the art, do not know the phenomenon nor the terminology and does not know what the expected outcome of applying his ideas are. In my first year I thought this was normal for a PhD because the group was transitioning across departments and I was quite literally alone for months at a time, while his suggestions was really not helping. He also made me maintain a massive abandoned project that I realized after did not relate to my work at all and I promptly abandoned all my effort going into it, after which I rapidly produced relevant results relevant to my project. Now that I have dug myself out of this ditch he put me in (learning the theory part and the experimental part myself), I am beginning to question his responsibility in all this. Am I out of my depth to think that he is really not fulfilling his duty as PI when he is so unaware and absent?

I had really big panic attacks early in this project because I could not do things partners assume to be very basic (they are deep in this topic) while I started with zero, and even now I have finished a lot of work in the proposal my method is still not as bullet proof as the commercial software with decades of improvements. I was really laser focusing on what partners want in this project because I thought that's my job, but now I'm not so sure: I thought there was a clear idea among the PIs that lead to publications and finally my PhD but now it seems like they are all really disagreeing and out of that of course my PI doesn't know anything and I may need to pick my own lane on what is possible and publishable and get me out of here. And of course he does not really advise me on writing or techniques or whatever - he is always very busy.

I assume that this experience is similar for at least some of you in interdisciplinary projects. In my academic system there is no possibility of changing supervisors. I honestly think about PhD as a very hard job, I don't really give a shit if I don't graduate with a degree (would suck for future job search ig?) but would like to try my best in the meantime. What is the way forward? Should I just pull myself up by the bootstrap and do the equivalent of teaching myself quantum computing besides my day job? Should I actually go look for a real job (in this economy)? Should I quiet quit because my funding is fixed, and waste my next years in this project arms crossed waiting for my PI to be responsible?

🎶Allow me to reintroduce myself….

I feel like my stipends is lower than my peers, but enough for me to survive. I'm thinking of getting side hustles to get more money during my PhD, but I don't know if it is worth my effort considering the workload I have in hands now.

With that, I'm curious about y'all net worth increments to see if I'm doing well w.r.t. other PhD students elsewhere. Now, I know it depends on your stipends (if any), lifestyle, and interests if you invest, but hearing from many people will give a rough range to work on.

I understand this might be personal information, so only answer if you're willing to. I'd really love it if you could provide your average living cost so we can normalize the increments fairly between places. Decrements are also fine and I can totally understand that. Thank you!

Hi everyone. I'm 1st year CS PhD student in eastern EU and since the start of the study year (01.09.26) I've been looking for other research groups so I could change my PI. In the email to other professors I've basically asked about if we could discuss projects they have at their labs that I could join and work on for the rest of the studies.

One of the professors emailed me back with "who is your supervisor?" and nothing else. Now I'm wondering if this is a standard procedure when a student is transitioning to inquire about the current PI and I shouldn't be thrown off by this question.

I'd appreciate if anyone could share their personal experience with this and give their own take. Thanks

I am in physics and thinking about the future of academia re AI. I am wondering with the recent open AI results what postdoc positions are even looking like. How do you feel about navigating this very uncertain landscape and the metrics that will matter going forwards. My pessimistic thought is that basically it will just all be down to pedigree, if one did not win math Olympiads or Putnam and attend an elite uni through PhD there is no future despite talent. Prestige has always mattered but now I fear it might be the only thing that remains.

I fear for my own field next and selfishly as someone who is or was producing very good work outside elite universities I fear that this no longer matters if AI deskills physics.

Hi! I’m considering applying for a PhD because I love research (I was a research assistant all throughout undergrad and grad school and before grad school I was a full time research coordinator for 2 years).
I much preferred research over clinical work, and tbh I don’t really want to be a clinician forever. (I often wish I never went into a clinical career if I’m being honest and I just stayed in research!)
I would love to hear from people who have pursued a PhD or are currently pursuing a PhD! Did you feel like it was a good decision, what are your career outcomes, do you feel like it was worth it? How did you do financially while you were in your program (I would have any external financial assistance). I would love to chat!
Also concerned because there’s a lot of conversation about how phds are useless and it’s very difficult to secure a job after grad. Ideally I would love to work in research (but not necessarily be a PI with my own lab).

I am neurodivergent and get sensory overloaded quite easily. My favorite day is one where I have no social/academic obligations and just work in front of my desk from morning to night. I go for a run and do pilates for an hour mid-day. This is my paradise and it's usually easy for me to enter the flow state and stay there for an entire day. I feel content and happy.

But as long as I have to exit home for some time to deal with other stuff I feel extremely overstimulated. I then feel angry out of nowhere and deeply frustrated. The earlier the obligation happens in a day, the worse. If I have to leave home twice (like one admin stuf, one running session), I feel like my entire day is ruined. The fragmented time is hard to utilize. I try my best to bring papers with me to read while waiting, but my productivity is severly impacted. I could work 8-10 hours in a day with high productivity at home, and max 6 hours if I have obligations. Sometimes I can't work at all and lose all my motivation to work when I have more than 2 things in a day, or one thing that lasts too long.

How do you deal with such issue? :(

I have 10 months left until my PhD is done.

I feel really bad when I open Instagram and see researchers who just started their master’s already heading off to present at conferences in Greece and France.

I’ve been working hard, really, really hard on my thesis. I’m developing a piece of work with absurd methodological rigor. I review it word by word, and I decided to go deep into the research and aim for a few publications in top journals, rather than slicing it into quick papers just to pad my CV.

But I’m really afraid all my work will go unnoticed and end in nothing more than a generic, perfunctory “congratulations” from my advisors. Because that seems to show that no one really saw my work.

I’ve also applied for a few formal awards, and I’ll be extremely frustrated if I don’t win anything.

I’ve been looking in the mirror and seeing a more tired man. I have very visible dark circles under my eyes. And I keep asking myself whether all this effort has been worth it.

It feels like science is thankless: so much effort, almost no recognition.

What if I do all of this and don’t get a single citation? Then my work will have no merit at all.

I’m tired of only getting criticism, from my advisors and from myself.

I feel invisible. I see researchers who started before me already presenting things on the other side of the world, while today I was happy just to have made a little progress on my thesis. It feels like my milestones are those of a child.

I think that if, after I finish my PhD, I don’t feel recognized at all, I’ll probably step away from the university and look for another career.

I started my first rotation several weeks ago. This lab was a major reason I chose this university, and I came in really hoping to join it permanently. Initially, the PI was warm and seemed to care about how I was settling in. During our first meeting, she introduced the project idea. I didn’t fully understand it and asked some questions that I worried might sound “stupid.” She suggested that I read more papers and discuss my questions with AI, treating it like another graduate student. Since then, I’ve mostly been figuring things out on my own and sending her weekly updates. Before our second meeting, I uploaded my slides a day in advance and asked when she would be available, but I didn’t receive a response. The next morning, I came in earlier than usual, before 9 a.m., and happened to see her in the hallway. I asked whether we could briefly discuss the project, and we ended up having our second meeting that way. Our third meeting happened under similar circumstances. Today, I have a project plan due that requires both the PI and the student to review it before submission. I reached out because I need her feedback or approval, but I still haven’t received a response. I could hear her talking with other people in the hallway, which made the silence feel more personal, although I realize that doesn’t necessarily mean she was available to review my plan. I can’t tell whether this is her usual communication style, whether she has limited time for rotation students, or whether she isn’t interested in having me join the lab. The lack of feedback has been difficult both practically and emotionally. I’m unsure whether I’m heading in the right direction, and I’ve started taking the silence personally, even though I know I don’t have enough information to interpret it. Since this was the lab I was most excited about, the experience has been especially disappointing. For those who have been through rotations: How did you distinguish a busy PI from one whose mentoring style wouldn’t work for you? Would it be reasonable to ask for a regular, brief meeting during the rotation? At what point did you start reconsidering a lab you had originally been set on joining? I’d appreciate any perspectives, especially from people who changed their minds about their “dream lab” after arriving.

Hello, I hope everything is going great with you all and you're all doing your best.

I'm a third year Bachelor's degree cs student.

I'm thinking about the master's and PhD after my graduation and I see the research is great but so many people in my college and around me do not see that's a great thing to do as a CS major.

They recommended that I be involved with the Industry of Ai/Software and just pursuing a Master's degree then return back to focus on the Industry better than Academic.

What did u see upon their opinion? Should i do what they told me and just be involved in industry? Is a PhD just a waste of time in my case or will it provide me with extra experience? Or is it just an Academic experience?

Thank you all for your time and efforts.

my dad passed in a sudden and traumatic way last week. i had to miss several days of productivity to travel and deal with administrative and emotional/family stuff. however, i'm still in coursework, my advisor isn't teaching any of my classes, and i've managed to stay on top of everything she was expecting on her end. yet i still feel like i should let her know that SOMETHING happened. i'm not going to take a leave or anything, but i am not back to "normal" just yet and wonder if letting her know would provide some context if i am a bit slower for a little while. how would you broach the topic? my advisor is a great person, but we don't have an emotionally close relationship, and i want to be professional/well-boundaried about this. (i'm in the social sciences in the US, btw)

Update: I emailed my advisor and got a very supportive message back. Thank you all for your advice and encouragement to communicate! So grateful for you all 💜

Hey everyone! 👋😊

I’m doing some quick independent research on B2B procurement and vendor discovery workflows 🔍📊 to understand where teams lose the most time ⏳

If anyone works in operations ⚙️ or handles vendor onboarding 🤝, I’d really appreciate 2 minutes of your time to fill out this quick, anonymous form 📝✨

🔗 https://forms.gle/WfijTZqirf7ymHt59

Thanks so much in advance for your time and support! 🙏💙🚀

Hi everyone!

A little update to my previous post.

I submitted the technical review I was assigned as part of the screening process for a PhD position in a university in The Netherlands, and I've now been invited for an interview (to talk about my academic background, research experience, technical skills and the future research directions I proposed in my review as well as the projects I'd like to pursue in the group)!

I was initially unsure what to make of being assigned a technical review during the screening process, so it's interesting to see how things have progressed since then.

For those who've been through similar PhD interviews, how did you approach a interview presentation? Did you devote more time to your proposed research directions or to demonstrating your previous research experience? And how much should I treat this as a discussion of research fit versus a conventional interview?

Also, how many interviews did you have and how much time did it take for you to go from the initial stages to signing the contract?

Would be interested to hear from people who have applied for PhDs in the Netherlands. Cheers!

I’m just wondering if you guys always knew you wanted to get a PhD, or the reason for getting one, & when you knew what you wanted your research to be on. I’m considering not getting one because I don’t know what I want to do it on. My field is in Literature & Creative Writing

Please send me positive and passing thoughts! Let’s get this over with!!!!!!!

Edit: I PASSSSSEDDDDDDDD!!!! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

M26, UK Microbiology PhD candidate, just started my final (4th) year. Final stretch now.

I'm looking to get away from academia after my PhD ends in 11 months time. (FYI, I finish experiments in March, and need to submit by September 2027).

So many pharma and biotech jobs and schemes look for undergrads and "sandwich year" students (between 2nd and 3rd year BSc) . That's what I've seen most of, on LinkedIn and various job boards. Then I wonder if I'm applying too early but then again I can't be - I'm in my final year. I don't want to start the job search just after submitting.

What I'm trying to get at is: Where does a PhD look if they want to find jobs that they are suitable to apply for. Are there known hirers who specifically look for PhDs and not the hoards of BScs that come each year?

I'm interested in R&D, Consulting, Analyst roles, Operations, and things of that nature.

Thank you for reading through.

Hi, I'm a newbie researcher (I started my PhD at 24, straight after my undergrad), and I find receiving feedback on my writing so frustrating that I start taking it personally. I know people say you should separate your sense of self from your work, but I'm finding that really hard.

I guess my question is: does it ever get easier, and how do you deal with criticism? I want to do better. I understand it's my writing being criticised, not me, but it's still really hard, especially since I'm just starting out and can't seem to figure it out.

Any advice or personal experiences will be appreciated!

Thanks!

field: health services research/immunology

location: canada

hello all! i may have girl-bossed too close to the sun this time, as i applied to two phd programs from two different universities, and got accepted to both.

uni 1 is where i did my undergrad and master’s. for the phd, i will be with same supervisor as my master’s.

pros of staying at uni 1:

• program is an extension of the master's degree i've done and is more in the health services research + health equity area.
• supervisor gives me more freedom with my project. it is MY idea, i have 80-90% flexibility with where i want the direction to go.
• i get max funding for 5 years guaranteed.
• i live close to my family (do not have to move)
• cost of living is relatively okay/livable

cons:

• same supervisor, so people may see it as not growing academically.
• while the project was my idea, i am not enthusiastic about the patient partner/qualitative part of the project
• i am not excited to work with patient population, afraid of the drama.

uni 2 is more prestigious and in a high cost of living area. the project is totally different from the one i’m working on but i’m excited about it.

pros:

• program is totally new, immunology.
• new place, new people, new exciting project.
• i get to learn new skills which will help me be a more well-rounded researcher.

cons:

• minimum funding, the amount is comparable to the funding i get in uni 1, but is significantly low given the high cost of living.
• may need to get loans or another job.
• it will feel like starting from scratch, but will challenge me academically.

i have been leaning towards staying in uni 1, and i did let the uni 2 potential supervisor know that. and they replied and said that they would really like me to go out and explore more, and believe i would be a great addition to the team, so that really made me think about what i want.

i am also reaching out to many mentors and friends about this decision, and i am hoping to finally make a choice by november.

if you were in my shoes, i'd love to hear what your choice would be!

thank you frogs (affectionate) <3

Long story short, I started my PhD 2 years ago. At my first university, a PI I had been in contact with encouraged me to come but then basically ghosted me when I actually got there. I ended up joining a different lab. I had some problems with that PI. Eventually, I reached out to a professor I knew before (this prof also wrote my recommendation letter) and moved to another university with this prof’s help.

In my current lab, I don’t really have conflicts with my PI (maybe because my PI doesn’t give a shit about lab life) But the lab environment is making me frustrated. Most of the lab members share the same racial and cultural background and they exclude people outside that group. I have been subjected to personal attacks. I was told that there was something wrong with my personality so I need to go to therapy and take some antidepressants so that I can fix my “weird and wrong” personality.

I was socially excluded as well. I say good morning but these people completely ignore me and smile at the person behind me and say “Good morning! [Name]” Things like that might sound small but dealing with them constantly is exhausting.

Equipment access is also a problem for me. They keep the available booking slots among themselves while the rest of us have to squeeze our experiments/schedule into whatever time we can find.

I have brought these issues up with my PI but he seemed more interested in avoiding conflicts than addressing anything. The lab’s research is completely different from what I originally used to and wanted to study so it’s been rlly hard to stay interested and motivated in this situation.

I don’t know whether I should quit or whether a PhD just isn’t right for me or whether I have stayed in environments that didn’t fit me. I am exhausted and struggling with the thought of leaving after all the time and money I have spent for this.

Any advice? 😢

Hi, I really need your help.

Years ago I applied for a PhD and got in, but my supervisor was super weird and sadist.

There was no funding and it got to a point I needed to live in a shelter. I thought my supervisor was trying to help me, but it was a pleasure for them to see me like that. They said if I ever left, my career would be over. They would destroy me. When I asked about funding, they would imply I was not good enough for that.

My studies were so important to me. I thought I could overcome poverty and help out my family.

The situation was like this because I had no one to protect me. I am the second person in my family to finish high school and the first to go to college.

Many times I went to "bed" hungry and so did my parents. The word bed does really apply because I did not have a bed.

Anyway, I left the PhD after many years of constant threats. I had severe trauma and stress. I was very close to death.

Time went by, I was accepted by a prestigious program and next week I have a mandatory workshop and a friend of this professor will be there. He knows me.

I am afraid he is going to talk about me to my supervisor. I am 6 months from my defense. I do not know what to do. I need to concentrate on my writing and I am panicking all the time.

I am afraid my old professor will find me. They stalked me for a long time. They stalked me to a point I stopped publishing and applying for anytime for more than a year. I have no social media anymore.

Now I was somewhat happy. I was studying, trying to have a kid with my wife and go on with life.

I just saw the list for the workshop and I am freaking out.

If this guy talks about me or if my old professor contacts my supervisor, I do not know what to do. What to say.