Every day we read about the amazing discoveries in various branches of arts, engineering and science that are supposed to change the world and make it a better place. We see these as developed by “PhDs” or “academics”, who we perceive as incredibly gifted superhumans – they developed this new quantum computer or new AI algorithms so they must be, right?
As an academic myself, I don’t think you need to be superhuman to achieve academic success and contribute towards solving some of the global challenges faced by our, and future generations. By creating the Motivated Academic, we want to make sure that you’ve got realistic expectations of your PhD and academic career, and you maintain a sustainable level of motivation throughout your career!
Table of Contents
Expectations of PhD students
When reading science news and scientific journals, you’ve probably come across some breakthrough ideas that inspired you to pursue a scientific degree yourself. You aspire to achieve academic success.
You’ve perhaps noted that these pieces are usually written in a way that does not reflect the entire development process that the team of PhDs and researchers had to go through. The articles tend to report the final version of academic development.
What does this mean? You don’t get to read about multiple failures and iterations over months or even years of the project duration until the solution actually worked. And the route to academic success is full of trial and error.
As you don’t often see the full picture in the literature you read, you may think that you need to be super smart or even a genius to develop such solutions in your research in order to build a successful academic career.
This kind of thinking and perception puts a lot of pressure, especially on young and aspiring PhDs and scientists such as yourself.
Reality of academic success
As with all new undertakings, we often start our research degrees aiming high and being highly motivated.
As we go along, however, we tend to realise that some things don’t always go as we initially planned. Some of our equipment breaks, code doesn’t work the way we want or cannot be validated because data isn’t readily available.
You may also find it challenging to juggle problem-solving, running experiments or coding, disseminating your research, rejection(s) of your articles and many other activities that researchers usually are responsible for, and start doubting in your abilities.
Some also say that ‘if you don’t struggle during your PhD, you’re doing something wrong’. These negative aspects and uncertainty of exploratory research, unfortunately, drain our motivation – sometimes to the extent that some may even lose interest in their beloved research area!
I’ve written another post on how to deal with common challenges during PhD. Check it out!
But let me tell you this. Failure is an important part of your career development and achieving academic success. Whether you like it or not (probably not!), we tend to learn more from failures. This is because we usually reflect on what we did wrong rather than on what we did right – this is just our nature. We tend to avoid mistakes. And this is key to achieving academic success. You need to make mistakes in order to learn!
Why did I decide to do a PhD?
So how was it in my case? When I was young(er), I wasn’t much interested in school and education – I preferred to play volleyball and videogames with my peers. I definitely wasn’t motivated to learn the school curriculum and felt that I wasn’t bright enough to succeed! I was, however, curious about how different processes work and how do they interact.
It was until my high school when I really got interested in chemistry and environmental issues, and decided that I wanted to dedicate my career towards solving them. With the guidance of my chemistry teacher, I undertook two extracurricular projects around waste recycling and incineration. These helped me to realise that doing research appealed to me. I wasn’t entirely clear what such a path entailed at that time and what academic success meant, though.
Graduating with a Bachelor’s and two Master’s degrees related to energy and process engineering led me to undertake a PhD programme in clean energy and decarbonisation. Although I enjoyed taught degrees, the joy of doing a PhD and driving my own project was disproportionally higher. I knew that I must enjoy what I do to achieve academic success.
My struggles on my way to academic success
At the beginning of my PhD degree, I thought that I will develop the best technology for CO2 capture that will change the world and solve the issue. This excitement quickly went away when I started reading the literature and discussing it with my peers.
At that point, I realised that other researchers tried to make this technology happen since the 90s’, and they haven’t succeeded – it was just too expensive and, without incentives, the industry wasn’t that much interested.
By the end of the first year of my PhD degree, I thought that it was it and that I wouldn’t achieve what I wanted and won’t build a successful academic career. However, having learnt that technological development can take years, I needed a new goal that would keep me stimulated and excited about my PhD. I decided to aim high and attempted to publish a good number of papers in top journals in my field.
They say the initial rejection hurts the most, and I agree…I was devastated when my first manuscript was rejected – after all, I spent so much time on perfecting it! I also wasn’t accepted for a prestigious summer school and didn’t get the industrial placement I wanted.
But I’m grateful for these experiences, as they taught me one crucial thing about research and life overall: no matter how much you try, there’s always a chance you’ll fail or get rejected. And you cannot do much about this; there’s no such thing as a 100% success guarantee!
That’s the key to academic success.
This realisation helped me to deal with rejections and maintain my motivation to complete my PhD without corrections in less than 3 years, with 11 articles published in top journals in my field.Now, a couple of years later and with 55 academic papers in my CV, I’ve established my research group and I feel that I’ve already achieved academic success.
It’s a high time I supported you, dear reader, in achieving academic success by sharing my experience and advice. If there are any specific roadblocks that prevent you from succeeding in academia, feel free to contact me. I’m sure I’ll be able to help!
Conclusions
You may wonder what the conclusion of my above reflections is?
There’s tremendous pressure put on you as a young scientist or researcher to excel at everything you’re undertaking. This pressure on your academic success may inhibit your aptitude towards taking risks, trying new things no one tried before, or submitting manuscripts to high impact factor journals (because they reject it anyway, so why to try at all?).
But I want you to undertake the incremental view and don’t limit yourselves. As we never can be 100% sure we’ll succeed, we can accept that to fail is a part of the process.
Such an attitude will take the pressure off our shoulders, and will make it easier to stay motivated and, eventually, achieve academic success.
Therefore, you should think big, try to deliver to the best of your abilities.
If you’re not sure about something, don’t hesitate to seek support from others or dig deeper into the literature to find answers.
If you fail, try to understand why this happened and learn from your experience to improve your work. At the end of the day, you’ll achieve your goal and make the world a better place!
By the way, did you know that my writing training will help you write and publish your research in internationally-recognised journals without the overwhelm? Yep, it’s true. I take all the guesswork out of the writing process, explain how to write each section of the paper and how to ensure a logical flow of information. Go here to check it out!
I come to you not only as an enthusiast but as an individual deeply entrenched in the world of academia and research. With a substantial background in clean energy and decarbonization, I've navigated the intricate paths of a Ph.D. program, surmounting challenges that often accompany ambitious research pursuits. Having contributed to the field with 55 academic papers in top journals, I've cultivated a nuanced understanding of the expectations and realities of academic success.
The article in question delves into the common perceptions and misconceptions surrounding academic achievements, particularly in the context of pursuing a Ph.D. It highlights the gap between public perception, shaped by media portrayals of breakthroughs, and the actual journey of researchers and Ph.D. students. It strives to rectify the romanticized view of academia by emphasizing the importance of embracing failures and the iterative nature of academic development.
The central concepts covered in the article are as follows:
1. Expectations of PhD students:
- The article acknowledges that the portrayal of academic success in the media often omits the struggles, failures, and iterations that precede breakthroughs.
- It challenges the notion that one needs to be a superhuman or genius to succeed in academia, aiming to alleviate the pressure on aspiring Ph.D. students.
2. Reality of academic success:
- It emphasizes the inevitability of setbacks during the research journey, from equipment failures to experimental challenges.
- Acknowledges the pressure and uncertainties in exploratory research and how these challenges can drain motivation.
- Stresses the importance of learning from failures, as they contribute significantly to career development and academic success.
3. Why did I decide to do a PhD?:
- The author shares a personal narrative, highlighting a shift from a lack of interest in formal education to a passion for researching environmental issues, particularly in the realm of clean energy.
- The importance of enjoying and being passionate about the research one undertakes is emphasized for long-term success.
4. My struggles on my way to academic success:
- Describes the author's initial aspirations in the Ph.D. program and the realization that the envisioned technology had been attempted without success for years.
- Details the emotional impact of rejections, failed applications, and the challenge of maintaining motivation.
- Stresses the key lesson learned: the inevitability of failure and rejection in research and life, and the need to persevere despite setbacks.
5. Conclusions:
- Highlights the tremendous pressure on young scientists to excel at everything, inhibiting risk-taking and exploration.
- Encourages an incremental view of success, emphasizing the acceptance of failure as an integral part of the academic journey.
- Advocates thinking big, seeking support when needed, and learning from failures to ultimately achieve academic success.
In conclusion, the article provides a holistic perspective on the academic journey, aiming to guide and motivate aspiring researchers by sharing personal experiences and valuable insights gained throughout a successful Ph.D. career.
