Emily Winter
recently finished her PhD at Lancaster University. She now works as a Research
Associate exploring the values of the so-called iGen on a joint project between
Lancaster and Stanford University. In today's interview, we talk about preparing for a viva, PhD advice, breaking into the academic job market/ post-PhD life and life lessons. Follow Emily on Twitter: @EmilyRWinter
Firstly, congratulations
on completing your PhD recently and for passing your viva! Looking back on your
PhD journey, what would you say has been one of the most rewarding parts of
doing a PhD?
There have been so many things
that I’ve found rewarding. I’ve met some amazing people through my department,
through the wider Lancaster postgraduate community, and at conferences. I also loved being able to interview so many
interesting people for my thesis, and learn from people very different to
myself.
In hindsight, if there is
one piece of advice that you wish you could have given to yourself when you
started your PhD journey, what would it be?
Trust this messy process. Inspiration will come, but it will take its
time and work in its own mysterious ways.
Grab it went it comes!
Oh, and take intentional
away-from-desk breaks, not Facebook breaks.
It would be great to hear
a bit about your viva experience. What was it like, did you have a positive or
negative experience?
I was amazed to actually
really enjoy my viva! I had wonderful
examiners who engaged with my work in the kind of spirit with which I had really
hoped my work would be considered. I’d often
avoided talking about my PhD during much of the process, so it was great to be
at the point where everything had come together, I knew what I’d done and why,
and I felt ready to talk about it.
Some of the questions I
received were challenging, but my examiners had made me feel very comfortable
and at-ease, so I knew they weren’t trying to trip me up.
How did you prepare for
your viva and what advice would you give to others that are about to take theirs’?
I read through my thesis armed
with post-it notes and I thought a lot about its weaknesses. A friend lent me a set of viva prompt cards
and I used these to become more comfortable talking about my PhD. I also had a mock viva with one of my
supervisors. The night before, however,
I did nothing in preparation beyond eating a nice meal, reading a good book,
and getting an early night.
It’s worth also saying that I
think there are limits to how much you can prepare. You can’t really predict the questions, and
you’ll probably be surprised by how much your brain has absorbed on the topic
through the years spent working on it.
You were successful in
securing a Research Associate position before finishing your PhD, which is
totally amazing! What would you say to those that are also wanting to secure an
academic job straight after completing their PhD?
I was so lucky to be offered
this position by my supervisor and the timing just happened to work out really
well for me (despite a tough overlap period).
I’m not really sure what advice to offer, but I would say that I think
it’s important to be open to different kinds of positions and
opportunities. This particular research
project has taken me in quite a different direction to perhaps what I had
envisaged doing after the PhD, in terms of its topic area, but it’s been really
rewarding and interesting. So be open to
things that might not look like the ‘perfect project’ for you.
Did you always anticipate progressing into an academic-based
job when you were doing your PhD? If so, what were your main fears about
entering into the job market after you finished your doctorate?
Like most PhD students, I had
a love-hate relationship with academia throughout the process, depending on how
the thesis was progressing (or failing to progress), so I wasn’t always sure I
wanted to go into academia. I was really
worried, particularly in the final summer before my funding ran out, about
finding a job, though this was a more generalised worry about finding any
source of income.
And finally, it would be
great to finish with your thoughts on what one of your biggest life lessons has
been so far in your academic journey?
I feel amazingly privileged to
have been able to interview people as part of my job. I’ve learnt so much about others through
this, and about myself, and it’s been hugely rewarding and life-enriching. The biggest thing I’ve learnt is that people
are wonderfully complicated!
I’ve also learnt a lot about
what motivates me and how I work best.
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