Post-defense reality check: What should you do after defending your PhD

Celebrating in style, after the defense

Last June, I've successfully defended my PhD, received my diploma and enjoyed the honor of being called "Dr. Lantsoght" (or better, trying to convince people of doing so, and having the joy of selecting "Dr." from a drop-down menu while booking a flight).

The first month after my PhD was mostly spent on moving things, preparing for shipping a container to our new base and then trying to tie up all loose ends in Europe.

Now that the dust has settled, it is time to look back on those weeks that came after finishing the PhD (hint: they are equally messy as the final months of the PhD itself, and maybe a fore-bearer of what I should expect from academia from now on).

Yes, after you defend your PhD, you find some time to actually breathe.

No, that doesn't mean I've spent the entire summer on a tropical beach, reading books and sipping cocktails.

I've been busy as always, and I'm here to share with you what I felt were the best decisions I made upon finishing my PhD.

What could you do right after finishing, and before the regular humdrum of life takes over again?
Here's a list of what I felt was necessary, useful and productive to do:

1. Cleaning
Take some time to clean out your clutter and free some space in your office. Even though you might stay at the institution where you were awarded your PhD, this might be the right time to decide what you can discard. If you want to make the switch to a paperless office, the time is now. Scan paper from folders you gathered. Clear out everything you won't need anymore. All those prints of the drafts of your dissertation? Paper recycling!
Homeworks of courses that you were assisting? If the students have graduated, you can get rid of that!
And, now that we're at it - get a wipe with some disinfecting product and clean your desk - and try to keep it a little more empty.

2. Send copies of your dissertation
I ordered 250 copies of my dissertation from the printer, and I've distributed more than half of all these copies by now. Either in between printing and defending, or after defending, take some time to mail copies of your dissertation. I took the stack of business cards that I collected at conferences, and sent a copy to everyone who might be interested, and I also sent it to professors in my field.
Don't wait too long after finishing to send out your copies - in the months after finishing, you'll become increasingly critical of the work you produced.

3. Rekindle your network
You might have been engrossed in writing while you were preparing your dissertation. Right after finishing is the right time to schedule appointments to catch up with friends (for the love of the flying spaghetti monster, do go and celebrate) and former colleagues. Write some emails to people in your network to catch up with them.

4. Go on a tour
Look for events where you can speak about your work. These events might be conferences, but try to take it a step further. How about bringing your message to an audience from the industry, speaking in a local school about the value of your science, or giving a TEDx talk? Come out of your musty dusty lab and take your work into the broad lights of the world. The baby is born and it's ready to be shown to the world!

5. Celebrate in style
Is there something you always wanted to do? How about learning to surf, go on a long trip, visit a place you always wanted to see? In my case, I always wanted to go to Wacken Open Air, but never got tickets, time nor transport to get there. I planned this trip about a year in advance (or better: my best friend made it happen!), and it felt like a great celebration of finishing, and 4 days away from it all.

6. Update your CV
You got the degree, so make sure you update your CV. Don't forget to change your profiles all over the web, on the social media platforms you use, and certainly on LinkedIn, Academia.edu and ResearchGate.

7. Update your list of publications
Along the same lines as updating your CV goes updating your list of publications. Keep track of your publications, and add them online as well. From now on, you publications will be more important than ever.

8. Take some time off
Even if you can't get your dream holiday, take some time off. I tried getting back to writing about 1,5 weeks after my defense, and it was just too early. I couldn't get motivated to do anything, and I didn't get more done than a paragraph a day. Allow yourself enough time to fully relax.

9. Make a planning for publishing
If your thesis is a big book-style thesis and not a set of papers, then start to identify which papers you could write from your dissertation. Who would you invite as coauthors? Where would you submit? Make a table with this information, and plan when you want to write your first draft, by when you need to revisions of your coauthors and when you plan to submit. Do this earlier rather than later, and make writing these papers your priority for the next year. Don't let this sink to the bottom - writing is what counts.

10. Start something new
To get away from the research you've been working on for 3 or 4 years, bring the bubbles back into your brain by starting something new. If possible, work on a new project to keep things interesting. Otherwise, take on a small side project for your own interest, and start playing around with something new. Learn a new subject. Code in another language. Teach a course.

What were your priorities after finishing your PhD, or how are you planning to spend the months after finishing?

Writers' Lab: Experimenting with Expertise

Today, I have the pleasure of inviting Dr. Scheg to share her views on the unique type of writing that is dissertation writing. Dr. Abigail Scheg is an Assistant Professor of English at Elizabeth City State University and an Adjunct Dissertation Chair for Northcentral University. She researches and publishes in the areas of composition, online pedagogy, and popular culture. She loves working with doctoral students and is dedicated to creating and participating in networks for doctoral student support. Follow her on Twitter @ag_scheg.  

As a doctoral student, I proclaimed a certain level of expertise in my subject area: online pedagogy and teacher preparation. I read, toiled, read, labored, read, wrote, and edited until I began to have dreams about Allen and Seaman and the No Significant Difference phenomenon. Since all of my degrees are in English-related fields, I felt fairly confident in my writing abilities as I drafted my actual dissertation chapters. I felt confident until I received the response from my Chair, who had obviously given this same speech a number of times,“The dissertation is a unique genre. Basically it's a new type of writing that you'll only use this once and then you can continue with your usual style.”

And just like that, everything that I knew seemed to slip away. If I couldn't even write it correctly, which I thought was my strong point, then did I really deserve to write it? Should I be working on a dissertation? Are people actually going to listen to me talk about online pedagogy?

The dissertation process is a unique juxtaposition of being a subject-matter expert and a neophyte. Jimmy Buffett's song, “If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me,” has the line, “I've had good days and bad days and going half mad days,” which, if I didn't know any better, would say that Jimmy wrote in the middle of the dissertation process. 

Some days spent reading journal articles will fit gloriously into the puzzle; a study will represent exactly the information you needed in chapter three. Other days will be spent staring at the same journal article for hours, unable to comprehend why one article was cited in another when they seem to have no ties whatsoever.

Now I find myself on the other side of the puzzle as a dissertation director. I strive to have a very open and honest dialogue with my doctoral students about the process of writing a dissertation. While the entire process can be isolating and frustrating, I always reach out to students that I haven't heard from and call them back towards the light. I find that students are usually very well-versed in their topics, but hesitant on the presentation of their documents or the appropriate length, tone, or amount of research in a finished chapter. 

Let me reiterate the advice from my Chair, a dissertation is an entirely unique writing process and provided that this is probably your first doctoral program, you're allowed to be relatively unfamiliar with nuances of this genre.  That is not to say that you should be entirely unfamiliar; read other people's dissertations. Learn about the styles that different universities use; look at the chapter breakdowns and try to recognize patterns. Make informed decisions about your writing based on the other dissertations that you have seen and then use your Chair as a sounding board.

My wonderful Chair helped me organize the information in my later chapters. I had the data, I had the analysis, but I couldn't figure out how to piece it together to fit the parameters of the chapter guidelines. He helped me to take the information and fit it into the puzzle.

One of the most important things that I learned about the dissertation process that made me want to get involved with doctoral students was this: Nobody knows what they're doing. Once a person reaches that stage in their education, there is a sense of confidence in their understanding of content materials, but until you have successfully completed a dissertation, you may not understand the genre. Accept your status as subject-matter expert and dissertation-writing neophyte and press on. Go, scholar, go.

 

Silver Linings: For the love of reading, and my Kindle

As a child, reading was one of my favorite pass-times. I bonded with one of my best friends as we discovered we both liked the same author. During the summer holidays, I could easily sit in the garden all day long,reading a book.

And then I went to university, and something I called "letter-fatigue" struck me. After finishing reading in a course book, my eyes were tired of seeing letters and I couldn't bring myself back to reading. I'd only read during a week in summer, and that'd be all for a year.

I gradually started to pick up the pace again during my time at Georgia Tech, and afterwards, as I was flying back and forth between Europe and the US more frequently. I started to trade in the in-flight movies for books. I discovered some contemporary satire that I deeply enjoyed. I started to track my reading in Goodreads, and browsing for suggestions.

And then, about 4 months ago, I got my Kindle. At first, I was planning to only use the device during trips abroad in airports and during flights. I'd still carry paper books for the part of the flight during which electronic devices can't be used.

However, I started reading tons on my Kindle: fiction, papers, my own writing as a second screen now that I am only using my laptop, e-books and more. My Kindle is hands-down one of the best purchases I've made in a long time. Not just for my personal enjoyment, but I comes in useful for my research too.

I love books. I love the smell of books, having paper in my hand - and I was terribly skeptical of using an e-reader. My fear and scepsis turned out to prove me wrong.

For us researchers, reading is almost as important as writing - and you can't have one without the other. I've stated it before: reading sparks creativity. Or as my favorite tweet of a few weeks ago mentioned:

@evalantsoght @NSRiazat @lifehackorg @writtenbykrissy The best way to become a better writer is to become a better reader.
— U.S. Dhuga (@USDhuga) August 8, 2013

 One of the best features of a dedicated e-reader as a Kindle, is that it basically is just meant for reading. Unlike a tablet pc where you might want to hop from app to app, the Kindle keeps your attention to your reading. Some critics might fear that we'd hop from book to book and lose the ability to get lost in a fantasy world while reading, but my experience is that I get as much engrossed in a paper book as in a digital book - the story is what matters.

Also, since the Kindle is small, it fits my smallest purse, and I've been dragging it along to many different locations. You can spot me in waiting in line, engrossed in the Kindle.

The color of the screen doesn't seem to tire my eyes, I enjoy the option of highlighting text as I read and I appreciate the fact that I can increase the font - I am by far a very happy Kindle user.

Do you enjoy reading? Do you use an e-reader? And do you also use the e-reader for your research?

Getting a job, after the PhD

At the risk of landing in a bed of nettles, I've decided to write a post about getting a job after getting your degree. If you have an internet connection, and you read things online every now and then, you might have realized that your degree is not a guarantee for a job.

When both you and your partner are academic, the chance of the two of you being hired at the institution of your dreams, and being able to build up a life together, is fairly small.

You might interview with the industry, only to learn they find you either overqualified or want you to start from scratch, so that your longed for increase in salary after years of living as a student turns out to be really modest.

You might be looking into an uncertain future of jobs as a post-doc for a year here, and a year there and then not being able to set your roots into an institution at all.

Those are the risks of the kind of life that comes with getting a PhD.

But, on the other side, a lot is up to you: try some creative thinking and a dash of pride in your accomplishments, and you'll go a long way.

Very few students start their studies with the goal of Becoming a Professor. Getting a PhD is much more than simply getting ready to become a professor. My own path is not set in stone - I wouldn't be surprised if five years from now, I'd be doing something completely different. If you want to know what other options you have on your sleeve, try the following exercise:

• Take some time to asses again why you started your PhD in the first place.
• Then, try some good creative thinking out of the box, and determine which other career paths would satisfy your motivation.
• For every career path, list the skills you gathered during your PhD that could be to your advantage.
• For every career path, list the skills/knowledge that you lack.
• Do some preliminary searches on these career paths, and keep your options open.
• Go out, reach out and show your interest in trying something new. Use conferences and industry events to explore your possibilities.

And keep in mind that, whatever job you take after getting your degree, there's no such thing as being a "failure".
Your PhD was not a waste of your time if you turn out to end up in a completely different field.
If you leave your first job after a rather short time, then you certainly learned something about what precisely does not work for you.
But keep iterating until you find something that really clicks with you, so that you can fully lean into your career, wherever that might be.

Graduates from PhD programs end up in a wide variety of different jobs. You can read testimonies on What Are All the PhDs?, as well as on From PhD To Life. Jobs on Toast gives great advice for navigating the job market.

Have you thought of life after the PhD? Where do graduates from your program typically end up?

Writers' Lab: Setting Up and Maintaining your Google Scholar Profile

As an academic, you might be totally focused on searching for articles in Scopus, and checking your h-index in Scopus as well - provided that your institution has a subscription.

However, many students and scholars these days use Google Scholar. You might be familiar with this search engine and you might have used it for a search when you were off your institution's network. You can improve your search with the these tips.

Besides being publicly available, Google Scholar has another advantage: you can set up your author profile.

And, if you haven't set up your profile - go there and do so immediately. Having an author profile is as important as having your articles showing up in a search on Google Scholar.

Setting up your Google Scholar profile is very easy. If you need a tutorial, go here.

This is what my profile looks like:



Here are a few elements that you need to keep in mind when setting up your Google Scholar profile:

• You need to use your institution's email address.
• Don't forget to add some keywords that summarize your field of research.
• Make your profile public - it's a great way of reaching out to follow researchers.

Keep in mind that you need to use an academic email address and make your profile public if you want to show up in search results.

An interesting feature of Google Scholar is that you have the possibility to add publications.
That conference paper that Scopus didn't pick up because it wasn't printed by a big publisher - add it to your Google Scholar profile.
Your research reports - add them to your Google Scholar profile!

If you keep a profile on ResearchGate, or you submit all your publications to the repository of your institution, Google Scholar will fetch this information and add these publications to your profile.

As you can add more documents to your Google Scholar profile, you might see a difference in their result for your h-index as compared to the "official" Scopus result.
Just keep in mind that Google Scholar, as useful as it is, is not the place to check you h-index.

Finally, as with every profile online, make sure you maintain your Google Scholar profile. If an article shows up twice in the list, merge the articles into one. Visit your profile every now and then to see if everything still looks as supposed to.
Typically, you can sit back and relax, as Google will automatically update your profile as your publications appear online.

Have you set up your Google Scholar profile yet?

PhD Opportunities in Structural Mechanics: University of Cape Town

As I am on the mailing list for the SEMC 2013 conference, I received the following information that might be of interest to some of the reader of PhD Talk.

The Structural Engineering & Mechanics Group at the University of Cape Town would like to announce a number of opportunities for PhD study commencing in 2014. Applications are being invited for full-time PhD study in the following areas of research:

• Symmetry in structural mechanics; group-theoretic formulations for the study of various problems involving symmetry (vibration, bifurcation, stability); numerical implementation of efficient group-theoretic computational procedures for the solution of practical problems

• Mechanics of shells of revolution; innovative shell forms for containment applications; development of appropriate methods of analysis; design recommendations for multi-shell containment vessels

• Buckling behaviour of externally-pressurized thin shells of double curvature; buckling of thin-shell concrete arch dams; optimum shape for thin-shell concrete arch dams in deep narrow valleys; development of a database for the preliminary design of thin-shell concrete arch dams for a comprehensive range of valley-shape idealisations

• Analytical and numerical modelling of the non-linear dynamic response of high-voltage overhead power transmission lines; modelling of steady winds and gusts; mathematical models for vibration response of overhead power lines in wind and rain; development of more effective strategies for damping and vibration control

To be considered for PhD enrolment on the above studies, candidates must already be in possession of a Masters degree in Structural Engineering or a related field within the broader disciplines of Civil or Mechanical Engineering. Candidates will be expected to complete the PhD work within a period of 3 years. Some support from the National Research Foundation of South Africa may become available, and opportunities for teaching assistance will be provided, but it is expected that candidates will also have other means of supporting their studies.

Applications must be received by 30 September 2013. Candidates must clearly state (i) the preferred area of study, and attach (ii) a brief motivation for the intended studies, and (iii) a full CV (including any publications to date). Applications must be directed to:

Prof. A. Zingoni - Head, Structural Engineering & Mechanics Group
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town
Rondebosch 7701, Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA
Tel: 27 21 650 2601; Fax: 27 21 650 3293; Email: alphose.zingoni@uct.ac.za 

Webpage: http://www.civil.uct.ac.za/staff/academic/zingoni

SEMC 2013 International Conference: http://www.semc.uct.ac.za

How to Prepare for the PhD Defense

The preparation for the PhD Defense was just one step in the long road to the defense, that started with the first draft, then dealt extensively with the committee members, and ended with the celebration of getting my degree (I got the diploma in my hands right after my defense).

Between returning from a conference in the USA, and my defense, I had less than a week of time to get over the jetlag and prepare for the defense itself.

In an earlier post, I summarized my approach for the defense as follows:

I didn't really know how to prepare for my defense, and I'll write a post about it specifically in the future, but essentially I didn't have much time for preparing my defense all in all. Certainly, I had to prepare my "lekenpraatje", and I reread my dissertation once more, but preparing for possible questions was a little more vague. I summarized my dissertation in a sentence per page, as suggested by Phillips and Pugh, I went over my meeting notes again, and I tried fishing for information from my committee members (unsuccessfully).

Let me break that down into more detail, so you have an idea of how I prepared for my defense (which, honestly, went really smoothly after I got a hold of my nerves):

1. The presentation

In Delft, we give a "lekenpraatje" for our friends, colleagues and family, but not for the committee members. Therefore, the presentation doesn't really matter towards the result of the viva itself, but it is nonetheless a very good opportunity to show an overview of your work to everyone you invited to attend your defense.
I made the slides about a month before the actual defense date, but then needed to reshuffle a number of times to be able to fit the talk within the 20 minutes of allotted time. While in Pittsburgh for IBC, I took off an afternoon to practice this presentation, and during the week before the defense I ran through my presentation a couple more times. I wanted to have it rehearsed very well so that I could almost run it on auto-pilot.

2. Rereading the dissertation

Before the conferences that I attended, I reread my dissertation a final time. It was already printed by then, and of course, I found a number more mistakes in my text. While rereading for a last time, I made a summary (see point 3), and paid extra attention to my theoretical chapter, as most criticism from the committee members had been geared towards my proposed model.

3. Making the summary

As suggested by Phillips and Pugh, I summarized my dissertation in one line per page as I was rereading it. Certainly, having the activity of writing something down, and thinking of how to summarize a page, was a good change from all the reading of the same text that I had done earlier.
However, I am not sure if it was really worth the effort. I never looked at that summary again after making it. I'm just assuming that spending time with my text in this manner triggered some extra area in my brain, or something like that, but it might have been too much effort.

4. Going over meeting notes

Based on my notes of the meetings that I had with the committee members, I tried to distill their main points of criticism, and turn that into a question. I also verified if I made all the changes they required, or if I had left loose ends on a few topics. For those topics, I made sure to be able to explain why I didn't pay more attention, or to give an outline of a possible solution.

5. Fishing for information

Sometimes, committee members are known to give you their questions in advance. In my case, only my copromotor and promotor gave me some ideas of what they could ask, but I had no clue of what the other members would be asking. By going over my meetings notes, I refreshed their "pet peeves", and in some cases that turned out to be a good direction. I also contacted my committee members to see if they wanted a final meeting to prepare for the defense, or if they wanted me "to bring some extra material to put on the projector during the defense" (this is how I tried to fish for information, but they all just told me that there was no need for a meeting or additional material).

6. Thinking of possible questions

As I was left with my meeting notes and some advice from my copromotor, promotor and colleagues, I sat down to make a list of possible questions. These questions, I started to work out on paper, in an orderly fashion, so that I could put them on the projector during the defense. One of these questions indeed popped up, and my friends thought the committee member had given me that question before the defense. It was good guesswork instead. I tried to list about 5 possible questions per committee member.
Moreover, I used the top 10 viva questions that I got through Twitter.

7. Working out some additional material

I found some more interesting papers a few days before my defense, so I made some notes and played around with some of these ideas. That material came with me to the defense, and I was planning to show it while answering the final question, but I was interrupted by the Beadle. My dissertation is not a completely finished piece of work, there are always additional questions that remain to be answered, and I focused on continuing a little bit on the loose ends to show the committee that I have given these leads some good thought.

8. Gathering relevant literature sources

I took the "really important" papers with me that I had used as a basis for my theoretical work - just in case I needed to put something on the projector during my defense.

9. Get enough sleep

Getting past the jetlag and getting the fog out of my brain were about my major concerns for the defense. Somehow I knew that if I had a sharp mind, I'd be doing well that day.

10. Look around online

An excuse to browse the interwebz once more? Maybe, but I certainly found great advice about the defense here and here (also check the list of references).

How did you prepare for your defense or viva? Did you spend a lot of time on it, or were you pressed for time like me?

Writer's Lab: Editing your writing, paperless-style

After finishing my PhD last June, I've been working on the articles that I would like to publish from my dissertation.
I've left my home in Delft after my defense, and since then I've been homeless living in different houses. All my writing needs to be done on my personal laptop, and I'm limited an external backup, a Kindle, a smartphone, scratch paper, pens, my planner and my calculator as office-tools.

Within these limitations, I've needed to go paperless as much as possible. Writing my most recent draft articles has been a fully digital work.

I used to print out every single draft, mark it up in pencil while reading in a quiet place, and then making the changes into the file again. Without a printer and a space to leave paper, my good old workflow process was not an option anymore.

In the past, I used to think that I could only catch typos when I print out my work and read over it.

Myth is debunked.

If you are to review a paper, and want to use a digital method, here are a few tips I can give you:

1. Check your figures in a PDF at 400% magnification

If you want to check how your images will be printed, convert them into a PDF (assuming that you will deliver your final draft in PDF form), and use a 400% magnification tool in your Adobe Reader. At 400% magnification, you get an idea of the quality of your figure in print. If the image has blurred lines at this 400% zoom, then alter your figure. Ideally, use the .EPS format for your images.

2. Use full screen reading

Throw out the distractions and read by using the full screen reading option. Most word processing programs allow for making changes while you use the full screen reading mode, so make your changes immediately as you see your mistakes.

3. Try to convince co-authors to use track changes

If you want to go from a printing-marking up-editing type of workflow towards a fully digital method, try to convince your co-authors to use track changes or to add their comments to your document. Implementing the changes from co-authors through track changes is about the simplest thing out there to accept their feedback.

4. Enroll your tablet or e-reader

If, for some reason, you need to read your document and gather information from it, consider using your tablet or e-reader. When I needed to compile the list of notations from a paper, I converted the file to PDF, put it on my Kindle, and hunted for notations, while typing out the list into the active document in MS Word.

5. Use your digital signature

You really don't need to print, sign, and scan documents anymore when you write your consent to publish. Almost all publishers now accept a digital signature in a PDF. It's super easy to set up your digital signature, and you'll create a password to safeguard your signature.

6. If necessary, scan with a smartphone app

If, for some reason, your digital signature is not accepted, and you need to print and sign a document, but don't have a scanner available, then consider using your smartphone as a scanner. I've used DocScan, and even though the quality is not ideal, it serves the purpose.

7. Get a second screen

If you can, get a second screen. I'm spending too much time in different places, defined by what I can put into my carry-on bag, but if you try to go paperless from an office, add an extra monitor. It's the best thing since slices bread.

8. Use reference management software

For quick citing, use a reference management software tool that is incorporated into your word processing software. I used Endnote and MS Word (very basic), and it makes citing the easiest thing in the world.

Have you writing and editing all from one machine, without printing the draft and marking up? Share your experience and tips!

Silver Linings: Conferences, and Flying around the world

A few months ago, I did some crazy conference traveling: I flew from Amsterdam via Rome to Japan to attend ICCS 213. After that conference, I flew out of Japan via Minneapolis to Pittsburgh, to attend IBC 2013.
I shouldn't forget to mention that less than a week after touchdown in Amsterdam, I also had to defend my dissertation.

Traveling from one conference in Asia to another in the USA threw me from Central European Summer Time to GMT+9 in Tokyo, and then to Eastern Time zone in the USA (GMT-5). Of course, I also crossed the date line (although I have no memory of actually doing so, as I was asleep).

As you can imagine, by the time I arrived to Pittsburgh, I couldn't tell the difference between my toes and fingers, and felt as if my brain had stayed in Holland.

If you want my advice on this crazy conference traveling, I would say: don't do it.

If you must, try to find a day of rest somewhere during the trip to catch up on sleep.

In my case, I managed to put in 2 days of rest at the beginning of the Pittsburgh-leg of my trip. The first rest-day was literally that: I went to bed sometime between 9pm and 10pm, and only woke up the next day at 2pm (and that is because my husband walked in because he took half a day off from work). The next night, I had a head-splitting migraine, combined with being unable to breathe and having my limbs go numb.

Regardless of the fact that it was terribly exhausting, I did find a few ways to cope with the draining elements of travel, and enjoyed myself a lot.

Here's what I did:

1. Don't try to do everything
I needed time to prepare for my defense presentation, so I took time off from the conference, instead of working through the night on my presentations. It's OK to miss out on sections in conferences, as long as you "do your work" (the networking, the presenting, the learning, etc...).

2. Eat your veggies
If you do something as crazy as I did in terms of traveling, getting the right fuel is more important than ever. I went with green juices (from juice bars, or those Odwalla or Naked juices that are sold in virtually every gas station) to get some veggies. I ordered veggie sides to my meals, although I got some green beans that were swimming in butter at a certain point.

3. Exercise
Go for a run. Drop in on a local yoga class. Do push-ups. Pump some iron. Walk around a few blocks.
Whatever you need to work up a sweat, helps your body. If possible, work out outside, in the daylight, when you are jetlagged.

4. Bonus
Take this little piece of advise from my promotor: "Don't worry about the trip. You'll fall asleep somewhere, sometime, eventually."

Have you had a crazy conference-trip like this? How did you survive?

The Defense - my experience

On June 14th, I passed my PhD defense, and I promised to write a blog post replying the question "What was it like to defend?".

Most of all, it went so quickly. Only during a few moments, I realized of what I was actually doing up there, and the weight of my words - most moments, I simply focused on answering the questions.


I was frankly curious to see what my committee members would ask me.

Immediately after the defense, I received my diploma, which was yet another moment to remember.

It was quite an experience to defend my work in front of my friends and family, and with a committee of knowledgeable people. I started with a 20 minute presentation only for friends and family. Afterwards, the actual defense was 1 hour sharp, and the committee members could ask their questions - members from "far" went first and received most time, and the last was my promotor. In fact, I was half-way through answering my promotor's first question when the beadle came in to mark the hour.

During the first question I was quite nervous. It was a rather long question, and I did make notes, but I found it difficult to address all the elements that he summed up in his question (and at one point I had difficulty reading what I had scribbled down as one of the points that came up).

But then, after talking through the first 10 minutes, I felt more relaxed, and I realized that I really do know my topic inside out - and that there are elements on which I might have a different opinion than some of my committee members, and that they find that perfectly fine as long as I have a good reason for thinking that way.

During the defense, I spent some time discussing the Modified Bond Model with the first committee member*, who uttered his serious doubts about it, and with the fourth committee member, who mostly wanted me to explain why the results for the slab strips appear to be unsafe - a question that was easily tackled by showing the difference between the pure one-way behavior in the strips as compared to the two-way (or combined one-way and two-way) behavior in the wider specimens that we tested.

The other questions that came up during the defense were about the mechanism of shear transfer, and their relative importance, which I discussed with the second committee member (a more theoretical question), the use of finite element calculations and their practical applications, the difference between plain and ribbed bars (plain bars were used until the mid 1960s, and we also tested slabs reinforced with plain bars to compare to undeformed bars), the proposition about the cracked specimens that turned out to have a surprisingly large residual capacity and the link between the Modified Bond Model and the Hillerborg model.

After the defense itself, the committee left for 15 minutes, and then they came back to give me my diploma, and for the speech of my promotor.

When all was said and done, we had a reception, and in the evening I hosted a dinner in a restaurant in Delft, to celebrate the very end of my PhD studies.

* My defense was public, and you can see the list of committee members in my dissertation, but I can imagine that not everybody likes having their name up on the internet, so I've decided to just number my committee members for this post.

Writers' Lab: How to write your Conclusions, Part II: Doctoral Dissertation

Last week, we discussed how to write the "Summary and Conclusions" section for a paper. We looked at what we don't want to see in this section in any paper - regardless of your excuse - and then we discussed how I go about writing this very section of a paper.

Today, we are looking at writing the final chapter of your dissertation, or at least, my 2 cents on that topic. We are assuming that you did some decent planning, so that you don't need to write your final chapter the night before your draft dissertation is due. I can't repeat it often enough: keep some buffer in your planning so that, whatever happens, you leave yourself the luxury of time to edit your work.

Before looking at the HOW of writing the final chapter of the dissertation, let's zoom into the GOALS for this chapter. Regardless of your field, you will have specific messages that you want your readers to remember. For my dissertation (engineering), my specific goals were the following - and elements of this can apply over the boundaries of disciplines:

• Give an overview of the main original contributions: I wanted to serve these up on a shiny tray for the committee and readers to show that where precisely my contributions are situated, within my research field. No need for unnecessary modesty, simply listing your contributions can be quite helpful to start a summary.
• Summarize what was said in the different chapters: My goal for the final chapter was to have an executive summary of the entire dissertation. I was shooting for about 10 pages, and ended up with 13 pages for my final chapter (book size, that is - not A4/letter). For every reader pressed for time or not so interested in my work, I wanted to have this chapter ready so that they can get a nice eagle view of the dissertation.
• Release the structure of the chapters: You might not agree with me on this point, but I wanted the summary to be rather thematic than by chapter. Therefore, I selected a number of main topic and summarized around these ideas. The overall sequence of these topics did follow the sequence of the chapters in my dissertation.
• Reaching out to practice: This goal might be typical for a more practice-oriented topic as mine, but I still think including a paragraph in which you reflect upon the practical implications of your results into the your field is very valuable. This paragraph can be detailed and ready-to-implement, such as the list of recommendations that I included for engineers assessing reinforced concrete slab bridges in shear, but it can also be as general as pointing towards a few ideas that can be further worked out by practitioners. Having a link to practice, by all accounts, seems to be valuable to me.
• Future work. As much as you might have done during your PhD and studies, you'll never have it all finished. As in, there will always be a number of open ends, questions that remain lingering in the sideline. That does not mean that your work isn't ready for a doctorate, that simply means another researcher might like to pick up from here, or you might like to assign these topics later on to a masters' student.

Given that we now have defined the elements that we want to include in the Conclusions section, it is now time to look at how we will be doing this. The key element here is reflection, reflection and then some more reflection.

• If someone were to read nothing but your conclusions chapter, what would you want them to remember from your work?
• What is your take-home message for your audience?

These are the questions to ask yourself, and to keep asking yourself while writing your final chapter.

As I explained last week, I write the "Summary and Conclusions" section of a paper by taking notes while proofreading the first draft. For the final chapter of my dissertation, I used a scaled-up version of this approach:

• I had used the "proofread, note, summarize" approach for the final section ("Conclusions") of every single chapter.
• I then went out to copy-paste all these summaries together into the final chapter.
• From that raw material, I started cooking up the main ideas for the overall summary.
• Then, I added the sections with the practical implications and the future research.
• Finally, I reread it, asking myself if this is really the very core of my work or not.

Using this approach, I could not only write my final chapter very quickly (about 2 to 3 days of work for the first version), but I also kept reminding myself frequently of staying on course, staying close to the core of my work and trying to make the final chapter the executive summary of the entire dissertation.

How did you write your final dissertation chapter, or how are you planning to do this? Is your approach similar, or completely different? Share your experience in the comments section!

Silver Linings: Discover your Major Strengths

Curiosity and interest in the world = traveling

Regardless of whether you are currently seeking a job and want to have a ready answer to the question "What are your major strengths?", it is never a bad idea to take time to reflect on this question.

Knowing our strengths can work as a tool to leverage these strengths and push projects forward in your unique way. It's all about honoring the unique individual, you.

Moreover, research has demonstrated the impact of using our strengths on our mood and effectiveness: knowing and using our top strengths increases our happiness.

As Caroline Miller puts it:

"We do not become happy BECAUSE we are successful, we become successful because we start in a flourishing place, and using strengths assists in getting there."

A free online tool that you can use to assess your strengths, is the VIA Survey by University of Pennsylvania. You'll need to register to use the website, and -unless my spam filter did a great job- I've not been receiving any obnoxious emails from UPenn. Sleek, great work by them - and an eye-opening test.

As a researcher, I was not too surprised about my top strengths: "Curiosity and interest in the world", and "Love of learning". The most interesting part for me, was to go over the entire list according to my results, and see the relative positions of these strengths with regard to each other. I use these results to analyze a major task at hand:

• Viewing my list from top strengths to mehs, 
• Deciding how I can contribute to this project from my unique standpoint,
• Bringing my personal spice into the solution.

So, if you can carve out 20 to 30 minutes today, give yourself the gift of self-reflection. Fill out the survey, and link it to something that you are working on.
Maybe it gives you some insight on why you are struggling with a certain aspect. Maybe it gives you a hint of how to leverage your potential to tackle a certain problem.
Certainly you will learn something.

Did you take the survey, or have you taken a similar survey in the past? What did you learn? Please share your experiences in the comments section!

PhD Talk, post PhD

Dear lovely readers,

Some of you have wondered what my plans are for PhD Talk now that I have graduated and am not a PhD student anymore, so I thought a small glimpse into the future is in place.

My most honest answer to this question is: I'll keep working on this blog for as long as I enjoy doing so.
At the moment, I'm still very much enjoying writing here, and sharing my thoughts, adventures and lessons-learned with all of you.

In the Fall semester, I'll be moving to Ecuador to start as an Assistant Professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. As a result of that, there are a few new topics that most likely will appear here, such as:

• Life as an early career researcher
• Teaching (I'll start with 3 courses of my own)
• Expat life in Ecuador
• Moving abroad

By the same token, I still have a number of topics on my sleeve related to the PhD process that I will frequently share with you all.

I keep on aiming at three posts per week, as long as that remains feasible.
If possible, I'd like to incorporate more guest posts from aspiring, current and former PhD candidates. If you're interested, don't hesitate and get in touch with me!

Also, I -not so- secretly aspire writing an e-book that assembles all that I learned while writing my dissertation: stay tuned!

Over the past years, I've seen (too) many fellow PhD students getting stuck in the swamps. In my research group, I pretty much graduated before all the folks that started their programs earlier than me (and I don't want to sound snobbish about that, just matter-of-factish). I finished and defended 2,5 months before the end of my funding, while the norm at my institution seemed to be extensions, and sometimes even unemployment checks.
For full-time PhD students, I think it is perfectly possible to finish on time, within the originally devised time schedule. Unfortunately, a lot happens along the way, many things don't go as they should, and I would love to improve the system - one PhD student at a time. So tell me, how can I help you?

Let me know what support you are looking for, what you would like to learn about and what you'd like to see on this blog. I'd be more than happy to give you a little boost when needed.