{"id":4395,"date":"2019-03-10T19:57:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T19:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/?p=4395"},"modified":"2019-03-10T19:57:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T19:57:27","slug":"will-you-supervise-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2019\/03\/10\/will-you-supervise-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Will you supervise me?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Choosing a PhD supervisor is one of the most important decisions you must make before you start grad school. A bad one can turn three or four years of your life into a nightmare, while a good one will make the experience bearable, if not enjoyable (at times).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I often get asked for advice on how to approach this decision. Today I\u2019ll share what I did and what factors mattered to me most. However, bear in mind that everyone has different needs and deal-breakers, so please don\u2019t blindly apply all my advice!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I started looking for a supervisor quite early, over half a year before beginning my PhD. One day I just opened the website of the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College and found the list of all researchers. I looked at them one by one, noting down names of those with\u00a0<\/span>research interests matching mine<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I emailed my \u201ccandidates\u201d asking if they\u2019d consider supervising me for the next three years. I got tentatively positive responses from a few of them, so we set up meetings, in person or on skype (I didn\u2019t live in London then). At this point I already got two important pieces of information:\u00a0<\/span>how promptly they respond to emails<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(you don\u2019t want to keep chasing your supervisor for weeks) and\u00a0<\/span>if they\u2019re reasonably flexible when it comes to meeting arrangements<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(skype meetings are life-savers when you get sick, have to travel or just prefer to work from home).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the meetings I paid attention to a few things. First,\u00a0<\/span>if they had some project ideas<\/span><\/b>, which was especially important to me as I was entering a new field of mathematics without much previous knowledge. Second,\u00a0<\/span>how often they met with their PhD students<\/span><\/b>, because I wanted the supervision to exist not only on paper. Finally, I cared a lot about\u00a0<\/span>their personality<\/span><\/b>, to make sure we could establish a good relationship.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I took all these factors into account when I made my final decision. Of course, it takes two to tango, so my \u201ccandidates\u201d also considered if they\u2019d like me as a PhD student.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It worked! Today I know that I chose the best supervisor I possibly could. Someone who has enough time for me, who reads my emails and who really cares about my research and me as a person. We\u2019ve established a great relationship, both academic and personal. It also doesn\u2019t hurt that she\u2019s a great role model for women in STEM, who shows that one can have a successful academic career and a happy family life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re facing such a decision now, I\u2019d suggest writing down your idea of a perfect supervisor. This will help you identify your needs and factors you don\u2019t want to compromise on. Remember that you and your supervisor are going to form a team for a few years, so make sure you\u2019re both happy with your choices.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth putting some effort into choosing a PhD supervisor. Trust me, it\u2019ll pay off!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Choosing a PhD supervisor is one of the most important decisions you must make before you start grad school. A bad one can turn three or four years of your life into a nightmare, while a good one will make the experience bearable, if not enjoyable (at times).\u00a0 I often get asked for advice on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1026,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1026"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4396,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4395\/revisions\/4396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}