Hello all,
Since I have decided to produce a mixed science-diary blog I should start talking about PhDs I suppose.
Well first of all I want to say, there seems to be a widespread impression that people doing a PhD must be cleverer then others, or something along those lines. I personally don't share this view. Although I met some really clever people at university, I feel that some of us are just very committed characters. From what I have seen so far, the thing that all of us undertaking a PhD have in common, is really just a lot of motivation and commitment for the job and the topic we have chosen. I, for example, don't feel any brainier than any of my friends that are not researchers (except for Dave maybe, ha ha joking) or some of the other "non-scientist" people I have met.One of the reasons that made me decide to be a researcher is the belief that, as much as you can try to convince yourself "we don't live to work, we work to live", I think overall we often spend more waking hours at work than in our homes. I mean; most of the day light hours we are at work! There are 168 hours in a week and in average, assuming 8 hours of sleep per day, we are awake 112 hours from Monday to Sunday. We spend about 8 hours per day "in the office" (5 days per week, if you are lucky...) leaving us a mere 72 hours including weekends to do whatever we want/have to do. And to be honest a lot of those hours are spent doing chores and life style maintenance...and thinking about work! Therefore my conclusion is...we must try and pick a job that we enjoy (if possible of course) in order to maximize our chances of happiness.
The duration of a PhD, here in the UK, is theoretically 3 years. Where the first year is technically all about reading and training, the second year focuses on data collection and collation and the third...well...that is meant to be the writing up year. To be honest, very rarely someone finishes within this time frame. Particularly if your project is experimental, you are bound to overstep the three year mark (unfortunately often funds run out at the end of year 3...eeek!).
Why research then? Well...because I find it challenging and every day is different, I never get bored. I am inquisitive by nature and only through investigation and research I feel fulfilled. No matter the very looong days and working at weekends (occasionally). I, sometimes, can feel tired and a little down but then nothing is perfect and of course everyone has bad days, it's life.
I have noticed how each and every one of us in my office has a different opinion about this. We all have very different backgrounds and come from all over the world. Some, like me, are mature students, others never had a job. Some enjoy their PhD while others feel exploited, some others get so incredibly stressed that it's heart breaking to watch. It's full of ups and downs.
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