Just passed my PhD defense :)
Yo everyone, I'm fresh from the first good night's sleep I've gotten in awhile. I'm ecstatic to finally be finished (I took a longer road than most) and just felt like chatting with you fine folks.
Getting that dissertation done was a real challenge and while I'm happy I finished before George R. R. Martin finished the next ASOIAF book, I have a lot more sympathy now for him or anyone who has to write something lengthy.
Anyone else in a graduate program or recently finished? To those who have gone through the process, what'd you do immediately afterwards? I'm in the middle of a job interview process so I can't quite take a vacation, but I am planning to stick at least a full week somewhere where I travel and do nothing.
Tonight, I'm going to relax and watch The Magic Flute opera with friends which I've not done before.
Congratulations! What was the topic about?
I finished my PhD a while ago (almost 13 years, now), but I remember the struggles. The moment I submitted my PhD (didn't even defend it yet) I went on a three-week roadtrip in the USA.
Afterwards I also went to some job interviews but I couldn't quite leave academics behind. I'm a professor now, so I'm in it for the long haul.
Thank you! It was a dissertation in theoretical physics. Specifically, it was on spin and magnetism: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.07193
The job I'm aiming for is in academia, but overseas which would be a big change in my life, but one I'm kind of feeling at the moment might do me some good.
Oh, man. I'm in applied sciences myself, so you could say I'm 'scientifically inclined', but that topic goes way over my head. The main thing I got from the abstract was that is seems like a lot of work!
'Overseas' is obviously depending of your point of view, but I assume you're in the US. So do you have any specific countries (or universities) in mind you would like to end up in? Who knows, we might be colleagues some day.
There's nearly an infinite number of abstracts out there that do the same to me, and more than likely some that'd make perfect sense to you!
Yeah, I'm in the US. There's a strong change I end up in China for a while nearish to Beijing. But to be honest, I want to a lot of international travelling in the next few years.
Folks on Tildes are good people as far as I can tell, I wouldn't mind that.
Congrats! Yeah, it's a fuckload of work. Take a little time and just enjoy being done. I went and got a Wagyu steak at a Japanese steakhouse when I defended.
It's really neat the first time you can use the title to fill out a form or something. And while the novelty wore off pretty quickly, getting stuff addressed to "Dr." your name is similarly fun.
As far as what I did, I was actually already working by the time I defended. In my field (cognitive science) a lot of positions consider "ABD" (all but dissertation) for an appropriate position.
I did this mostly because I really needed to support my family - but the job did kind of kill my soul a bit. So my advice personally is, take some time to find a good job, if you can afford to. It took me a year to get another position after that one ended, but it is infinitely better.
I wonder if that doesn't happen a fair bit? I started a job a month before my defense. I definitely wouldn't recommend that though. I was trying to learn the ropes of a new job and new city at the same time I was preparing for the defense, had to fly back to the university to defend, and had basically zero motivation left to wrangle with the thesis editor over nit-picky layout issues and such after passing the defense.
I would not be in a good place if I had to defend while simultaneously working full-time in a new job -- or at least I wouldn't be able to do that if the dissertation was actively being worked on shortly before those events. I feel like if you finish your thesis "off-season" where the defense itself can happen a couple months later, that kind of thing you're describing would make more sense.
Thank you. I unfortunately don't have the means to have a gap between this and a job, but I am hopeful it is a job I can enjoy.
Yeah, understandable. Do what you have to do. The light at the end of the tunnel is a bit brighter with a PhD!
I admit there were some darker times I figured I wouldn't be able to graduate -- but all of that is now in the past. I'm thankful it's finished, and I am excited to move on to new opportunities and new things.
Yep, I remember one of the profs I worked with telling me "the best kind of dissertation is a finished dissertation." Congratulations!
Congratulations! I passed the bar exam some years ago but I have never written anything of that length and complexity.
We went on a cruise to Alaska as a way to travel with elderly relatives. There are environmental issues, but you do get pampered while seeing cool sights. Also last minute deals can be very good.
Congratulations, doctor!
Congratulations!!! I defended 20 years ago. It’s such a crazy experience. It took me a beat to realize it was real. Unfortunately I didn’t really do anything to celebrate; I was mentally so numb! I tell people all the time, I birthed two babies in my bedroom and those experiences were nothing compared to my PhD. You should be very proud of yourself.
Two good childhood friends took me out for ramen at a Japanese restaurant afterwards. While we had a small informal department party and I'm going to have a nice get-together at my advisor's house tomorrow, the ramen was the real reward. I slept for 14 hours last night I was so exhausted.
Holy cow, what a comparison to make. Haha.
Please forgive me any inebriated ramblings.
Congratulations on passing your PhD defense. At this moment in time I think it is important to note that one of the things that it means to pass a PhD defense is that you know more on a specific topic right now than anyone else in the world. You have taken human knowledge further than it was; this is a massive, amazing thing. Congratulations and thank you.
Thanks! Your drunk ramblings are positively coherent. This reminds me of "The illustrated guide to a Ph.D."
https://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/
Ha, that is what I was thinking of when I wrote it; I remember sharing that with my wife when she finished her PhD several years ago. I had not read the follow-up, though, so I'm glad I clicked through and reread it! Thanks for sharing and congratulations again.
Congrats!
Congratulations, I'm mid wrangling with the early chapters and can't imagine how it feels to be done!
My thesis ended up being more-or-less a sandwich thesis. My most important publications ended up as chapters with large verbatim sections straight from the publications. The major work of the thesis was then to stitch them together into a coherent narrative and writing the introduction and ending. In practice, this ended up with a decent amount of material written "in parallel" being stuck into the thesis and simultaneously into a manuscript meant for journal publication. I also made sure to include a lot of the smaller results and content that never made it into publication, but I still wanted somewhere where an interested reader could find it.
Congrats! What was your work on?
Was your defense in person? Mine was virtual, due to the pandemic. It kind of helped since I felt less awkward than I otherwise would have when my advisor asked a lowball question that I flubbed. I passed, luckily.
Spin and magnetism in quantum mechanics: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.07193
Yes, it was in a nice conference room with a roof-mounted webcam and big widescreen TV in the front. We had something like 15 people in the room (5 being the committee) and 11 people watching online on Zoom which was a bigger crowd than I expected. After the public talk, there was the private examination with the committee where they grilled me. It ended up not being so bad. The only question I flubbed was on two paragraphs I put into the dissertation about something I wanted to incorporate but hadn't yet into my work and didn't yet fully understand. It was exactly the kind of thing I was warned to put into the appendices instead haha.
Congratulations! It’s funny - I had similar thoughts about GRRM and Patrick Rothfuss as I was finishing my dissertation. I can sympathize so hard with the crippling pressure and anxiety of needing to produce something that other people think is adequately competent, original, and meaningful to the relevant community.
Congratulations!
I immediately read fiction. Some books I’d been looking forward to for a while. I was able to read them faster than I’d ever read anything else in my life and to this day I remember them much more clearly than any other novels I’ve read.
Waking life and sleep quality were awful for a while. It took until a couple months after getting the actual diploma in the mail for the after effects to really subside.
I'm going to finally read the Brandon Sanderson secret projects I got though the Kickstarter but never had the time to actually read.
Nothing but the utmost respect for anyone able to do that. Congratulations!
Congratulations! Enjoy the Magic Flute.
Just finished it this evening. Papageno is definitely the best character. I am interested in watching more opera, but I think I better go see them in person rather than watching a recording.
Thanks! While at the moment I am prioritizing money somewhat for certain reasons, this must be a temporary priority as I know for sure that there's nothing more valuable than my own time and flexibility.
Congrats!
Congratulations!
I defended mine just about 3 years ago. Mid pandemic, bleak job market, my defense was on zoom. I took my dog for a walk and went to the gym. I had already decided academia wasn't the path for me at the time. During my walk one idea struck me. I had done the work, passed that goal post, but it was on me to do something with it. I'm still trying. I hope after several more years in industry maybe I can find a way to teach again.
Thank you! I taught part-time at the local community college to support myself during it. I would definitely consider doing something like that again as a side gig in the future.
Congrats! I am writing a paper now that is going to form the first part of my thesis. It's a ton of work. Mad respect for making it through. What is your field of study?
Thanks! I'm in physics. If you're doing the whole sandwich thesis thing, I recommend you do your thesis in parallel with your journal manuscripts. The journal article will be slimmed down with only the most relevant material, but you'll make more in writing it that will be orphaned. Keep that extra stuff in your thesis chapters. It was a challenge to put together my earlier non-introductory chapters where I hadn't looked at that material in a while.