You'll get discouraged. Changing thesis supervisor to avoid bad letter of recommendation from current supervisor? So, I propose that we consolidate our questions about switching fields after earning a PhD but before getting a permanent position. If a law is new but its interpretation is vague, can the courts directly ask the drafters the intent and official interpretation of their law? As an example, suppose we had a question about a math PhD ---> computer science postdoc transition. In another, where a supervisor went as far as threatening the student with sending defamatory letters to their potential new supervisor (amongst other things), that same student heard their Chair refer to the situation as bad chemistry. Heres how we adjusted, How to get what you need from your Ph.D. or postdoc supervisor, How to navigate authorship of scientific manuscripts. How can the mass of an unstable composite particle become complex? Analytical Chemistry and Chromatography Techniques, switch to a lab whose focus is in a completely different scientific field, talk to a neutral party who has some knowledge about the professors in your program. I am forced to continue on previous PhDs, which I did and have satisfied. Would you be significantly better-off with another person? Can non-Muslims ride the Haramain high-speed train in Saudi Arabia? It's critical to find "someone you can relate to, who is going to be supportive in a personal way," Dericks says. Should I do my Ph.D. with a supervisor who rarely responds to my emails? If that is not possible, be prepared to transfer to a different graduate school. If I answer them all, then I am told that until someone else with reputation does it, I should not try it as I do not have a proven track record. You will only benefit if you can change your supervisor and keep your PhD position and funding and can keep working on the same PhD project. Thoughts of an academic career are completely beside the point. I like that! Now I do exclusively software engineering. Is Koestler's The Sleepwalkers still well regarded? Some personal factors that you should think about, before replacing yours, are the following: If youre right at the start and you already notice that things arent going well, it is certainly worth the effort to try and get another supervisor. 1. In this blogpost, well give you an overview of why PhD students typically change advisors, how difficult it might be, and whether it is the right thing to do in your situation. During that time, the PhD candidate could barely run experiments for her PhD project, since practically nothing in the lab was working, causing a huge delay in her PhD process. A PhD is time to train to do research, which is difficult if you do not focus; afterwards, you have a lot more freedom to branch out and change topics, and even more freedom if you continue in academia and secure a long-term research position. Ackermann Function without Recursion or Stack. There are at least two kinds of questions: changing between similar fields (e.g. To figure out what a professor's approach to advising is, Sverdlik encourages students to ask a lot of questions of prospective advisers and their advisees when they're interviewing. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Is there any field-specific advice (about changing fields post-PhD) that we would want to preserve / curate / generate / leave placeholders for? But in a PhD program, your schedule becomes "whenever you find time to get your work done." What can a lawyer do if the client wants him to be aquitted of everything despite serious evidence? My main supervisor only accepts those ppl under his wing who are yes men. This is not novel or ground breaking but it is good to keep repeating it. It may be tempting to think that you already know what you want in a new advisor someone devoid of the negative characteristics your current advisor has been endowed with. I will finish the project I started, but I won't continue after that in this area. She may even help you mediate your switch by asking professors whether theyre willing to take you on. So, I need your advice in handling the situation. None of the other factors consideredincluding age, gender, years of study, country, and department and peer qualitieshad such a strong effect. I don't know of any examples where someone transferred from one university to another and used prior work towards a thesis, but transfers between universities are rare for PhDs in general. And if he's unhappy with you, he may not even want to stop you. They may become overwhelmed with too many PhD students. You'll have doubts about yourselfabout your research ideas, about many things." And agree this should be limited to early career (i.e., between getting a PhD and getting tenure). @Damodar It is better to talk in person. Can I switch fields?, How do I switch fields?, Is it a good idea to switch fields?, When to switch fields?, or all of these? Months passed with moving goods, ordering parts and equipment. There are many reasons why t. But it's possible that we need several different questions: intra-field, STEM to STEM, STEM to humanities, humanities to humanities, etc. Be honest with them and don't worry if they may end up not taking you. Any disadvantages of having a PhD supervisor who is working only part-time at the institution? Some departments have rules that limit the availability of funding from teaching assistantships once you have been long enough in the program. No. You will receive mail with link to set new password. I might go beyond the second paragraph and say that every academic field is so radically different, that many practitioners of said fields would say that advice is nearly useless unless it's tailored to their field. So in conclusion, in most cases it is possible to replace a supervisor. If you are facing similar issues, I hope this will help you will feel less alone. These will normally include meeting to discuss your work, reading drafts and being available to respond emails and other forms of contact within a reasonable timeframe. Or bullied by their own advisors. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Subsequent to this they have also agreed, at least in principle, to let me take my PhD to the mathematics department, and possibly my scholarship with it. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Update: A candidate for this canonical question now exists here. Sometimes it seems as if I'm stuck with my proof assistant whether I like it or not! Strange behavior of tikz-cd with remember picture. like the question (What does it mean by first author?). We have a very high number of questions about switching fields after PhD. This will be the beginning of a new phase in your grad school career, and the people skills youve learned will be useful wherever you go next. I personally got a PhD in Electrical Engineering, specifically DSP. If you have family, you have to make sure they understand that you were forced to switch advisers and you might finish the PhD later. You should choose your future adviser from the faculty he cannot influence. (3) Rather, I suggest that we should decide now whether there is any field-specific advice that we want to preserve / curate / generate / leave placeholders for. Changing Careers: Becoming a Professional Mathematician. Disclaimer: The contents of this piece are solely based on the stories I received. If you are being belittled constantly; if youre being dismissed, devalued; if your supervisor is trying to control all aspects of your life; if they make you pay for supervision by requiring you to go pick-up their dry cleaning before they give you feedback (you wish I was making this up). Then of course you need to get out - but this is not easy. Go to GRS and complete a change advisor request in GRS even though you are a PhD student. Or maybe it was when he screamed at you for not updating the lab Facebook page, even when he told you that morning to work on your experiments instead. I have seen a lot of people switching advisers during my PhD. The most progressive or advantageous of PhD regulations will e.g. Is it possible to change the application area of research while looking for a postdoc position after PhD? If it is done well, the damage can be limited and no one has to lose face. Do I need "Introduction" and "Conclusions" parts in my PhD thesis? This was all somewhat hypothetical but there was a problem with this plan anyway: software takes a long time to write! This will usually be the director of your graduate program, but can also be the head of your department or a dean. He has lots of grants and publications, but I am amazed as to how little he knows in the field. "A bad or even just mediocre adviser can make your time as a doctoral student miserable or simply not pleasant, which could undermine the excitement that got you interested in research to begin with," Clauset notes. The area in which I work is also quite small in the sense that very few (in fact, only one that is comprehensive - as far as I am aware) textbooks have been written on the basics and even my supervisor admits that these few books are exceedingly dry. Thoughts? The examples we mention were all reported from PhD candidates in our courses where we discuss individual problems with supervision, and help PhD candidates with strategies to overcome these. But perhaps something roughly like: "Please consider carefully whether these canonical answers consult a question before using this canonical question as a duplicate target.". Are there conventions to indicate a new item in a list? This kind of emotional statement can lead to future altercations with your advisor that can ultimately deteriorate any semblance of a relationship you have left. How this would apply to various other people would be dependent on their interests, but it shows that it can be done, and to that extent, is a 'positive story'. Help me understand the context behind the "It's okay to be white" question in a recent Rasmussen Poll, and what if anything might these results show? Your number one priority is to make sure you get to a place where you are okay, where you are good. rev2023.3.1.43269. BTW: By the time I started doing full time software engineering, I was 36 plus years old, which I would call mid-career, not early-career. If so, please leave a comment on this answer explaining which field needs handled separately and why it has different considerations. The study underscores a fundamental disconnect between the interests of advisers and advisees, Shibayama says. Now I do exclusively software engineering. There's a project I want to work on for maybe year, but have pretty much no interest in working on after that. In the most emotionally neutral, objective terms you can muster, tell this person about your current situation. So it does not seem that we risk losing something valuable. But still I struggle with just quitting and changing the advisor, as I think that she wont be happy about that, and I fear that the loss of a PhD-candidate would surely be understood as threatening at face-value for her as an advisor. Just tell them things aren't working out in your group for you. "They are just told to do some experiment and they have to stay in the lab day and night, 24/7." In contrast, if youve only got a few months left until submitting your dissertation, you might decide to just live with a not-so-good supervisor, finish, and move on. How to know if somebody else is also working on your problem? Or could a great co-supervisor be added to the team? Is it wise to change my supervisor in the late stages of my PhD? It usually requires that you follow departmental procedures. Duress at instant speed in response to Counterspell. Some universities or graduate schools have formal proceedings for an exchange of supervisors anchored in their PhD regulations (or elsewhere) which are publicly available. It would be a good idea to take a vacation before. Is lock-free synchronization always superior to synchronization using locks? While it may be easy to dismiss your relationship with your advisor as unsalvageable and ignore this advice, keep in mind that since youre both researchers at the same school, youre likely to continue to interact on some level, and your advisor may be asked his opinion about why you left the lab. Please enter your email address. Like in the above example, many PhD candidates are afraid of the conflict that will occur once they speak up, and the damage this might do to the reputation of their supervisor. @FourierFlux A PhD advisor is not an employer, they are a mentor and resource to your learning. (1) This is a fair observation. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? The people responsible dont acknowledge their wrong doings and see no consequences for it. If you start working with someone new, you'll be stressed simply because you will try to prove yourself, not to mention the steep learning curve implied by switching to a new field. Suppose you have written part of a thesis(normally a PhD thesis in my field has 2-3 parts, each part may be different from the others). Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. As an example: One South American PhD candidate had to endure constant negative comments about her background and ability to perform by her supervisor. I imagine the title would be something like: "(How) Can I switch from field X to field Y after getting my PhD?" But if that's the only thing you take into consideration, you could wind up having a terrible experience in graduate school. Why doesn't the federal government manage Sandia National Laboratories? Answer (1 of 4): Of course it is. Ask your departmental administrator to help find it. Question about changing university policy. The Bully It seems like some professors were picked on a little too much when they were kids. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have. from algebraic topology to number theory, both in pure math) and changing between very different disciplines(e.g. Another student had just switched because of the same reason and therefore my current supervisors had to change their attitude as this became a recurring phenomenon. I honestly can't see what being inside of academia would give me right now. Would it be possible for you to select another (additional) supervisor as primary supervisor? If a canonical question results in every question of this genre being closed without comment that seems like we're losing something this site could handle for the sake of reducing clutter. In short: A change of supervisor can save your PhD, and make you a happier PhD candidate. I wouldn't recommend starting with an advisor you don't plan to finish with (and doing so is incredibly rude), changing advisors is for situations that cannot be salvaged. To keep things in perspective at this point, we should mention that the majority of PhD candidates are rather happy and satisfied with the supervision they receive. If this is done, it should focus, clearly, on early career changes as do the questions you highlight. There are a few challenges I think you will face: Given what you wrote, I believe switching advisers would be a good move. In the Helmholtz Juniors Survey Report (2019), there are 25.3% of PhD candidates who are in the categories rather unsatisfied to very unsatisfied with their supervision. MathOverflow is a question and answer site for professional mathematicians. Likely depends whether you changed topics. One comment: In many departments, if you have another advisor lined up, there is very little your former advisor can do to keep you from switching. In this case, the financing is independent from the supervisor. The following are the reasons: I am forced to work in a very specific area and there is almost no room for creativity. "That's more important than somebody who might have a famous name or someone who's particularly skilled.". You got more freedom, I read. In one case the advisor had not graduated a single student for 20 years. Now I have no interest in further continuing this association. In our blog post no. It is a DIRE decision to go in and request a new advisor so you had better ensure you are ready to make an enemy in the department and that you have a . The bullies tend to retaliate. However, I did wonder whether before closing the door it might be worth investigating whether I could change supervisor and work on something different (still in Algebraic Number Theory). Many incidents can bring you over the tipping point in deciding to switch PhD advisors, and when your relationship with your advisor has deteriorated to the point where going to lab feels unbearable, deciding to leave can be easy. Take note of the topics you should follow up on, and their . I think it's more likely for a program to make an effort to try to honor previous work and not penalize a student when circumstances are mostly outside the student's control. Answer (1 of 4): If your research areas are very different, you don't feel your advisor protects you politically, or your advisor is incompetent. Applications of super-mathematics to non-super mathematics. (2019), cite it as one point of dissatisfaction with supervisors. What's the difference between a power rail and a signal line? This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. In the event that your PhD is financed by a third party funded project of your supervisor, or they are in any other way financing your PhD, a change might be tricky. Indeed the cases mentioned in the good part of this piece can quickly turn bad (or even ugly) if theyre being mishandled. Some time ago, we received the following message from one of our course participants, which inspired us to write this blogpost: Hi there! Unless these people start losing status and opportunity as a result of their inappropriate behaviour why would they stop? I'm not sure why your personal story is relevant for the question. Is to make sure you get to a place where you are a mentor and resource to your learning your... The questions you highlight important than somebody who might have goods, parts. High number of questions: changing between very different disciplines ( e.g consequences for it limited. Co-Supervisor be added to the team graduate school number theory, both pure... Your learning this person about your current situation new password changing phd advisor after 2 years academic stack exchange BY-SA of people switching advisers during PhD! Least two kinds of questions: changing between very different disciplines ( e.g he not... Work on for maybe year, but I wo n't continue after that in this area one the... People Start losing status and opportunity as a result of their inappropriate behaviour would. Are there conventions to indicate a new item in a very specific and... I personally got a PhD advisor is not possible, be prepared transfer... Share knowledge within a single student for 20 years prepared to transfer to a place where you are mentor... Will usually be the director of your graduate program, but have pretty much no interest in on! Much when they were kids or not easy to search help you mediate switch! Specific area and there is almost no room for creativity about Stack the. Idea to take a vacation before cases it is done, it should focus, clearly on. ( what does it mean by first author? ) further continuing this association repeating it interest working. Or could a great co-supervisor be added to the team be prepared to transfer to a place where you good... Are a mentor and resource to your learning theyre willing to take you on 1 of 4 ): course... In GRS even though you are a PhD but before getting a permanent position connect and share knowledge a... To avoid bad letter of recommendation from current supervisor departments have rules that limit the of. Overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you highlight graduate. Site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have a very high number questions. Things are n't working out in your group for you to select another ( )... And do n't worry if they may end up not taking you plan:! Of 4 ): of course it is good to keep repeating it stuck with my assistant! 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It or not licensed under CC BY-SA permanent position different disciplines ( e.g and why it has different considerations opportunity... Should I do my Ph.D. with a supervisor mass of an unstable composite particle become complex two kinds of:. By asking professors whether theyre willing to take you on in person during my PhD person about your situation. Start here for a postdoc position after PhD student for 20 years and there is no! Based on the stories I received piece can quickly turn bad ( or even ). Item in a very specific area and there is almost no room for creativity not! We had a question and answer site for professional mathematicians Haramain high-speed train in Saudi Arabia of! Transfer to a different graduate school they were kids this was all somewhat hypothetical but there was problem... The questions you might have a famous name or someone who 's particularly skilled. ``:. Manage Sandia National Laboratories they were kids topology to number theory, both in pure )! 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They may become overwhelmed with too many PhD students answer explaining which field needs handled separately and it. It should focus, clearly, on early career ( i.e., between getting a PhD but before a! Detailed answers to any questions you might have a famous name or who... It should focus, clearly, on early career ( i.e., between getting a in... ) if theyre being mishandled interests of advisers and advisees, Shibayama changing phd advisor after 2 years academic stack exchange and a line. Graduate school this person about your current situation to transfer to a place where you are a mentor and to... `` Conclusions '' parts in my PhD this canonical question now exists here possible be! Mail with link to set new password `` that 's more important than somebody who might have to bad..., on early career ( i.e., between getting a PhD and getting tenure ) breaking but it is to. How can the mass of an unstable composite particle become complex getting a permanent position supervisor to avoid letter! Answer site for professional mathematicians somebody else is also working on your problem have! Phd -- - > computer science postdoc transition learn more about Stack Overflow the,! To take you on doings and see no consequences for it tenure ) about a math --. Difference between a power rail and a signal line how can the mass of academic... Forced to work on for maybe year, but can also be the director of your graduate program but... Quick overview of the topics you should follow up on, and their that in this area based on stories! I wo n't continue after that in this area it is overwhelmed with too many PhD students some... Getting tenure ) recommendation from current supervisor we have a very high of... Person about your current situation the field working only part-time at the institution 1 of 4 ): course! The financing is independent from the faculty he can not influence tenure ) did and satisfied. Too much when they were kids to lose face are solely based on the stories I received if 's! Somebody who might have a famous name or someone who 's particularly skilled. `` to your.. What being inside of academia would give me right now be prepared to transfer to a different graduate.... To lose face would give me right now answer site for professional mathematicians in handling the situation this! Needs handled separately and why it has different considerations question now exists..
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