Should you do a PhD?

What I wish I knew...

Starting a PhD is something that needs to be grounded in more than the ability to say “Just what the doctor ordered” when your latest Vinted parcel arrives. And yet, there’s very little information out there for where to start… No gatekeeping here though, here’s what I wish I knew.

Non-negotiables

A good idea

This might sound obvious, but you need a research problem to investigate or at the very least some areas you are interested in. You will be doing a lot of research and a lot of reading, so if you aren’t interested in what you’re doing, it will be a slog. I was fortunate that I was already making lots of Instagram content and telling anyone who would listen about disordered eating and body image in the fitness industry (makes you very fun at parties), so I had an advantage, but yours might be similar! You want to think about the gaps in the research - what are people looking at? How are they looking at it? Can we do it another way? Or should we look at something else entirely? These are all good starting points.

Somebody who cares who isn’t you

Don’t get me wrong, you caring goes without saying. You need to find people interested in the work you’re doing, specifically supervisors who are normally academics. You want to make sure that you align yourself with someone doing research in the field or who uses the methods you intend on doing - and most importantly, you want to make sure you’re a good fit - as the PhD is largely dependent on a good working relationship with your surpervisors.

I had no idea where to start with this, so I just Googled “research group body image disordered eating” and looked around for universities with specific-research groups relevant to what I was interested in, which there are zero prizes for guessing. This is a good starting point - and often times the research groups are lead by senior academics who supervise PhD students. You want to make sure that you contact academics who are actively taking on PhD students (some might not have capacity, or might be too junior) and who you think you’ll be a good fit for. This is where a cold email can actually be beneficial - make sure you have a look at their previous work and papers.

Funding

This is what isn’t spoken about enough. Who’s going to pay for it? PhDs are expensive, and university tuition isn’t cheap. There are several ways to go about securing funding, and each has it’s own unique considerations:

• Apply to already funded projects. You can apply to be a PhD student as part of an existing research project. This is great in that you have already secured funding, but it does mean that there will likely be less flexibility over the project design and direction (but again every PhD is unique). You can keep an eye out on openings using websites like FindAPhD.

• Self-funded. Self-funding means you pay for it yourself, most likely doing a PhD part-time whilst you work. I would not recommend this, but it is possible depending on your goals and lifestyle. I would not recommend trying to work full-time alongside your PhD - even though I did intend to attempt that if I didn’t get funding. You might be able to pick up smaller bursaries and grants along the way, but unless you have a lot of savings etc. in my opinion this is likely to be more stress and strain than it’s worth.

• External funders. There are two main funders that I applied to - the Irish Research Council and the UKRI. In Ireland, you apply directly to the council and they divvy out all the funding amongst all the applicants, from all the disciplines - so it’s insanely competitive. In the UK, the UKRI gives the money to the unis, and they decide how they’re going to allocate it. If you want to do a PhD in the UK, you’ll have to look at each university, as it is uni-specific. This is also incredibly competitive (are you noticing a trend). But for both, you’ll need to draft a research proposal.

A research proposal

In general, your research proposal should be your plan of action. It should answer an overall research question and will most likely be made up of 3+ studies. For example, my overall thesis aims to investigate disordered eating and body image amongst fitness professionals, and this is made up of three studies: i) a systematic review, ii) qualitative study and iii) an experimental study.

Your proposed plan needs to be realistic. In an ideal world, of course we would all do multi-arm RCTs or 20 year longitudinal studies, but no university will fund that at PhD level, nor will you likely get it done in your 3-4 years. You need to show that you can get work done and within a specific timeframe.

It is important to note that this is a proposal - it can and will change, and I have yet to meet a single PhD student who followed it to the letter, but you need a rough skeleton. If you are planning it yourself, my advice would be to as best you can, incorporate some different methods where possible (obviously this depends on your project), so that you get experience with a variety of methods (and this will make you more employable on the otherside - I hope). Your proposal and your research should challenge you, but you should also highlight your strengths.

Developing a research proposal sounds like a ballache, and at times, it is. But it won’t be the only tedious thing you do as part of your PhD. Your proposal should clearly show anyone who reads it why your topic is worth studying - and more importantly, show that YOU absolutely are the ideal person for the job. Maybe you have lived experience, unique training, a specific background… you’re going to want to draw on what makes you the perfect fit. The idea being to show the university that this is groundbreaking research and you are the captain of the ship.

But academia is a cruel mistress…

Academia is like Hinge - it’s a lot of rejection, and a lot of men in button-downs. You will get told “no”, more than once in your application. I missed out on Irish funding by one (ONE) mark (which I have totally let go, and am not remotely holding onto still). I didn’t get my Edinburgh funding straight away, I was waitlisted. If you let one rejection put you off, academia is not the place for you.

If you want to stick around, one rejection cannot define you. You pick yourself up, potentially after crying a little and getting a spicebag (100% success rate) and you get back out there. Because if you care about your project and you show you’re a person of resilience, determination and spite - that’s the ideal academic.

I hope you found this helpful, and if you have any other questions, send them my way.

Have a great week,

Michelle xx