Thoughts on starting a PhD…

As of last week, I am no longer a full-time employed person. Instead, I’ll be continuing working two days a week as a Research Associate, whilst being a full time PhD student! This isn’t really something which I was expecting to happen this year, as it was never in my career plan to do a PhD. The clinical doctorate to become a Clinical Psychologist always seemed more attractive, possibly because it seemed to flow quite nicely into a career I knew I’d find interesting, and you got paid whilst you were doing it. However, once I realised the tiny number of training places available compared to the number of applicants (probably because of the same reasons I wanted to do it!), I knew I needed to look at other plans.

This was where my job came in. I love what I do, working as a researcher on the Milestone Project – an international research study aiming to improve care for young people approaching the boundary of children and adolescent mental health services. There was an opportunity to do a PhD on the project, but no funding. I was encouraged to apply, and apply to a scholarship on the off chance (it was really competitive but no harm in trying) in case I was successful. A month or so later I found out I’d been offered a place – which led to another anxious 6 week wait until I discovered I had been lucky enough to be offered the scholarship!

Fast forward 6 months, and I’m looking forward to beginning the next stage in my career. It does feel quite daunting, about to being a project which I know will be extremely hard work, and last for the next 3 years (at least) but I’m excited to get started.

Is anyone else about to being a PhD? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

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image credit: evocellnet.com

 

 

 

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