Playing the PhD Game - Submit early and often

I have learned a lot over the past two years in doctoral school but would definitely say that the most enlightening period of my time thus far occurred when I received my first set of comments from a journal submission. This leads me to my point #5 in my "Playing the PhD game" series:

#5 - Submit your work early and often.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, it is only when you submit your work to a reputable journal or a conference that you get the real skinny on the quality of your work (there are a number of ways to figure out the ranking of a journal, including the social science citation index, but you can use the acceptance rate into as a way to gauge quality). A couple of my colleagues were able to get their work reviewed for journals in their first year and this made all the difference when preparing their summer papers for submission.

Journal reviewers "don't know you from Adam" and thus can be brutally honest without worrying about bumping into you the next day in the hallways. You may think that you have an adviser who will tell you the truth about the quality of your work but there is nothing like a blind review to verify this.

Taking the plunge and submitting my paper was one of the best things I could do to improve my writing. When you start working on your own research in doctoral school, I suggest you take my advice and submit often and early!

How to Play the PhD Game - Part 2 (aka "Look out for #1")

Many people who know me would agree that I try to be helpful when I can. I am not the biggest fan of saying "no" to a request for assistance, even when providing that assistance could make my life more difficult. This prompted someone to suggest that I read a book called "I feel guilty when I say no" - I haven't read it yet, but I did get the Kindle version and I do plan to read it when I have time! Not being able to say no can land you in a tough spot in doctoral school, especially when saying yes to a project you don't want to do could be a commitment of several weeks or months. Believe me when I say that you don't want to spend your time working on projects that will not help you pass your comps, get published, or write your thesis.

This leads me to the next pointer in my tutorial on playing the PhD game:

4. You need to know when to look out for #1

As I mentioned above, you need to quickly learn that the faculty members that you are working with aren't always going to have your interests in mind when they "staff" you on assignments. You may end up working on projects that might be interesting and may even be fun but end up doing nothing but eat up your time and clear one item off of your faculty member's to do list.

I had a friend who accepted a posting on a project that involved doing exactly what she hated to do the most - make tables and format charts for a policy paper that had virtually nothing to do with her research interests and for a professor who was notorious for being difficult to work with.

She forgot about her option to say something that begins with "That sounds really interesting but..." To say that project was a disaster is a major understatement.

If saying no is as difficult for you as it sometimes is for me (and was for my friend), consider reading the book I mentioned (I feel guilty when I say no - http://amzn.to/AtK49n) and make sure you begin your program ready to look out for #1!

How to play The PhD Game - Part 1

There is a pretty awesome book called Playing the Game: The Streetsmarts guide to Graduate School. Written by "Frank" and "Stein," the book is a pretty humorous account of some of the ups and downs of graduate school education. I was reflecting on how well I was playing the game earlier this week (jury's still out) and thought I would share a couple of tidbits that will make it easier for others who are interested to play:

1. Learn how to say no to extra stuff

If you're anything like me you have your hands in many pots. You may feel like becoming a student again will free up some time and, as a result, you may seek out more pots. This is very rarely a good idea. Three classes a week (this is after your core courses; before that you may have four or five) may not seem a lot - add 6-10 hours per class of reading and 20 hours of Research Assistant work every week and your free time may not seem that free anymore. There will be a lot of opportunities to get involved in extra stuff - I suggest you make sure you have a handle on your day job before you make any commitments.

2. It's not enough to read the syllabus - talk to your professor and students who have taken the class before.

The worst decision of my academic career was made based on a four-page Word document. To say that syllabus was misleading is like saying the center of a raging volcano is a little warm. A bad class can be a nightmare. A bad doctoral seminar can be hell on Earth. Bad teachers do get tenure - it happens more often than you may realize. Be. Very. Careful.

3. Make every seminar a potential chapter in your dissertation.

Don't waste your time taking doctoral seminars that won't have any value towards your dissertation. The name of the game should be efficiency. At the end of these seminars you are required to write 25-30 page papers that require lots and lots of thought and effort. Not being able to do something with that final product is a tragedy - you don't have the time to waste (well, you might, but why do it?)

There's more to come - watch this space!