How to PhD Podcast Series

Welcome to the new podcast series – How to PhD.

How to PhD is a series of friendly, informative podcasts dedicated to sharing key, practical skills for PhD success.

We are pleased to announce a new collaboration with Dr Arun Ulahannan & Dr Julia Gauly, a husband and wife team who passed their PhDs in 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now both employed as Research Fellows, and ready and charged to help you make the most of your doctorate!

Whether you’re just at the beginning of your PhD journey, or further down the line, a PhD is still a huge challenge. Arun and Julia have created these podcasts to share tips and advice on the practical things they learned during their PhD studies, things they wish they’d known before they embarked on 4 years of in-depth research.

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Let us tell you How to PhD Podcast

Arun Ulahannan and co-host, Julia Gauly, share little nuggets of PhD wisdom. Having been through the process they realised that, actually, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that nobody really tells you, but you’re left to sort of work out on your own.

Episode 1 – How to Start

This podcast highlights five essential skills that will help you start your PhD on the right foot.  Packed with sage advice about health and wellbeing and much more, tune in here:

Episode 2 – How to work with your supervisor

In this week’s episode, Arun and Julia discuss essential tips to create a healthy working relationship with your supervisor. This episode is packed with tips about dealing with feedback, practicalities for use in meetings, and how to cope when plans arent going as planned!

Episode 3 – How to present

In this weeks podcast, Arun and Julia discuss creating effective presentations and exactly how to make them and how to craft your content with a few design tips added. Preparation for the event is important, so they’ve included some invaluable tips!

Episode 4- How to start your thesis

Getting ‍around ‍to ‍actually ‍starting ‍your ‍thesis ‍can ‍be ‍pretty ‍daunting. ‍Bringing ‍together ‍3-4 ‍years ‍of ‍work ‍is ‍no ‍mean ‍feat. ‍In ‍this ‍episode, ‍you’ll be guided ‍from ‍that ‍blank ‍document ‍to ‍writing ‍its ‍content ‍and ‍making ‍the ‍design ‍sing!

Special Podcast – How to find, fund and apply for a PhD

We have a special episode based on listener feedback- focussed on all the stuff you need to do before the PhD.  How do you find positions? how do you fund them? and of course, how to apply. Some useful tricks in this episode for those considering a PhD!

Mental Health Awareness Week Special Podcast 1

How to manage imposter syndrome- The first of our Mental Health Awareness Week 2021 series! Do you ever feel like you’re not qualified to do your doctoral studies? That others are ahead of you? You’re not alone, but luckily there’s some things we learned to do that can help you manage it

MHAW Special Podcast 2 – Self-appreciation with Role Listing

The second of the Mental Health Awareness Week 2021 series! Do you know what an incredible person you are? We fulfill many more roles in life that we often don’t give ourselves any credit for. Tune in to learn a little technique to love yourself more!

MHAW Special Podcast 3 – Manage anxiety with ‘Big Picture’

The third of the Mental Health Awareness Week 2021 series! It can be scary to face up to our deepest sources of PhD anxiety, but using this technique, we found you can come to terms with them and actually learn to grow from these anxieties!

MHAW Special Podcast 4 – How to rethink PhD Myths

The fourth of the Mental Health Awareness Week 2021 series! “You have to work weekends!”, “There’s no time for anything else!”. Heard this before? We’re here to dispel those myths and show how you can in fact live a balanced, healthy life with time for yourself and your wellbeing.

MHAW Special Podcast 5 – The art of goal setting

It’s the fifth and final episode of the Mental Health Awareness Week 2021 series! It’s great to be ambitious, but setting unrealistic expectations of yourself in your head can lead to disappointment and imposter syndrome. Let’s set better expectations using a technique we’ve used so many times over!

Episode 5 – How to prepare for the viva! (part 1)

Arun and Julia show you why the viva, or defence, is something you don’t need to fear! Using their tips, you can be ready and prepped- both mentally and practically!

Episode 6 – How to navigate the viva day! (part 2)

Arun and Julia share some essential tips for managing the actual viva itself in this podcast, including some useful examples from their own viva experience!

Episode 7 – How to apply for ethical approval

Ethics… you might see a lot of people worry about this, or at least complain about it! But actually, the process is really important to the research process. Understanding why we do it and what actually is in an ethics application can be really powerful- and this week we’ll give you the complete practical rundown on how you can apply for ethics. By the end of this episode, you’ll have no worries understanding and applying for your next ethical approval!

Episode 8 – How to write and submit journal papers

It’s a process that’s we’re still learning something new about every time. But with these tips, we’ll get you set up to submit your paper in its best possible form, to its ideal journal!

Episode 9 – How to deal with journal corrections and rejections

Corrections and rejections from journals can be extremely demotivating and can be a major stressor for many PhD candidates. Don’t worry, this week we’re going to show you why this shouldn’t be the case and exactly how you should go about responding to all of the many types of responses you could get.

Episode 10 – Finding and writing your Research Question!

This can be incredibly daunting- especially if your work is novel and there isn’t a whole lot of literature out there. We talk about how you can find your research question using different, ‘novel’ sources and exactly how you can write your own great research question!

Episode 11 – When and how to apply for post-PhD jobs!

Does this sound like a long long way off? In this week’s episode, we’re going to be showing you why it’s never too early to start thinking about life after the PhD.

Episode 12 – How to balance your work, life and PhD!

This can be so hard during your PhD. But in this episode, we’ll take you through things you can do to try and organise your life and make time for all the important aspects of your life. We’ll discuss how to prioritise your jobs and roles, how to take your leave and how to work from home- it’s a big one!!

Episode 13 – How to NOT fail your PhD!

This is the worst-case scenario right? The thing no PhD candidate ever wants to think about but might end up worrying about it every day! This episode is here to put an end to that kind of thinking. We’re going to give you the SIX KEY THINGS you need to demonstrate to not fail your PhD.

Episode 14 – How to do Conferences!

COVID has changed conferences for now, but the tips in this episode are still valid! We remember our first conferences were pretty daunting experiences. There’s a lot of new terminology you might not of heard before and you might feel overwhelmed at the number of different sessions in a short space of time. Don’t worry! This episode has got you covered.

Episode 15 – How to read academic papers!

Pro tip! Don’t just read papers like a book! Reading papers is more of an art form than you think. If you know what to look for, you can save yourself a lot of time and focus on just the bits most relevant to you. In this episode, we’re going to give you the full rundown of exactly how to do this, as well as some useful tools to make the whole job easier!

Episode 16- How to tell good research from bad research!

It’s so important, not only for your PhD, but for life in general to be able to distinguish good research from bad research. Doing so will allow you to ensure you reference and talk about papers of a good quality. We’re going to give you 3 essential tips to help you in being a regular Sherlock Holmes of the good research world!

Episode 17- Why interview studies matter and how you can do them (Part 1)

Interview studies can give you a huge amount of valuable data- if done correctly! In this first part of a two-part episode, Arun & Julia give you all the details on why you might want to consider doing an interview study and how you go about preparing to do one! In part 2 next week, we’ll talk about how you actually run the study and how to go about analysing your data!

Episode 18- Why interview studies matter and how you can do them (Part 2)

We’re back after our break and we’re wrapping up our two-part episode on interview studies. This time we’re tackling the practical things you need to consider when actually running your interview studies.

Episode 19- How to peer review!

This is one of the big things in the academic world, but unfortunately, there’s very little guidance on what exactly it is and how you can get involved. In this episode, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about peer review and why it’s something that can be very helpful for you!

Episode 20 – Systematic Reviews: Why and How explained!

Have you ever felt lost conducting a literature review? How do you know you’ve covered enough of the literature? That’s exactly what systematic reviews aim to solve by giving you a super structured process to follow.
In this episode, we’re diving it why you might want to consider systematic reviews and crucially- how do you actually do one! It’s time consuming, but it’s not too confusing once you know how!

Episode 21 – Poster design- not just for conferences!

Posters are often only thought of in a conference context, but actually they can be so useful at all stages of your PhD. They put you in the right mindset for thinking about your work in a concise and effective way and are a brilliant thing to create before say, a viva or presentation.

Episode 22 – How to overcome the biggest PhD challenges!

PhDs are difficult things! But don’t confuse difficulty with progress. Just because you might be facing challenges does not mean you’re not doing well- quite the opposite in fact! In this episode, we talk about the 5 key challenges we faced in our PhDs and how we went about dealing with them.

Episode 23 – Things you need to know for your Research Proposals!

Research proposals can be extremely daunting and it’s easy to get lost in the process. Fortunately, we’ve been there before and we’ve got an episode packed with practical guidance on writing your own research proposals- both for a future PhD and for those that come after!

Episode 24 – Things you need to know about being a supervisor!

“Being a supervisor?? Wait, but aren’t I the one being supervised?” Yes! But don’t pass up any opportunities to engage with supervising other Bachelor/Masters students during your PhD! There’s so much value in being able to apply what you know from your own PhD experience in teaching and guiding the next generation! In this episode, we’ll cover all of the essentials to do with how to be a supervisor.

Episode 25 – How to network and grow your researcher profile!

We’re not huge fans of the word ‘networking’, but it is an important thing to learn during your PhD. But you don’t have to be the loudest voice or super extroverted to network! No, all you need is to put yourself and your work out there for people to see, and there are many ways to do this.

Episode 26 – How to enjoy a guilt-free Christmas!

Lockdowns and quarantine rules meant we had to slightly adjust our recording schedule- but we’re back (albeit with a slightly makeshift studio!). A special episode to round off the year dedicated to helping you relax and unwind this holiday season. We’re back on the 17th January!

Episode 27 – Essential tips for creating your CV or Resume- that you can start today!

We’ll be honest, the CV or Resume was the last thing we were worried about when we were doing our PhDs. But doing some very simple, practical things can set you up very nicely for when you need to create that document. In this episode, we’ve got some really important tips for that document, and it’s never too early to start working on these!!

Episode 28- How to choose the examiners for your viva or defense!

It’s perhaps one of the last things you want to be thinking about when you’re in the run-up to your PhD submission, but it’s good to give this some thought. Thankfully, our tips will have you ready for that process so you can rest easy knowing you have one less thing to think about in the final run-up to submission!

Episode 29 – Five common PhD mistakes, and how to avoid them!

Is it better late than never? Apologies for missing a week, but we’re back! This week, we dive into some of the most common mistakes we’ve seen in PhDs and provide you with the essential tips to avoid these pitfalls!

Here’s a guide to all things networking and building your research profile- from your two, relatively introverted, hosts!
For more PhD tips and advice head to our career advice section, watch our Vlogs created by PhD students during their studies, or check out our PhD blog.