Reflection on PhD Year 1

My minimum requirement for my blog (i.e. Diary of a PhD) is that at the end of each year, I write a post summing up how it went. I started drafting this post early in the summer, but never got around to finishing it. They say that summer is the time to actually do research since I’m not being distracted by useless things like coursework (-_-). I took full advantage of the extra time: I was involved in 4-ish research projects and mentored two undergraduates. It was enjoyable but quite busy. I think this might be my most productive summer yet.

Now that classes are starting next week, it’s the official end of PhD year 1. So now I’m hunkering down and finishing this post.

I’m going to format this reflection as a list of advice/habits/insight that might be helpful to young researchers. Please note that I just finished my first year, so it is very possible that any or all of this is misguided or flat out wrong. Take my words with a grain of salt, or several spoonfuls of salt.

1. Talk to someone new every week. Especially early in your PhD, when you’re still trying to figure out your research interests, it is incredibly helpful to pick the brains of older students and professors. As soon as I arrived on campus, I scheduled a bunch of meetings to chat about grad school, research, life at CMU, etc. A portion of the people I met were via snowball sample–one conversation would lead me to connect with several new people. Another portion were connected via cold email–I just reached out to people whose work I admired and asked to chat about mutual interests. This way, I was able to learn about lots of topics quickly as well as get insider information about academic/department lore.
2. Get used to being awkward. Though my actions of cold emailing and reaching out to strangers make me appear quite extroverted, I have pretty bad social anxiety. I had so many meetings where I felt stupid or awkward. But it’s gotten easier over time. I’ve come to learn that socializing is an important part of academia. Whether for networking or brainstorming new ideas, learning how to talk to others and communicating well is extremely important. And the best way to do this is through practice.
3. Disentangle your identity from your work. Coming straight out of undergrad, my identity is deeply tied to how good of a student I am. There is quite a bit of emotional labor that goes into research. To minimize the emotional toll, it’s important to recognize that when you receive negative feedback, they are critiquing the work, not you. As someone who often takes things personally, I’m still trying to improve on this skill. One time I asked my advisor, “Am I incompetent?”. He responded, “No, this is just hard.” Sure, there is always room for you to improve as a researcher, but don’t view your shortcomings as deficiencies. Look at them as opportunities to grow, and recognize that everyone’s been there at one point. There’s nothing wrong with you.
4. Everyone is working at their own pace. Another flaw of mine–I compare myself to others all the time. But in a PhD program, you really can’t compare yourself to your peers. The main goal of a PhD is to develop an original stream of research, so of course it’s going to move at different speeds for everybody. The rate at which you’re finishing projects or publishing papers can be dependent on your field, the resources to which you have access, your advisor, alongside a multitude of other factors.
5. Keep a research journal. Mine is a Google Doc where I jot down what I did that day, whom I talked to, cool papers I found, etc. Michael Bernstein says to spend 20 minutes a day brainstorming, so my research journal is usually where I dump my ideas. danah boyd says to write down your research questions once a week, so I do this in my research journal as well. The intention of both advice is to record your thoughts regularly so you eventually see emergent patterns that (hopefully) lead to bigger ideas.
6. Read a lot, but not too much. For a few months, I received daily emails from arxiv and Google Scholar to keep up to date on all the new papers from my favorite researchers. I also checked Twitter and Bluesky every day to read new paper threads. I got overwhelmed real fast. To mitigate information overload, I now only check for new papers at the beginning of the week (usually on Monday). After skimming a handful of abstracts or threads, I save the ones I found most relevant to Zotero and read the full papers in my downtime. This way, I’m intaking new information on a regular basis but not to the point of driving myself crazy.

Well, I think I’m satisfied with what I’ve written, so I’ll stop here.

I kept my reflection/advice mainly research-centric, but I wanted to note that my most favorite part of this year is the people I’ve met. I am so incredibly satisfied with the friends and community I have made in Pittsburgh. I’ve enjoyed many deep, genuine conversations and partaken in much laughter. As difficult and tiring work can sometimes get, I can’t help but smile when I realize how much friendship and support I have acquired over the past year. From friends in my cohort to mentors who are my grandparents’ age, the diversity in thought and perspective I’m able to engage with is wonderful. I feel like I’ve really grown as a scholar and as a person, and I’m excited for more to come.