How your supervisor will ruin your PhD [6 to look out for]

[@adriantween584]

I experienced all of these. I dropped out. I don’t even want to write the Master’s thesis. I am getting close to broke. I feel hopeless. No names. I don’t want to get sued. The funding “ran out” but really I was laid off. The cruel reality of graduate school is that you are either deemed “useful” or “disposable”.

[@stemicalengineer]

My funds also ran out due to the lockdowns. Supposedly an experimental thesis and I begged to just do a machine learning thesis I can do at home. I was also deliberately delayed to publish by my adviser. He followed me in my academic courses in masters and required a publication as an end of term requirement for me to pass or get a perfect grade. Horrible. Everything is a transaction. If I can sue if I have resources, I will. There's no spirit of being an adviser to that person... just pure transaction.

[@kimhisham6033]

Haha, I think it's the same way anywhere we go. For me, the outside world is much harsher than academia hence I am choosing to stick to academia.

[@rakshithm1257]

I was one year-one month into PhD program, I dropped out last month and never felt better

[@habituscraeftig]

I'm so sorry. I was in your boat, and I don't know if I handled it the right way. I've had so much trauma built up around the whole thing that it has significantly impacted my life trajectory for more than twice the amount of time the Masters took. From what I've read, it's really important to find a healthy way to feel actively in control of your circumstances, even if it's something completely different (like exercise). I am so sorry that you're going through this, and I wish you well - not just in getting through this, but in moving on to other things. P.S. Without trying to make any assumptions about your life - don't be afraid of state assistance, where needed. It can be incredibly liberating, even for brief transition periods.

[@takiyaazrin7562]

Exercise induced sweat and lower stress

[@orangesandlemons6495]

I dealt with all of these and had to take a long break from academia. This is more common than you think. My supervisor disliked me and tried her best to get me to quit. The skewed power dynamic makes it easy for narcissists to abuse students.

[@ulaat4215]

@Supercollider I am suffering now from my supervisor , she is totally nuts. Everything you mentioned is happening with me especially the employees thing

[@ulaat4215]

thank you so much for your advice I really appreciate it I will try to see if there is such a thing here but i know that no one listens . Actually at UPM , the only right that i have is to change the supervisor but it's too late now

[@takiyaazrin7562]

Are you sure? If sv fails you, they will also suffer.

[@xxblabla75xx]

My supervisor hates receiving criticism on his research from me- it seems to really hurt his ego, so I have stopped......if theres a comment on a draft I don't agree with, I just quietly delete it or reject the suggestion. It makes it very difficult to grow as a researcher if you can't have these debates with your own supervisor.

[@nitrostudy9049]

I had a different experience. My Supervisor, after determining I had some competence, gave me almost free reign and found funding for what I wanted to pursue. I just had to explain, debate, and justify my reasons. My co-supervisor gave me regular discussions and grillings. Which I loved. Earning a world-classs scientist's respect is the ultimate buzz. Additionally, my Supervisors edited my DPhil chapters overnight. They said it was easy because the logic flow was sound, if not the wording. There were some politics etc, but, I did not expect perfection. What I got, though, was a world-class apprenticeship in research. I am sorry for those with poorer PhD experiences

[@rakshithm1257]

You're one of those few lucky ones, I guess

[@secretsoul6882]

Great! These good people will bring more good apprentices.

[@Ser3456]

Are you an Oxonian?

[@Dissonance333]

I experienced all of these bullets. During the last 3 months, I struggled with suicidal thoughts and extreme, severe mental breakdowns several times a day. I decided to quit immediately. It was the best decision of my life. No funds or scholarships can make up for all the bruises to my mind. Believe me, a life outside academia is full of fresh air.

[@takiyaazrin7562]

MD is needed. I think suicidal thought is a an internal physiological issue

[@rcethervaac539]

I took my PhD advisor down with me and ended his career. BIG satisfaction

[@1HARVEN1]

Mind elaborating anonymously a bit?

[@reham1991]

I just started my PhD programme but it’s seem to my supervisor will ruins my studies. How you took your advisor down with you? If she will take me down I want to take her with me. Give me advice please

[@rcethervaac539]

@@reham1991 ok I will think of a simple and short reply and will comeback to share with you guys @bf2harven

[@Naedyn]

@@rcethervaac539 please come back with your takedown story

[@penglykoun7870]

@@rcethervaac539Let me know too

[@valor36az]

What an excellent topic. I started to make more progress in my PhD once I stopped communicating with my supervisor.

[@annaeve6563]

The real problem is the hugely uneven structure of power in academia, supervisors have WAY too much power over their students and postdocs

[@ashleye6523]

So true about the employee bit. Since the beginning of my phd program, my advisor would convince me to take on the work of his outside collaborations with the promise of publications, "experience", etc. Fast forward 6 years later, zero publications from those extra projects and im still trying to finish my phd.

[@ZainabOuardirhi]

The fact that I expressed my stress to my supervisor yesterday on the urgency and pet project problem. I thought you were speaking directly to me! Andy, thank you for your hard work and for inspiring us Ph.D. students.

[@ritac9769]

My advisor was simultaneously a micromanager and too lax because her ability to prioritize was so skewed. She would try to tell us how to live our lives and manage our time but then would never give a straight answer or any actual helpful research advice when we actually needed it. One single person has graduated her lab in the last 6 years and that's because they completely cut off contact months before their defense because the advisor kept trying to get her to change her thesis. I am mastering out and it was the best decision I've ever made for my mental health and my career. I even had my own funding and she kicked me out immediately without letting me wrap up my projects. Some advisors just care more about control and will bring everyone (and their research) down with them in order to retain it.

[@tonyrandall3146]

Half the time it seems PhD.'s don't even use their prestigious doctor title. Oh call me (first name). A doctor of philosophy for some novel research paper and theorum against someone who actually studies philosophy as a hobby for decades. The politicisation of university can really impact your self-worth too. If it is a negative feedback loop I say get out and find your groove. Why continue the cycle.

[@Kat-gp6gj]

Wow, did you have my advisor?

[@ritac9769]

@@Kat-gp6gj I didn't, but just goes to show how common this bullshit is in academia. No regard for students as human beings.

[@takiyaazrin7562]

Sad. Dean should interfere in your case

[@lesphd]

I'd say the scariest point is "employee over student" perception - drowning in little org things just ruins the whole process.. It's hard to keep up with the bigger picture when you are asked to micromanage every single tiny task around the project Thank you for the video, Andy!

[@eveghost]

This is so true. I started my PhD during the pandemic and for over a year I was left to drift because of lockdown and poor followup, then forgotten for a period afterward and now I'm fekked.

[@tanjamancinelli6572]

Same for me

[@nondumisondhlovu9181]

I also started my PhD at the beginning of the pandemic and when I saw that my supervisor was dragging his heels, I made sure that I would drive my project whether they liked it or not, and now I am done and passed my PhD because I didn't allow them to screw me over.

[@williamwaters4506]

So true, the PhD supervisor has no urgency. My supervisor pushed me along and it took me six years. I was the first one to finish in my class. One women never fished the program after taking all the course work.

[@stemicalengineer]

My masters thesis adviser is already ruining me at this point. I'm glad I'm getting a warning about the worst that could happen if I continue in PhD.

[@stemicalengineer]

@Supercollider In my case, I was delayed further in order to publish more. My adviser followed me to be my prof in many academic subjects and required a publication as a requirement to get a perfect grade for those subjects. A lot of delay because of delay of purchase of chemicals as well as inaccess to campus due to vax requirement. Now I'm just doing a machine learning thesis which "should be" publishable to finish my masters. I will even have a co-adviser prof (my thesis adviser's friend in faculty) for my thesis who is not contributing anything and unreachable. The whole thing is a transaction making sure him, the adviser, gets something out of it. If what's happening right now to me at masters level will happen in PhD, I'm such a masochist to choose to continue since these PhDs are just seeing me as a free labor worker. I don't care about those publications under my name, I need a career and I can't move on while the degree is still not finished. Companies already think there's a problem with me when in fact, I already done 2 publications.

[@shawnb4745]

My supervisor finally got back to me this past weekend with news about my dissertation draft. It took her just over a week to go through my dissertation, and I only need to make three edits. She mentioned that she has many students to supervise, so she did set my expectations. I'm almost ready to go to the defense round.

[@HateDietPepsi]

My PhD was going really well. I was ahead of schedule, probably be done in 3.5 years, and then they threw another project at me, not part of my PhD, as my advisors extra project. This added another 6 months onto my PhD.

[@OwenEkblad]

It would be interesting to see you have a chat with other PhD's from other disciplines. I notice some of the things you talk about aren't entirely applicable to my experience (math). (On the flip side, a lot of the things you talk about are great for *me specifically* to hear because they are things we don't think enough about in the math world, but we probably should give more thought to.)

[@sigmaxi7822]

A comparison would be great indeed. I often find myself watching Andy's videos (and similar ones), while only a small part of the topics applies to my own PhD. We design our own opto-electronic microchips, which, for instance, dictates a schedule that you cannot alter: A few months to one year design time per chip, 3 to X months production run (one time a colleague of mine had to wait 1 year for the chips to arrive) , 3 to 6 months experiments and measurements. Getting two to three chips done during my PhD is a tough goal but highly recommended to publish sufficiently many papers. There are many other differences, too.

[@jamesguthrie9454]

I had a biology teacher in high school who had worked for a PhD, but she quit 3 years in because of her supervisor. She said that he was a real a-hole. She wanted to quit earlier but she kept going in the hope of finishing and being done with him. When she realized that she still had 2 more years before she would finish, she just quit. She did not go into great detail of why he was an a-hole.He did have a reputation of being very good skilled. He also had a reputation of grad students quiting on him.

[@jessicabesaw2649]

This advice is bang on. I experienced many of these during my PhD.

[@Katadori09]

I never considered it out of bounds for a professor to ask students to maintain equipment in their lab, nor has it ever been the norm for them to hire a technician to do this stuff, in my experience. It could just be a cultural or departmental difference. But I always considered myself effectively an employee as a graduate student, since I was getting a stipend and a tuition waiver, and I considered all this part of the job. I suppose there are things that would be grossly inappropriate to ask me to do, like fix the PI's car just to pick a random example, but it never came up. I also don't consider it a bad thing if the PI is gone a lot because they are off giving presentations. That's either indirectly or directly helping them gather future funding, which is really a large part of their responsibility that no one else in the group can replicate. Then again, in the research groups I was in, I didn't feel like we had a "me vs them" mentality. We were all kind of in it together and just trying to keep our shared ship floating. I do agree that urgency is important, as is not getting on their bad side. I feel like you can get a good gauge of urgency before agreeing to join the group, and that is definitely something to ask around about. As for getting on their bad side, that's not really limited to academia I would say. You don't really want to get on the bad side of any boss or supervisor in any context. As for control, I would say that's a matter of personal fit. There are people who are naturally self-driven, independent, and creative, and a PI with strict control would only stifle them. But there are other people who lack some of these traits, though they may be brilliant in other categories, and they may need a bit more structure to get the ball rolling. In that case, the PI isn't doing them any favors by giving them a lot of latitude. That push may be the difference between a brilliant career and wasted potential. Overall, I appreciate the conversation and it caused me to look at some things more closely that I had never considered before. Thanks for putting it together.

[@FairyFellersMasterStroke]

I am so confused by my master's supervisor. On one hand, he responds quickly, never puts his students in an embarrassing position, he is always respectful and professional. However, he is so bad in explaining what he wants from you and so distant; the more you ask questions, the more you get confused. Also, I am very much left on my own. So, it's either that, or asking questions and being confused. Also, my thesis topic is mostly what he wants to do. I get it, I told him I am exploring other aspects in my field, and he took the chance. And I also understand that he had grants and research plans that he pursuits, and he wants students for the research. I get all this. But, sometimes I feel a bit manipulated by him; as in, ok, you want other, new opportunities? Well, then you do the master's thesis that aligns with my research goals and grants I asked for. And yes, he has gotten money and he is not very keen on spending it, he rather brings his old stuff from 20 years ago. I don't know. I feel like I didn't have a chance to plan the details for my thesis. He was all: you're going to do this and that... Sometimes I think: am I paranoid, or ungrateful, or what? 😔

[@PetreDiaz]

Well my story involves medical leave for 3 months, after leave of absence as Covid was starting. Last time I got an answer to my emails was in May 2022. The university of Toronto was never able to provide any administrative help. I have been relaying on the other member of the committee.

[@JohnDoe-gf7ct]

I experienced almost all these things while been in Germany and even though never intended to quit. My supervisor told me he won’t fond me anymore. If you see these problems just look elsewhere

[@Abbietechtrendz.8974]

Is that place that toxic? thought advanced countries were better.

[@JohnDoe-gf7ct]

@@Abbietechtrendz.8974 be careful with who you do your PhD. Most of the times the personality and leadership of your supervisor will drive your performance

[@madhuvantipatil4708]

My advisor did not have the urgency for any of his students to finish their publications on time and was not excited about my project either. It was devastating finishing my PhD. However, he had tenure and ran a well-funded lab so there was nothing anyone could do about this

[@ameen9928]

my supervisor doesn't want buy for me my kit in Bioscience to do my work and asked me to work anything else ,what I should do?

[@timreverend2591]

Love the channel. I just officially submitted my MS thesis (defended several weeks ago). Surprisingly, I am not that happy or even relieved. Can you do a video about post-thesis blues maybe?

[@prateekshatiwari1943]

Thanks Andy, I benefit a lot from your videos!

[@Kat-gp6gj]

I haven't seen my PI in person for a year. She's on sabbatical. Occasionally, we have Zoom meetings where she reprimands me for not being up to her standards without ever giving me any helpful advice or guidance. I'm not going to let her make me quit, though. I'm going to finish what I started out of pure spite.

[@riyamehta7731]

Hi. Your videos are really informative and helpful. Could you also make a video on the format of SOP that needs to be followed by a PhD aspirant and any course in that case. Thank you.

[@manaskumarseth5814]

Make a vdo on synopsis Preparation..for Phd Selection

[@cebilendwandwe6857]

I had a supervisor from hell for my master's. Used my data without my permission, including thesis for a different research project, and shared my work with another lazy student. Decided to second-guess my career in academia.

[@peachesandsunshine9]

The same thing is happening to me now by sharing work with a lazy student that contributed 0% to the foundation building of the project. I just emailed my whole dissertation committee to clean up this mess.

[@willboler830]

Same thing happening in my lab. I brought it to her directly, and she apologized, but she's still doing it. I don't know how to fix it.

[@RamiRouhana]

What can you do when you are left behind as not being the pet project? In my case there no other supervisors in the university I am in. I asked the only possible supervisor in a paralel field and he said no. Now I am 4 years in my research but i have no support to finish. If I contact another prof from another uni I get direct no. The reason is they assume my topic has no good result as the reason my supervisor quit on me.

[@xy4669]

I really hope certain people will see this

[@sunb678]

I'm a currently applying for a phd in synthetic biology, due to start in Feb, but now my supervisor has said there's "no lab capacity" and will have to focus on students with attached funding 😑😡 I want to get it sorted out, done with the bullshit in academia 😅

[@takiyaazrin7562]

Gem

[@DrJack55]

My PhD supervisor would wait 1-2 months before getting back to review anything. I ended up leaving and going to industry. Best decision I ever made. He would get offended when I'd follow up claiming he's super busy and didn't have the time.

[@Astro_Rohan]

Hi Andy I need a bit of help making PhD decision. It is boiling down to if and thens. Would it be possible for me to connect with you somehow? Maybe email?

[@rakshithm1257]

I will say, Don't do it.

[@TheSubHunter1]

What is your view on DBAs instead of PHDs ? I’m looking to do one and would like to know your opinion I’m in industry I’m also looking to do the DBA part time what’s your thoughts on this

[@eljover2012]

This is (unfortunately) true and the student is not even empowered to control his/her a academic life despite carrying the most burden.

[@diaryofagraduate]

You cant do anything with a micromanagment supervisor that control everything is impossible to propose, or do experiments on your own.

[@MrJiwer]

I think your hair is upside down no?

[@solomon-oshiokeagbedor5840]

The love me tone off me 😂😂😂

[@nicky_bee]

So many red flags in my supervisor relationship 😶