Supervisor = Salesman ?

Double check, is your supervisor a salesman ?

Eveybody knows salesmen character. Sweet lips, convincing, always smile and always, always have this phrase "Trust me". The salesmen learnt this thing to market themselves and their products. They want to attract people into something. Well, you know that.

But not everybody knows that a PhD supervisor can also be a salesman. This is because, a supervisor is a man who has been always pictured as a person who is straight to the point, no-nonsense, serious, critical, talk only when needed and highly respected. At least these were the characters of Einstein if he were to be a PhD supervisor.

The above characters were the pure trademark of a PhD supervisor 20 decades ago. In this globalization era, only a handful of supervisors have the pure trademark. Those who got these kind of supervisors, you are lucky. In a competitive world now, some supervisors survive by mixing the pure trademark and salesmen character. Frankly, I am still asking myself the reasons. To gain popularity amongst students maybe. We have to remember good reputation can be a brand name. In accounting, brand name is an asset. Having your names to be uttered around the places give you added value to that asset.

But what if you only discover that the quality of a popular product is not necessarily good ? What if a popular Prof or Dr is actually bad ? More important, how can you know whether your supervisor has the genuine trademark or simply a salesman ?

Based on my experience, i came into term that my old supervisor is a salesman through many characters. Like salesman, this kind of supervisor will give you repeated sweet promises, such as "you are a good researcher". Of course these words broadened your nostrils, but look deep because they might say "Do this by yourself, I cant be bothered because I have my own research to do".

He might laugh at your stories. But beware, analyze, because the laugh can be translated to "you won't jeorpardize our relationship if something happen to your thesis". You also may have encountered a supervisor who stops and chuckles when he bump into you in the corridor. Becareful, because they might want to show that they have a good relationship with their students outside the office.

My advice is, if your supervisor is a salesman, always put yourself in a consumer's position. Practice to put away the cloud-nine emotions thrown by your supervisor at you, dig deep inside his words and take in-charge of your thesis. It is okay to be serious with your supervisor because you need to show him that part of his salary comes from YOUR fees. You have to put yourself in a position one step higher than him. My Obi Wan Kenobi* said "see beyond his words by pretending that he is your Master student". And, dont be afraid to follow your gut if it says that you need to change supervisor.

Why I share this ? Because I was supervised by a salesman who had 22 students under him, and guess how many passed ? TWO.

EMA

*Obi Wan Kenobi is a pseudonym for my dear advisor in Malaysia.

Myth about Ph.D

Myth #1. Ph.D is for the brilliants.
Truth : Ph. D is for everybody who wants to know the truth about something and learn to do it in scientific way.

Myth #2. Supervisor knows everything pertaining to your topic.
Truth : Often, you teach your supervisor.

Myth #3. Single student finishes fast or on time.
Truth : Ever heard of 'lady-luck' ?

Myth #4. Your fellow PhD friends in the same field know your topic.
Truth : Around 80% did not have any idea about your topic. You go solo.

Myth #5. In a meeting of your supervisor and other Ph.D students of the same field, student who ask a lot of question have done a lot in their thesis.
Truth : So, what ? Walk/run at your own pace...of course, not too slow.

Myth #6. Doing casual tutoring jeorpardize your study.
Truth : You gain more by delivering knowledge plus, it demands you to manage your time.

Myth #7. Ph.D means study 24 hours.
Truth : Gila ka ? (Are you crazy ?)

Myth #8. Ph.D means you MUST be in the office 9-5.
Truth : Depends on your supervisor, some are strict. Some whom I knew wake up at 10am, start their day at 12pm and finish at 1am. You manage your own time.

Myth #9. You think you know everything after reading/writing your thesis.
Truth : The more you study, the more you dont know. Dont worry. Normal.

Myth #10. You'll finish your study on time if you dont participate in any organization or non-Ph.D activities because you want to concentrate with your studies.
Truth : Yeah, right !

Helppp, my Engrissh!

Not many of us here English. Full Stop.

Although many are blessed by verbolous English and can communicate in it verbosely..

( Okay, I rephrase..)

Although some communicate in English very well (hmm..sounds easier), still, many thought using 'high-powered' vocabs and writing lonnng sentence are equivalent to 'write Ph.D way'.

As a non-English speaker and having 5 senses those are perfectly Malaysian, I struggled with English. Usually, what i'd do is to write and arrange things in my head several times before I speak. Sometimes it didnt work.

Well, it is hard to manage 'she', 'he', 'active', 'passive' phrases, and intonation at the same time. And, let's not talk about grammar yet, ok ?

I've started learning English more than 3 decades ago yet I still need help from my language adviser. When I started my study, I depended on Robyn a lot, thanks to the sweet and patient lady, I learnt how to structure my sentences and put it in a context (i just make this sentence up, i dont know what does it mean). But yes, I learnt a lot.

I often felt I wasnt good enough to write when I read a journal written by English native. They tend to write long and put 3-5 ideas in the sentence. For example:

"A full spectrum of international investors is present, ranging from open-ended public funds seeking high quality, newly built properties in prime locations to highly leverages third-party managed closed-end funds that often invests in large property portfolios dispersed accross the country........" (Uh-huh, okay.....zzzzzzz.)

I dont feel I am able to make such good sentence.

After 3 years, I realized that my feeling was wrong because I am right. That kind of sentence diverts readers concentration. It put us to sleep or watch The Simpson or write a blog.

It started when my supervisor, J, scratched his head when he got the first read on my sentence. He said "This is confusing, I dont understand". I explained to him and he replied, "but that doesnt saylike what you tell me".

After a few scratches on head, he said to me "Ema, you need to write straight to the point". I argued, "I think I wrote like what they said in the journal".

"But you used complicated words and long sentences".

"I followed their writing style, I want to write like them". Referring to a journal. "Their English is good and have these sophisticated words".

"Ema, what is the point to write a long sentence and use these kind of words if readers do not understand them ?"

"Some of the writers did that. They wrote long in a paragraph. Their journal looks powerful"

"Do you understand them ?"

"No."

"So?"

He..he..

J continued, "I know many students write like that hoping what you are hoping for. But there is no point to write like that if you are only making the readers confuse. You have to make a sense out of your sentence. Do not cramp all ideas in a paragraph, let alone in a sentence".

I listened.

"It's nothing wrong to keep it short. Putting 'sophisticated' words do help sometimes, but not all the time. See here, (referring to my writings), frankly, can you understand what you've written ?" I squinted my forehead...I dont understand my own sentence.

"If you cant understand your own sentence, how can you make people understand what you are telling?".

"Write in a way you yourself feel comfortable in".

"Use words that you feel comfortable with".

I looked at him and smiled, understood. Since that, I never use sophisticated words & J said he understands me better now. Thanks to God, in my own words now, not only J, my housemates (from other background) understand what I've wanted to convey. I am more confident what I write and written.

Here, I learnt another thing and I want to share it with you. When you are writing, either Ph.D or anything, you just need to be confident. If you want to write, share with people things that you are comfortable with, use easy words, dont feel inferior and never think that you are bad.

What more important is, write as though you are educating yourself. Be sincere.

Keep writing !

EMAZULL.

God and Ph.D

Ph.D is the longest exam for a student. So, if the undergraduates complaint about their exams, offer them your thesis.

We face the challenge to keep our mind, spirit, physical and sense at the best during the exam period. And we are talking about 3 or more years. To keep these elements at an equilibrium state, students do a lot of things. For example, as you might have seen, some like to walk around the universities, some succumb to retail therapy at Northland or DFO (ehem..), some go for booze and many starts their morning routine with Nescafe Blend 43. All these is for a purpose - to release the endorphine (happy mood).

However, based on my experience, one thing that you absolutely can not FORGET is talk to GOD. Whether you like to walk in the uni, shop at the MyDin-is-my-store or dehydrate yourself with caffeine, one thing for sure, take my humble suggestion :TALK-A-LOT to GOD during this exam period.

Talk about your supervisor who like to re-write the same sentences even though they had done that 3-5 times before. Talk about how you came out with insignificant results. Ask GOD why your parasite died tho you've fed them or in my case, I always complaint about the authors who loveeeeee to go around the bush.

I dont need to tell you intellectuals why we need to talk to GOD.

But what I would like to stress here is how BRILLIANT God is when it comes to synthesizing our mind, spirit, physical and sense. How sometimes the PAINFUL experience was needed to make sure we GO BACK TO THE RIGHT PATH. And how soothing it is after we realize our mistakes, that GOD send something from HEAVEN to wash away our sadness.

How LUCKY we are to have God !

The highest level of test for an educated man is 'arrogance or ego'. We might not show or might not even notice that we are arrogant. Arrogance can come in may ways, through your confidence - 'i trusted my supervisor because he is somebody in the UN'. Through your mind - 'i've put the best data, the results should be as expected'. Through your spirit - 'after i come back from holiday, i'm sure the motivation is at the peak'. And through all directions.

In my case, I know my ultimate mistake. I uttered "My supervisor is Muslim, I know he is a big time drinker, but you know, he produced many papers and books and is a well known guru, so I shouldnt be worried".

Frankly (and stupidly), I didnt notice the arrogance in the sentence. It is only after 3 years that I was taken aback and that sentence popped-up in my mind. I know drinking is forbidden and so on and so forth. But what I didnt expect is the danger of the alcoholics in a subtle way, in an intellectual environment. I didnt realize the extent of the danger when I indirectly said 'I trust an alcoholic' - which the rule implied in the Holy Quran says "u cant trust an alcoholic". I forgot that the rule applies to everybody even to a Ph.D SUPERVISOR.

GOD IS GRACIOUS. And I was stunt on how GOD pull me back on the right track, which resulted in - a high significant long term impact.

As you can see, my story is just one of those miracles that we achieve during our exam period. You might have seen how a wife-student with 2 young children struggled during the period and finished in nick of time. You might have heard how a student who has been tested with the parents death finished and scored PhD without any amendment. You yourself too have experienced the magic after crying out all night due to 1001 PhD related problems.

All this is GOD's willing.

People always assumed the singles would not have any problem finish on time. However, my friends, even if we are single, or happily married, or have vast research experience, and have presented many papers abroad, etc2, without GOD, our PhD is just a Dr. infront of your name ! And the worse part is, this kind of PhD is similar to the one online.

Therefore, be patient and talk to HIM.

Salam Ramadhan to Muslims.

EMAZULL

Trapped in a campus politics.

Dear friends,
Here is one of the stories how a Ph.D student has been a victim of faculty and university politics. MB (a pseudonym) is a student of a well known university in Melbourne and his right to get a decent and suitable job was denied by the institution. I believe, some of us have also been denied when it comes to asking jobs to support ourself !

----

Part 1. Getting Into Ph.D.

Once upon a time i was a happy 24 yo IT Management consultant who was earning well and had a generally happy life. I did not have a ph.d nor did i really require one :). My job was stressful but extremely enjoyable. The last thing I wanted was to go back to school. However, a horrible thing happened. As you know, Ph.D is an "intellectually-transmitted desease". Well, Somehow i caught the ph.d bug and I decided to email school of Information Systems at the R*** university and share my "research interests with them". Unfortunately, they did like my ideas. To make things worse they assured me that once accepted i will not have to pay fees, and will have a good chance to obtain a living allownce as well as tutoring/lecturing opportunities.

It sounded appealing enough so what did stupid Michael do? He decided to enrol! I was not sure whether i should persue the Ph.D full-time or part-time but once i got the full schoarship (including living allowance) as well as "assurance" that a "bright scholar like me" can get it all done in 2 years only my mind was set. I cut all my ties with the industry and decided to focus on my research. Life was good and sun was shining brightly....

Part 2. The beginning of the End.

My happy mood has not lasted for a long time. Shortly after my enrollment, my supervisor told me that he will be resigning from the R*** and moving to Deakin. He asked me if I wanted to stay on at R*** or move along.

Of course his departure was not a tragedy in itself. All that i had to do was to move my thesis from R*** to Deakin. I would still have my fee exemption but of course this move would cost me my living allowance. This is when greed took the better of me and I decided to stay on. And this was really the beginning of the End!

Part 3. Hope against Hope

Once my supervisor departed...I very quickly realised that i was in hot soup. My supervisor did not seem to leave R*** on "good terms" and since i was using his research methodology and linking my research to his...survival became an issue.

First of all, I was told that R*** "has no work" for me. I could not get any tutoring/lecturing work. I was told that there were "no teaching opportunities in the university for the person of my calibre". At the very same time while R*** did not feel like i was "qualified enough to be a tutor", I was not finding it difficult to secure teaching work at other universities. In fact it was quite funny - I was not 'good enough" to do tuts at R*** - at the same time I was invited to teach at another University. They did not seem to think i was underqualified and valued industry experience and knowledge of the subjects over research qualifications/number of publications. I was invited to become a lead lecturer for some of the IT subjects they were delivering, given opportunities to deliver my own subject content etc. In fact, i am still working at that "joint" and enjoying my work very much. Or yes, and at one stage i also happened to be teaching in one of the other departments of the R***. However, there was "nothing for me to do" within my own department.

As far as my "reseach progress" was concerned. Suddenly i was told that my research progress was "unsatisfactory" that i had no clue how to write a thesis, that there was nobody in my area to supervise me etc....At the very same time i had a research paper/article published, I have written a textbook....but nobody seemed to care about all this. It was made clear to me that "I do not beling at R***".

My supervisor was "too busy" to see me on a regular basis, so supervision was delegated to the second supervisor. The ways my second supervisor was trying to put me down were almost endless..

First of all, he was abusing me verbally and telling me that "my thesis is rubbish, even undergrad students cam write better tham me etc." This was making me very frustrated because i felt i was fully depedent on him and could not retiliate. If some person whould come to me in any professional environment ( e.g. workplace) and abuse me verbally i would have no problem with complaining. Would someone abuse me on the street...i would simply punch his face...but what could I in this situation? I was fully dependent on him :(.

I tried to secure another supervisor and i spoke to a number of people about it. At first they seemed to be ok with it but after "consultations" with my supervisors (who also happened to be in charge of the research funding for the schools) they would lose the desire to deal with me as a research student.....while remaining on good personal terms. The absurdity of the situation was that there were people who had no problem with me and my research yet they were not able to take me as a research student due to the "political reasons".

Part 4. I surrender

Well I was sick and tired of the treatment i was getting and finally on being told on numersous occasions in an abusive manner that " i am unlikely to graduate ever" i decided to quit!

___
Epiloque (from MB)

Ok, do not cry for me! Now my R*** saga is nothing but an episode from the past. Its like a failed marriage -best to be forgotten. I am now enrolled at Curtin university and my supervisor appears to be sent "from heaven". Hopefully, i will be done with my thesis in a few months!

To MB, all the best !!

STOP AT 3.

In most cases or I'd rather put courses, the Ph.D term is 4 years for the full-timers and around 6 years for the part-timers (Correct me if i'm wrong, part-timers). For the full-time students with scholarship, the funding usually subjects to the candidature period.

On average, the full timers would finish their thesis somewhere around 3-4.5 years. Some, were unlucky, had to finish it in 5-6 years.

We usually plan our programs on the first startes of our research. The programs include attending the research workshops, statistic classes, 'how to use EndNote' course, read 'He is not into you' book (for preparation) so on and so forth. Some, like me, went a bit far by suggesting my supervisor to participate in '1 to 1 expectation' survey. The survey was supplied by a unit called "academic skill unit" and it contained a number of questions pertaining to your expectation and your supervisor's expectation. I guess some students got their supervisor to participate, but in my case, my supervisor said "what is this..no..no..we dont have to waste our time on this".

Anyway, I noticed that not many PhD students plan to finish their thesis a year ealier than the end date. It's either they didnt tell me or they underlook the importance of planning their thesis for 3 years. By planning I mean, send in the complete first draft in the third year. Yes, with the table of contents, list of figures, references and footnote. As if you were to do the final submission.

Why is it so important to make sure you finish your first draft early ? Simple, in case of any major mistakes (like mine), you will have another 1 spare year. And in most cases, you can correct the mistakes in 6-8 months.

Another reason is, to familiarize yourself with unexpected tiny little things that can take up months to solve it. For example, checking typo. Dont rely on Mr. Words's spelling check please.

Another example is, updating your references. You can check the seniors who didnt keep & update their references systematically will tell you that they have ended up wasting 2-3 months recollecting the references.

The page margin & setup, they look 'cute & small' but they can make you pull out your hair. You change the margin in page 10 only ended up cutting your table in page 17, 23 and 45 into half!

The advantages of finish early vary. The main one is we dont have to put up with the dwindling motivation anymore (phew..at last). We dont have to think about the scholarship money that is drying in the bank account. And, well..we are doing our supervisors & the faculty the favour who think that they need new faces.

Oh yes, we too do not have to wear the tshirt that wrote "I'LL EAT YOU IF U ASK ME WHEN WILL I SUBMIT"

And, so those are some of the reasons why I advice the new students to try finish one year ealier and I refer it to a 'buffer time'. For other reasons, you can figure it out yourself.

Okay, one might think "I want to analyze many things, I dont care if it takes me up to 5 years of my Ph.D" Wohoo ! Stop, Have a Hammer time! My advice is, dont be too ambitious. You are just doing a PhD and not a research for a Noble Prize (yet). One of the purposes of doing Ph.D is to put yourself on the same level as other academicians. So, dont spend too much time on a Ph.D. And of course, after you submit your thesis, you can have all the time you want to do another research or continue what you did during your PhD.

Or..simply, get a life !

Feedback from the PHD-Dara

Dear readers,

Here I post some comments related to my previous post PHD: Problem Hantui Dara.

Rohanim wrote:

I do have several concerns in relation to thisissue. I am happily married with a great husband& in-laws who are consistently supporting me tocontinue my education + I have 4 sons. No girl.What I am seeing now is the dwindling level ofinterest among males to do formal education. Whatwent wrong? A reliable source from one of the IPTA's staffinformed me that even the Fac. of Engineering had(in the late 90's)/has (it's prob. stillhappening) to lower down their expectations onmale applicants. Otherwise, they'll be too many'qualified' female engineers as compared to themales.And we do have more 'qualified' + 'educated'females as compared to males in almost all areas.Female still needs to do better in politics,nevertheless, 'kayu pengukur' kita has to change.To adapt the changing educ. culture in oursociety.My call to those who are parents - how do weraise our sons & daughters so that they are moreprepared for their future? From issues inglobalization all the way to societal issues.Both at macro & micro level.... It's a tough job.


Sudharshan wrote:

Just sharing my experience. I did my undergrad at an IPTA in the mid 90s. Atthat time there were about 10-20% females in the class (abt 10-15 of them).One of my lecturers (who graduated from another IPTA in the 80s) informedthat during his undergrad days, there were literally only 1-2 femaleundergrads in his class. I am talking about about a civil engineeringcourse, which "usually" attracts the least no of females.When I started teaching in another IPTA in 2004, there were about 40-50 % ofthem, in a class about 100 students. Again, this is in a civil engineeringclass. I am pretty sure that the numbers are more in the E&E and ChemicalEng.I am not sure how it will be in 2020.

What say u ?