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!
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.