reflections on my PhD
I still have a bit to go; here are my thoughts so far.
My PhD has been incredible. There have been ups and downs, and periods of high stress, but for the most part I’ve gotten the chance to explore my interests and work on projects I’m passionate about.
My biggest regret is that my PhD was isolated. I started in the pandemic, and so I was behind on going to conferences and building up my network. Conferences were incredibly important in giving me ideas for impactful and impressive projects, but I’ve gotten these ideas too late, I need to finish up now.
Ideally, I would have worked with companies earlier, maybe even for free. While that sounds bad, it would have been invaluable to get access to datasets and create projects with larger real world impact. It also would have been helpful to help me convert into a job post-PhD.
Furthermore, having connections would help me gain perspective and answers to tricky questions.
Other, random thoughts:
- My advisor has been incredible. The only negative things I’d say is that, since he doesn’t work in educational games, he doesn’t have the connections or experience I’d want, but that hasn’t actually been too big of an issue. Also, his workstyle works for me, but may not work for others.
- I’m privileged to not have children, a family member I need to take care of, or other things that would take up money and time. Those might have made this PhD much more difficult.
