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

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Thanks Andy, I benefit a lot from your videos!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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? 😔

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?

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.)

Make a vdo on synopsis Preparation..for Phd Selection

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?

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

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

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.

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

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.

The love me tone off me 😂😂😂

I really hope certain people will see this

Gem

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 😅

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.

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?

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

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

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.

So many red flags in my supervisor relationship 😶

I think your hair is upside down no?