My Background
People ask me if I always wanted to pursue a PhD. My answer used to be, “Yes, I had that thought floating in my mind, but I was not sure of the timing.” My background is a great mix of computer science, information systems, and data science. I finished my Bachelor's and then my Master's. After that, I found a job as a data scientist and worked for four years. While I was working, that’s when I started my PhD in data science. I left my job and became a full-time PhD student.
PhD Courses and Why They Make Sense
The first year was dedicated to all the required courses mandated by the university relevant to my degree. The courses included Applied Multivariate Analysis, Research Seminar courses on Machine Learning, Unstructured Data, and Time Forecasting, Applied Quasi-Experimental Design, and Modeling in Data Science. These courses were required because they shape your thinking when you build hypotheses for your research, teach you the right strategies to create experiments, test and evaluate, and provide you with the correct set of tools. Understanding multivariate analysis and the different statistical tests should be an essential tool in any data scientist’s toolkit, along with quasi-experimental design. These tools and techniques are foundational, regardless of your specialty in data science (core machine learning, NLP, core experiment design, time forecasting, etc.).
At my university, we were given a choice for the research seminar courses. At the time, there were three options to choose from: Machine Learning, Unstructured Data, and Forecasting. Personally, I took Machine Learning and Unstructured Data, as I am passionate about these sub-fields in AI. The course structure differed from professor to professor. For Machine Learning, we were asked to read research papers and then write a one-page summary divided strategically. The goal of these seminars was to teach PhD students how to get better at reading research papers, how to summarize them effectively, and how to develop the habit of writing. It shouldn’t be a big surprise, but as a PhD student, you have to write a lot until the end of the program! Some professors urged us to make writing a discipline, even if we only write 1-2 sentences a day. I believe this is essential.
Discipline vs Procrastination
Being a graduate student, you might find yourself dilly-dallying and then waiting until the pressure of a deadline to finish writing your paper or any other write-up. If you find yourself procrastinating on writing your thesis, trust me, you are not alone. There is a certain charm about working under pressure and scribbling until a minute before the deadline, fueled by a huge amount of coffee or energy drinks. Weird adrenaline, some might say! However, this is not sustainable. From personal experience, I can tell you that if you don’t sleep well, your brain doesn’t function properly. Then you may have to come up with an entirely new strategy to solve your problem. Therefore, I’d strongly urge you to write consistently and not leave everything to the 11th hour.
I always felt I had two different personalities: one disciplined and one prone to procrastination. The disciplined one would tell me to write my thesis as soon as I thought of any idea, no matter how imperfect it might be, whereas the procrastinator would say, "Go for that drive on Highway 1," or "Try out that new coffee shop in SF that you’ve been wanting to visit for so long." Most of the time, the procrastinator won. Usually, in this case, I found my way back to writing and finishing in two ways: either my thesis adviser would remind me that I had a ton of work to do, or my guilt would take over.
Thesis Adviser: Make or Break your PhD Journey
Many have asked me how to choose a PhD adviser. There is no one answer to this, honestly. However, from what I have seen and heard from other doctorates, choosing a thesis adviser can either make or break your PhD experience. So, be careful. Do your homework on the professor, talk to their previous students (if applicable), figure out your research interests and see if they align with the professors you have shortlisted, and talk to the professors before it is time to start working on the research. Be proactive.
I can tell you how I approached this. I connected with one of my Master’s professors, and we used to meet once every two weeks to discuss the progress on potential research topics. After a while, we both realized that the topic of interest was not a fit for us, so my professor directed me to another professor, who then became my thesis adviser.
I was quite lucky to have an enthusiastic, smart, and resourceful adviser. We used to meet at our set frequency and discuss ideas for my research, how to approach any problem, which journals and conferences to look for, progress, and more. They would review everything I wrote and give timely feedback. I still remember their favorite sentence to say to me: “Sonam, stop being vague, be concrete in your writing.” If it wasn’t for the feedback, I would not have had two of my papers published.
PhD Essentials
Step into this journey only if you are sure to commit 3-5 years of your life to it. (I have known PhD dropouts who are quite successful in their lives now, so this option is not completely discarded.) It is ideal to finish what you started.
Read, read a lot. Research articles, blogs, books, newsletters, whitepapers, case studies, anything you can get your hands on, relevant to your research topic, read it. This will help you with 2 things:
Writing your papers and thesis becomes easier.
Differentiate between good and bad research articles.
Write, as I mentioned earlier. Find a structure for writing. In our cohort, we were provided with a literature review structure and I found it very useful. The structure will differ from professor to professor and university to university.
Don’t try to be a perfectionist. Learn from my mistake! Your first draft will not be the best one, so you might as well just write whatever comes to mind. Then review it, and have it reviewed by your peers and adviser.
Find your pace with your adviser. Show your initiative, and be proactive when you give progress updates.
Please don’t be discouraged if you have to change topics of research. Been there, done that, it sucks, but you move on to the next one. That’s why reading helps, and communication with your peers is key too.
Present your work whether it is just a topic of research that piqued your interest, or you did an experimental analysis, or thesis proposal. This helps improve your presentation skills, and public speaking and overall, refine your self-confidence and keeps everyone in the loop with your research.
When you make an important decision about your thesis, please make sure to involve as few people as possible. The more people you involve, the more opinions may clash and make it difficult for you. I worked directly with my thesis adviser and that was it. All the other committee members were in the loop about my progress.
My friend and I used to ask a question to ourselves, why are we doing this to ourselves, every day? The reason I shared this is because you will have ups and downs, highs and lows, and it is okay to have such moments. Just remember the big picture, and continue to move forward.
Last, but not the least, take breaks! Don’t forget to live life and be burned out. That doesn’t bode well in the long run. Hang out with your loved ones, take trips, eat out, and drink nice coffee or cocktails. Find some me-time.
If I Could Go Back in Time and Do It Again, Will I or Will I Not?
Yes, I would do my PhD again. Would I follow the same steps I took? Probably not. However, the day I defended my PhD, I had such a sense of accomplishment from doing worthwhile and important research and contributing to science. The day I walked on the stage at my commencement ceremony, wearing the cap with tassel and the big regalia, was the day it finally hit me that I finished my PhD. It was one of the biggest academic achievements of my life to date. Seeing my family and professors smile with pride and joy, and friends cheering from near and far, was quite wholesome. It was all worth it. It added a gold star to my resume, and I became more patient and realized how much I enjoyed research.
For those interested in my research topic, here it is: “Finding a linguistic measure to identify gender bias in social media data using Natural Language Processing.” My publications can be found here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sonam-Gupta-7 and subscribe to my page to learn more about my experiments with AI!
Thank you for sharing a detailed journey. We need to learn how to end it, not just starting it.