We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2025
I knew I wanted to do a PhD when I was undergoing my undergraduate studies in Biomedical Science. From then on, I knew I wanted to be a research scientist. In my field, you are limited for chances in high positions without a doctoral degree, so it seemed like a no brainer to me. After my undergraduate degree I went on to pursue a master's and, on completing that, I decided to get a few months of work experience, while applying for PhD programmes. I started applying in 2017 and, by the time I had received offers, I had applied to almost 50 different projects over the course of three years. Now, I am a first- year Medical Science PhD student at a prestigious university, and the whole experience feels surreal.
There were many times I told myself that I was not going to continue applying and times when the thought of completing another application form would fill me with dread. Repeated rejections were a huge damper on my work and motivation to even pursue a PhD. I had convinced myself that I was not smart enough to be offered a PhD, which, of course, was not true. Some of the feedback I had received was that other candidates were stronger, or that I had a good knowledge of the project but my experience was lacking. Most times, I was told there were too many applicants to receive individual feedback. Even now that I have started, I am sometimes hit by a feeling of imposter syndrome when things do not work in my project or there are things I do not understand. The feeling of not being good enough to be in the programme still hits me.
During my many failed applications, I decided to continue gaining some work experience and train in my field of interest. Looking back, I am glad I had the chance to work and learn skills that have been extremely useful now that I am doing my PhD. One of the most important things I learned is that your journey is not going to be the same as everyone else’s, and it may not go the way you plan it either. In some cases, it may end up even better than you could imagine.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
