1. So, how are you going to get a job with your PhD? #humanities #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
2. Wait, someone gave you money to study that?!?! #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
3. So, how is the writing up going?? *shudders* #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
4. But how does your research relate to the "real" world? #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
5. Oh, I can't wait to read your book! (yeah, it's *that* easy to get published) #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
6. You have to keep networking if you want to land that job! #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
7. So, you're going to become a professor right? I mean, that's really your only option.... #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
8. I have some great teaching experience for you, but yeah, we can't really pay you for it! #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
9. Are you nervous about your viva/defense? I've heard some horror stories, let me tell you all of them! #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
10. Hey, I'm thinking of doing a PhD, do you think I should do it? (ehhh, ask me in 10 years time..............) #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
Some of the responses to #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD were both insightful, funny, and often way too close to home! Learn from these when you next talk to a PhD student!
@FionaEWhelan "When does your summer vacation start?" Never #tenthingsnottosaytoaphd
@FionaEWhelan I was once asked: "As a taxpayer, how does your research benefit me?" - gobsmacked! #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
@FionaEWhelan “This is Amy, she used to work on serious things and now she does this’. #tenthingsnottosaytoaphd
@FionaEWhelan "Aren't you a bit too old to be a student?" #tenthingsnottosaytoaphd :(
@FionaEWhelan Also, "You've given up a permanent, full-time career to go back to uni. I think you'll regret this." #tenthingsnottosaytoaphd
@FionaEWhelan "How long to go...you must be nearly finished by now?" #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
@FionaEWhelan 'But that's not like being a real doctor is it.' #TenThingsNotToSayToAPhD
@FionaEWhelan "You think too much like a woman, so you shouldn't be in this field (philosophy)." I was mad but used it as extra motivation!
@FionaEWhelan 'Your research is original, ground-breaking, and relevant. Someone else (an Irish citizen) should be doing it, not you.'
@FionaEWhelan It was kinda refreshingly depressing to get my first "Bla bla leftist waste of taxpayer money whargarbl!!" back in the day.
@FionaEWhelan I had a senior academic ask me to get off a library computer because his research was more pressing than mine.
@FionaEWhelan 'You're way too young to be a real PhD student and looking at these rare manuscripts. You might want to cut your hair.'
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