Ask a Career Consultant
Hi there! Every week, the Career Development Team for Researchers at the Office of Career and Professional Development answers an anonymized career development question from the UCSF community. You can also visit the archive of all of our past columns. To submit your own question, email it to [email protected] with the subject line 'ASKOCPD.'
A 5th year PhD student asks—
I have just about 1 year left in my PhD, and I’m realizing I need to start planning to finish things up, not just continue working kind of endlessly on my projects. Like so many things in grad school, nobody really teaches you how to do things; nobody teaches you how to finish. Where do I start?
Congrats on nearing the end of your PhD! Finishing up will admittedly look different from person to person since your timeline is ultimately decided by your thesis committee. Because of that, the first thing I would recommend is having a thesis committee meeting as soon as possible. In my experience, committee members will feel better about your graduation if they have seen periodic progress and feel in the loop, rather than being approached when your desired graduation date is rapidly approaching.
In that meeting, I would dedicate time to discuss your timeline explicitly. I would offer up what you consider to be a reasonable timeline and ask them what they think. Some committees may give you a detailed list of what they want to see before you graduate (i.e. certain publication milestones), while others may be less detail-oriented and instead focus on your general goals. I know this can feel intimidating, but one of the core functions of your committee is to decide your timeline, so these conversations are expected. If your committee doesn’t agree on the timeline, that’s a different problem to tackle.
Once your committee agrees, you’ll need to talk to your PI about their publication and graduation expectations. Because of the structure of graduate school and the peer review process, this can often feel like a moving target, but having the committee-approved timeline will serve as a key external touchpoint to keep you—and your PI—on track. We recommend breaking down your timeline into smaller steps (SMART goals) and building in time for real life. All of these conversations are hard, so definitely take advantage of the resources and 1:1 consultations here at CPD!
-Kyla Foster, Career and Professional Development Leadership Intern