Navigating Your PhD Journey: Lessons from the Startup World

Studying for a PhD is a major commitment both personally and academically, and requires your full attention for years of dedicated study to achieve your goals.

As this is such a unique experience, taking lessons from similar fields of committed work can benefit you hugely.

Here are our top four tips taken from the startup world to help you complete your doctorate degree with success.

1.      Project Management

As with any large project, a PhD requires a large amount of stamina to undertake, and commitment for a number of years.

As with the beginnings of a startup company, a PhD hypothesis requires passion and drive to bring a statement into a full-bodied piece of researched work.

As the amount of research required to complete a doctoral

degree is so huge, it requires a large amount of organisation skills and successful project management to bring it to fruition.

2.      Networking Skills are Invaluable

As in the business and entrepreneurship world, networking can help to elevate you to higher places in both a professional and academic sense.

Networking puts you in the eyeline of high achieving professionals who may be looking to expand their teams, but in the academic world, networking can give you attendance to conferences and other exciting opportunities that will both enhance your research and enrich your experience of studying your PhD.

You may also want to create a LinkedIn profile that will allow you to network online with other professionals in similar fields and roles, swap ideas and compare career trajectories and opportunities.

3.      Manage Your Time Carefully

Time management is a key component of a successful PhD and startup business. One example of excellent time management skills consists of how you study your PhD. If you’re keen to work on and progress your career alongside your studies, why not enrol in a distance learning course that will allow you to do both?

Course providers like Signum Magnum College are purveyors of a wide range of PhD courses that are crafted to be entirely distance learning based, meaning that you can continue with your work effortlessly without worrying about taking a potential career break.

4.      Leadership and Self-Discipline

As both a PhD student and an entrepreneur, you will need to enhance your leadership and self-discipline skills. A PhD is a largely independent project, and you will work almost entirely alone aside from supervision from a faculty member.

The same is true for an entrepreneur who is starting up a new business. Working alone and making independent decisions are the true make-up of a successful business owner, so having strong communication skills, empathy and having the self-discipline to work consistently hard are all the ingredients for a successful PhD candidate and entrepreneur.

If you want to continue to improve your leadership skills and confidence, asking your manager for feedback will help you to know which areas of your work need the most attention.

Keeping a log of these in a planner from retailers like Papier will help you keep track of your progress, and the beautiful aesthetic of the stationery will look great in meetings too!

Do you have any tips from the startup world for completing a PhD? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!