Transcript A creative relationship with your supervisor

Managing your supervisor
How to be creative about your relationship
How to develop your relationship to be creative
Prof Carole Goble
[email protected]
Topics
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A relationship
Communication
Situation
Interactions
Responsibilities
supervised
[Richard Butterworth]
Take Home Message
Your supervisor is human too.
• Think about the roles &
responsibilities of you
and your supervisor
• Identify the issues in
this relationship and
how they change over
time
• Exchange ideas and
strategies
• A positive experience.
(Mostly).
Common Issues
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False expectations
Seeing the whole picture
Personality clashes
Lack of communication
• Other pressures?
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu
/nll/?p=3154
What motivates your supervisor?
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Original, brilliant work.
Recognition and reputation
Good research results for publication
Competitive advantage
• Originality, finding new ideas
• Testing new ideas they haven’t the time to test
themselves
• Being a pedagogue
• Avoiding trouble with failing students
• Positive relationships with co-workers
What are the stresses on
staff (and students)?
• Methodological
– Finding something novel
– Trying to understand the
problem
– Alone in the dark
• Directional
– Too many directions at once
– Poor direction
– Feeling not getting anywhere
• Operational
– Deadlines
– Teaching
– Your colleagues
Bonus ones for Supervisors
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More teaching
Multiple attention needing students
Changing guidelines
Research/Admin
Endless meetings
Constant time-slicing
• Personal
– Being unappreciated
– Guilt
– Insecurity, Fear of failure
Making vs Meeting Time
Interaction with your supervisor
• A supervisor contract
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Regular meetings
Ask for feedback
Set up an agenda
Take minutes
Push vs Pull
Lone vs teams
Multiple supervisors
Interdisciplinary supervisors
Meeting Frequency
Supervisor Classification
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Professor Never There
Dr Slave Labour No Research
Dr No New Ideas Since 1995
Professor Changes Direction
Dr Lone Worker
Dr Overbearing Interferer
Dr Test until you Break
Prof Perfect Supervisor
Dr Never Satisfied
Dr Happy to be Mediocre
Prof Different planet
• Any others?
• How many PhD
students does it take to
change a light bulb?
• One.
• The student holds the
bulb and the world
rotates around them.
PhD student responsibilities
(what supervisors like)
• Try not to be late
• Questions
– Ask questions no matter how
obvious
– Find people who know the
answers
• Be
– Prepared, Self-motivated
– Cooperative, Honest
– Passionate
– Prepared to take criticism
Supervisor responsibility
(what students like ….)
• Make meetings comfortable
– Supervisor pays attention
• Constructive criticism
• Clear direction
• Notification of absence
– just when you are writing up
• Reading your writing
Supervisor responsibility
(what students like ….): Reading!
Feeds
Quality
• Final versions or
intermediates?
• Pieces of writing: Executive
summary
• Email it – or deliver paper
• Give time to read
• Extreme reading together
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Poorly written or Boring
What’s the point?
Get someone else to read it
Read out loud
A template for good writing
Summary:
you are both human
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Good communication
Be professional
Show enthusiasm
Both reflect and learn
Keep perspective
Acknowledgements
• Dr Lynn Clark & Dr Louise Innes, University of
Liverpool Graduate School
• Richard Butterworth
– http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/staffpages/richardb/PhDtalk.html
• Diana Bental
– http://www.dmst.aueb.gr/dds/rese/phd/phdsups.htm
• PhD Comics
– http://www.phdcomics.com