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Why I Walked Away from my Ph.D

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Writing about failure is hard. Even if the failure is only a perceived failure.

I officially walked away from my PhD program at a large R1 institution about a month ago. Writing the words “I officially withdraw” to the administration of my program was an incredibly difficult moment. I felt a large sense of loss, like I had just lost a family member. I was officially laying my PhD to rest.

I went into a prolonged term of mourning. Nothing felt right anymore. I felt like I didn’t know WHO I was anymore or where I fit into the world. I used to introduce myself as “Veronica, neuroscience graduate student”; now I’m just “Veronica”. Not having a way to identify myself to others made me feel worthless. I felt as if I was no longer contributing to the community or society and had become a burden to all those around me.

Health tips for research groups

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Nature asked scientists to recommend one thing that institutional and laboratory leaders could do to make science more productive, rigorous and happy.

The big push: are PhDs too tough?

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As academia’s most exalted qualification, the PhD is still widely regarded as solid proof of elevated intellectual power. It can also evoke loftier ideas of “brilliance”, “excellence” and, on some occasions, even “genius”.

The perception of the PhD is rather different within academia, it seems. According to a new paper published in Teaching in Higher Education, many academics and doctoral students see the PhD process not so much as an intellectual feat but as a test of character – or, in the words of one PhD supervisor interviewed for the report, a “matter of personality rather than abilities”.

The core traits of career success

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Early on in my career as a headhunter, I became interested in the dozens of qualities that make top scientists stand out. Then, a conversation with one of my contacts shifted my thinking. “Success in the biotech industry, like any pursuit, seems to boil down to no more than about a half-dozen things,” Leo Kim told me more than 2 decades ago. He was the vice president of a biotech company at the time, and I frantically wrote down his words as he piled great advice on top of great advice. After our discussion, I began to think about the topic in a different way. I had been looking for dozens of different factors, but is it really just a handful of core traits that make the difference?

Improving science Ph.D. training to yield broader options

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Receiving a Ph.D. in a scientific field generally involves a lot of very hard work. It also connotes a relatively narrow focus, as the student ultimately concentrates on a specific set of skills and subject matter directly related to their dissertation project. But with the number of Ph.D. recipients far outnumbering tenure track academic research […]

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Contact

Ahna Skop, PhD, DSc
University of Wisconsin-Madison
2426 Genetics
Madison, WI 53706
608-263-1593
skop@wisc.edu

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