Embracing the transition: Insights from a PhD student turned new academic

Degree free! What's next?

Psychology is one of the most versatile degrees you can undertake, you can do anything with psychology, and you can work anywhere! But what about when your interests aren't in mental health and industry isn't for you? There are options - have you considered academia? Whether you're looking to progress academically or work in higher education, or both, staying in academia offers you the opportunity to do both. 

I opted for both, at once. As you can probably imagine, embarking on the journey from being a psychology student to becoming an academic in psychology is a transformative and rewarding experience – but it can be very daunting. Scattered with new challenges, excitement, and a newfound (and pretty profound) sense of responsibility. You learn to navigate through this transition and find yourself traversing the realms of research, teaching, and developing professionally; all while shaping not only your academic career but also contributing to the learning of up-and-coming eager minds.

Whilst carrying out your own reading, research, data collection, and thesis writing. It can be easy to blur the lines of being both the student and the teacher – and despite all of the skills and careers workshops, the graduate events, and the workshops, nobody seems to focus on those of us who want to stay in academia and progress. I'm going to share with you my insights of this whirlwind of a multifaceted journey and what it's like to be both the student and the teacher – at once.

A student again, but different

Staying on in academia and undertaking a PhD is increasingly popular – but that doesn't detract from the fact that it can be a profoundly personal, and academic journey. It enables you to immerse yourself into the depths of intellectual exploration! You'll find yourself faced with a lot of impasses, a lot of 'I don't want to do this anymore-s', and perhaps a panicked few 'how do I even do this-s?'. 

Despite this, it does ultimately lead to some hard earned personal growth. The PhD experience can be one of the loneliest in academia if you allow it to be, it's a big difference from lecture theatres and group work in seminars and workshops. You are now the specialist, you know your research area more than anyone else because you found it, you nurtured it, and you designed the research, all in order to pioneer the journey towards new, exciting, information. 

That being said, while it's easy to isolate yourself (albeit inadvertently) you don't have to. You should seek out other PhD students, it doesn't matter that they're not doing the same work as you, or even if they don't understand. The importance is that they're going on their version of the same journey and will be a great source of support to have around when the 'I really don't want to do this anymore-s' set in.

At the onset, as a PhD student you'll encounter a nexus of feelings somewhere between excitement and trepidation. These feelings develop into determination and drive to trickle down into what drives you to develop your ideas and at long last, the most worthy of pride and satisfaction.

I don't mean to paint postgraduate research as an awful, terrible, isolating, arduous task – it's hard work but it's worth it. You will find yourself in an entirely different scenario to undergraduate, and even postgraduate courses because you are your own cohort, but that doesn't make it any less worthwhile, honest.

The inbetween era

As you'd expect, the transition from a PhD student to an academic is a pretty significant shift in roles, responsibilities, and expectations, it's daunting. You know that you know things, because you're doing a PhD! Also – you got the job, so that means you know things, right? Can it be entirely overwhelming with the same 'I don't want to do this anymore' mentality of a PhD? Absolutely.

For many (including me), this transition period can be both exhilarating and (really) overwhelming. You've finally got to grips with being an advocate for yourself, being your own boss and accountable only to yourself, with all the consequences…And then it gets turned on its head and you are now having not only do all of those things; but also be responsible for the teaching, facilitating, and reinforcement of the learning and understanding of other students, student who have not yet necessarily found their specialism, decided their path or even heard of some of the things that you're going to throw at them. 

This, and you have to tread the line of mentor vs peer carefully – particularly when you find yourself teaching students who may have been more casual peers before you took up the teaching role.

It's easy to find yourself overcommitting, over-researching, over-preparing, and neglecting your own work as you try to find the balance between still being a PhD student and being an academic. It's a process of re-acclimatising to the institutional culture, establishing networks and finding your place within the academic community. Between building new relationships with staff (who may have taught you – or still be supervising your PhD!), students, and potential research collaborators, it's a wildly intellectually stimulating environment that it's easy to foster and support your conducive growth and development.

Okay, so, now we're teaching

One of the primary responsibilities of any university-level academic is teaching. Whether it's delivering lectures, facilitating seminars, or supervising student projects, effective teaching is integral to shaping the next generation of psychologists. As a new academic, there's a sense of excitement in sharing one's expertise with eager minds, inspiring curiosity, and fostering critical thinking skills – as well as the fear that you don't know enough about anything, at all.  

It's common to feel out of your depth but that's not always a bad thing – you wouldn't be worried unless you wanted to do well, succeed, and inspire, right?

As you can imagine, teaching comes with its own set of challenges. Balancing the demands of preparation, marking, and providing constructive feedback while juggling other responsibilities (ahem, the PhD work that you're inevitably going to push aside) can be overwhelming at times. 

Nonetheless, the opportunity to engage with students, witness their intellectual growth, and contribute to their academic journey is immensely rewarding, and all in all, you'll be a better student yourself for having navigated both sides of academia at the same time.

Don't forget about research!

Research is academia – we can't teach what we don't know, and we can't know what we don't learn. So, we have to find it out first. When you're new, there's likely a keen desire to make meaningful contributions to…well, anything. Depending what stage you're at with your PhD, you may have already published, you may have presented, but you may not have got to that point at all yet. 

As such, getting yourself in research with other members of staff can feel really daunting? Exciting? Necessary?  Whether it's identifying interests, establishing research, writing proposals, filling out ethics applications, securing funding, collecting data or disseminating findings through publications, conferences and presentations; there's a lot to do in research that will benefit you as both an academic and as a postgraduate researcher, and is a good place to bridge the gap between the two roles.

Bringing it all together

In summary, the journey that is being a psychology student and becoming an academic in is undeniably transformative and enriching. This multifaceted journey, marked by challenges, excitement, and a profound sense of responsibility, offers you the opportunity to immerse yourself in intellectual exploration while playing your part in shaping the future of psychology. 

Despite the daunting nature of transitioning from student and a researcher to student and teacher and researcher, this path is deeply rewarding, fostering personal and academic growth along the way.

Embarking on a PhD and staying in academia allows you to delve into the depths of their research interests, pioneering new knowledge and contributing to the academic community. However, this journey is not without its struggles. It's not uncommon for PhD students to encounter feelings of isolation and self-doubt, coupled with the experiences of a new academic navigating the balance between teaching, research, and the aforementioned personal development.

So what? Ultimately the choice is yours, but psychology doesn't have to be about industry and mental health. Academia is a solid option, be it as student, researcher, teacher, or as a combination of all three. It's worth it.

Author biography 

Megan Biddulph is a second-year PhD student and associate lecturer at the University of Derby, having completed a BSc and MRes in Psychology at the same institution. Megan's specialism is the psychology of conspiracy beliefs with a doctoral thesis focused on the roles of fear and control within conspiracy beliefs. Megan has a wider interest in the psychology of beliefs more generally, and how they can be expressed in fictional settings.  

Twitter/X: @MeganLMB

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganbiddulph/