Authors: Mike Daniels, Katie-Walwyn-Brown and Kirsty McIntyre

This time 4 years ago we were enjoying what was billed to be our final summer, the last hurrah, the end of fun as we knew it. We were about to embark on our PhDs at the University of Manchester and were staring down the barrel of 4 years of intellectual challenge, sleep deprivation, and constant education. That’s all over now. We’ve gone in one end and been spat out the other having learnt more than we ever thought possible in our relatively short times here. It was in fact in a Skype meeting for a public engagement project we founded during our PhDs that we ended up casting our minds back to who we were then, and what we would tell our 2014 selves if we’d been smart enough to invent a time-machine during our PhDs. But while it may be too late for us it isn’t too late for everyone, so here’s a list of our top 20 tips to our past selves from the PhD time-machine.

1. Just say yes (not to that…) – This is easily the biggest piece of advice I (MD) could give myself, and one that I followed more by accident than deliberately. Do the random experiment your PI asks you to do, go to the random focus group because there’s free pizza, get involved in a public engagement project you’d never heard of. These are the sorts of things that get you middle authorships, amazing contacts and friends for life. Don’t break yourself – but try to get out there!

2. Have mates outside of your lab/group – Some labs are fairly small and life can be pretty isolating. Other labs function as a huge social machine and it can be easy to just do stuff with your group all the time. Either way it’s a good idea to make friends outside of your lab/group (and your field) so you can have a release when you need it (trust me, you’ll need it). Random housemates through SpareRoom, your 5 a side footy team, university clubs or societies (yes you can still join these as a PhD student), these groups are vital to your PGR life.

3. Get yourself nominated for stuff – There are lots of ways to be recognised for the hard work you put in inside or outside of your lab work/research. Keep an eye out for calls for nominations and if you think you fit the bill, pluck up the courage to ask your supervisor/peer to nominate you for it. ‘Award-winning’ is a great one for the CV!

4. Keep active – It can be easy to fall into a routine of being so tired after hours in the lab that you just slump in front of the telly when you get home. Try to keep up a semi-regular amount of exercise as you go along. Cycle/run to work every now and then, join a yoga class, find a 5 aside team; just a small amount of regular exercise will do wonders for your physical and mental health. Trust us, you’ll feel better for it!

5. Get involved in teaching – If teaching is something you want to explore, your PhD is the perfect time to try it! Get involved as a *paid* demonstrator for undergrad practicals or try one of the many other teaching opportunities as a Widening Participation Fellow, Manchester Access Programme tutor, The Brilliant Club tutor… There are loads to choose from!

6. Get Twitter – As a lowly first year PhD student it may seem like no-one cares what you have to say/think. This is not the case. Twitter can be an incredibly valuable resource for an early career scientist and what you have to say does matter. Make a profile early and follow your peers, funding bodies, key journals (+/- Kim Kardashian). Check out hashtags such as #PhDChat and #Scicomm to see what else is going on.

7. Make yourself a University of Manchester profile – This is a great way to give yourself an online presence where you can list your research interests and achievements on an official UoM platform. Search a few people that you know through research explorer and see how they’ve written theirs for tips, then sign in at pure.manchester.ac.uk to get started!

8. Ask to be involved in things – An addition to point number one. You won’t always be lucky enough to get asked to be involved in things. See something you like/think you could do? Ask how you can help out! This can lead to the same opportunities in point one and more! It possibly won’t work out, but you’ve got nothing to lose so be brave!

9. Network at conferences – Conferences are an absolute key part of academic life. Find out the key ones from your PI/peers/websites such as Keystone and ask if you can go. Apply for travel funding (relatively easy) to save the pennies on your grant and boost your CV. When you get there try to network (relatively hard), this is much easier if you don’t know anyone at the conference (I’d recommend going to the odd conference alone). Be bold and ask the big dog PI to check out your poster (or better – ask someone to introduce you), you’ll be rejected plenty of times but the sooner you develop a thick skin for that the better!

10. Practice Presentations – Presenting your work can be one of the most daunting things about the early part of a PhD. A key piece of advice is a simple one – practice! Make your presentation a few days in advance and book out a room to practice, I (MD) mean actually say it out loud. You’ll feel a bit silly (I’ve had cleaners walk in on me numerous times) but you’ll spot all the ‘choke points’ in your talk and be able to make notes on how to nail them.

11. Learn how to manage your supervisor – Make sure you set up semi-regular meetings if they aren’t already. At these meeting try to keep notes, or at the very least make sure everyone is clear what the conclusions are from the meeting (i.e. who is going to do what by when).

12. Organise your data – Arrange with your PI right at the start how you are going to organise your data. Where are you going to store it, how are you going to label it, how are you going to categorise it. Nail these early and you’ll save yourself and your PI from future nightmares.

13. Actually use your lab book – Keep good notes, you don’t necessarily have to write up a detailed report of every experiment (although speak to your PI about this) but it’s an absolute necessity you make notes while in the lab. You added the wrong dose to the cells, your media looked a bit weird, you borrowed someone else’s buffer; these can be hugely important in working out why something went wrong. Also try to do your maths manually – this keeps your brain sharp for that time when you need to make something up asap and you don’t have a calculator/molarity-calculating website.

14. Don’t freak if you don’t have data – All PhDs run at different speeds and your productivity will be more variable than the data from my first year! Don’t worry if someone else in your lab/cohort is creaming it and you’re getting nothing. Keep plugging away and your time will come. PhDs (and in fact a lot of science) are at least 50% troubleshooting. That’s part of the job!

15. Learn how to use Word – Or even better, LaTex. Choose a referencing software (e.g. Mendeley/Endnote) and use it, learn how to cross-reference figures so that they automatically update and learn how to use themes/styles correctly etc. when pulling together your continuation report for the end of 1st year. DON’T leave it until you’re trying to pull together your entire thesis!

16. Keep a file of everything you ever do – How many people came to that event you helped with? What was your role in organising that conference? Keep a note of everything you contribute to, run, or help with because a) your funders might ask for a list of all this at the end of each year (you will learn to dread the phrase ‘ResearchFish’…), b) these are useful for those awards mentioned up there and c) at some point you’re going to have to get a ‘real job’ (and this will help!)

17. Academic phrasebank – Stuck for the perfect word and thesaurus.com isn’t helping you out? The University of Manchester made a great tool called ‘Academic Phrasebank’ to bail you out and give you a clever way of saying that previous studies have been crap.

18. Write early, write often – Thinking about writing and actually writing are VERY different. Putting your ideas on paper (or laptop) makes you think about them with much more clarity and detail. Whether it’s your continuation report, your first manuscript or just a one page summary of your progress and plans, WRITE. Future you will be incredibly grateful.

19. Talk about your research – Talk to your colleagues, talk to people at conferences, talk to that friendly pensioner on the bus. Discussing your ideas with different audiences will make you a better presenter and might lead to some interesting new ideas.

20. You are NOT too junior – Don’t turn down opportunities because you are just a first year. When my supervisor emailed the whole lab asking for people to write a review or attend conferences I (KWB) thought those emails weren’t for me because I didn’t know enough yet. You will never know enough, that’s why you write the review/go to the conference/do the science stand-up comedy set. If you’re really not sure whether an opportunity is right for you, ask your supervisor or a friendly colleague, chances are they will tell you to go for it.

By Mike Daniels, Katie-Walwyn-Brown and Kirsty McIntyre