Anyone who watched the final of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing will have heard words like ‘resilient’, ‘belief’ and ‘self-confidence’ thrown in the direction of the four finalists by the judges, with all contestants having been on a ‘journey’. It got a bit boring, all this waxing lyrical, but perhaps being told that this or that finalist had demonstrated to the general public that ‘anything is possible’ is just a tad over the top. Yes, the overall winner was blind comedian Chris McCausland, and what he had achieved was indeed truly remarkable, not least because he had started out with little self-belief. Furthermore, his professional partner Dianne Buswell, must have had extraordinary skill and patience to work out and carry through the tricky art of teaching someone the look and execution oof a dance when they cannot see what they are doing, or even meant to be doing.
However, this is an academic blog and there is a point to that opening paragraph beyond revealing Strictly is a secret pleasure of mine, that does bring a smile to my face. I worry that being told ‘anything is possible’, with the best of intentions, is a bit of a lie. If you are doing an experiment in a lab with inadequate equipment, then you aren’t very likely to make a major breakthrough. If you are setting out on a PhD, however determined you may be and however dedicated to research, the sad truth is academic careers are a pyramid and just because you believe in yourself does not mean your journey will end up with you winning a Nobel Prize, or even a permanent position as a professor. Sadly, there are more people setting out than become tenured and although it is ‘possible’ it is by no means certain and keeping trying is not an infallible route to success. In reality, many things can intervene, ranging from bad luck (e.g. results being scooped) to bad supervisors. More on the latter to follow.
However, a so-called growth mindset is undoubtedly going to be helpful, the belief that being good at a subject is not simply about innate talent, but also about a work ethic and putting in the hours to build on the strengths you do have. Not giving up the first time something goes wrong, but keeping going until it is clear that, for whatever reason, success is not going to meet your endeavours. So, words of encouragement to keep a student going through the inevitable tough days, reinforcing resilience and self-confidence are definitely helpful, but that does not mean that an academic career beckons, even if the award of a PhD does.
One of the things that angers me most about some of my academic colleagues is that they may say, sometimes in totally blunt ways, if you don’t end up like the boss you are a failure. In other words, that any career other than academia is beneath their notice. Which is rubbish. We need scientifically-trained people in many parts of the economy, from journalism to Whitehall, from heavy industry to the classroom. Just because a PhD student leaves academia does not make them a failure. On the contrary, they may be using their skillset in wonderful and productive ways, which cannot be said about all academics.
Very often something professors don’t say to their teams is that they are doing a good job. A student may be struggling for all kinds of reasons, personal or professional, but if they are sticking at something, that in itself is a positive and should be celebrated. Such kind words may help someone progress and develop more confidence. A recent article in the FT spelled this out in a very different context (of course, a more financial setting and language), articulating that praise may help to offset lower pay, encouraging someone to stay in a job rather than move on elsewhere dissatisfied with their lot. As the article said
Once you earn enough to meet what you deem to be basic needs, you are more inclined to value non-remunerative aspects of work, such as praise and appreciation.
The same may apply in academic science. Praise shouldn’t cost anything to the supervisor, but can be received as something of real value by the recipient and help them to go on to better things. But, that doesn’t mean that if every supervisor praised every student they would all stay in academia. Of course not, it doesn’t work like that.
Nevertheless, I think academic supervisors should pay more heed to encouragement and devote less time to trying to convince a student that quitting the lab for some other profession equates with failure. Goodness knows, we need more physics teachers in our classrooms, more scientifically-qualified civil servants and more journalists who can readily explain exponential growth, to take a specific example. The scientific training acquired during a PhD is a wonderful basis for many careers that don’t have science in the job title. Each student who takes their skills into a different sphere is helping to improve our nation’s scientific literacy, the benefits of which may be uncertain, but are certainly important.
