If Your PhD Were a Dessert...

When I was doing my PhD, I remember my Mum saying, "Why isn't it more fun? Isn't it a luxury to be exploring a topic you find interesting for so long?" But there is so much pressure wrapped up in doing a PhD. Monthly supervisor meetings testing whether you've made enough progress. Looming deadlines for presentations, or poster competitions, or the 3-minute thesis. The uncertainty of what comes afterwards. Will there be a postdoc? Do I even want one? The voice saying, "You won't get one.."

And despite spending years developing specialised skills very few people tell you what else those skills are useful for or where they might take you outside academia.

The vibe at my University was that a PhD is the pre-requisite in the endless climb to be a professor or to be slightly different to move into a research-intensive industry. Some of my peers seemed to have a genuine curiosity and a desire to discover something new in their field. I loved learning and communicating my findings, but I always wanted to be more in the real world, talking to people who might be using the findings rather than endlessly writing them up for a paper.

At the time I didn't realise that a PhD is also a process not just an outcome. You need good supervisor and peer support to not go completely under, but to an extent the bits you may not enjoy at the time- the hair pulling, the feeling lost and uncertainty - are the point. During the PhD we're learning to manage complex projects, unpick problems, communicate difficult ideas, have freedom and creativity of thought and think critically. Those are skills that are valued far beyond the paywall of a journal and that I use daily now.

I didn't realise during my PhD that they are so many spheres in which I could thrive professionally in addition to academia. Now, as research consultants working largely with public sector organisations and charities Kohlrabi has collaborated with evaluators, science communicators, policy-makers, public involvement specialists, bid writers, research managers and funders. Many of these people have PhDs but have chosen careers where research directly improves people's lives. They evaluate whether new services are making a difference, design public health campaigns that help people manage their health, generate evidence to inform policy changes to improve lives. They are valued. They are satisfied. They finish at 5pm.

I think it's worth remembering that however important the contribution of knowledge can be, a PhD is not your identity forever. It's not your ego. It doesn't have to define your career. Six years since I finished mine i feel like someone may as well ask me about my GCSE results. I wish i'd taken it at the time as simply a brilliant, challenging, frustrating but frequently immensely enjoyable chapter that gives you some skills that you'll use for whatever comes next.

So, with that in mind, we asked some of our collaborators to reflect back and answer a very important question, If your PhD were a dessert, what would it be?

Their surprisingly insightful answers are a reminder that perhaps we don't always need to take our PhDs quite so seriously.