KT Cooper is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A carbonate geochemist by training, she has just returned from a three-month secondment to Houston, Texas, USA working with Exxon Mobil.
Last week the newly formed Bristol Doctoral College hosted a postgraduate seminar entitled “Surviving the stress of a PhD” by James Hayton, PhD. My initial thoughts on attending a talk such as this were that it might be a little patronising (no one wants to hear about how someone’s PhD experience was a walk in the park) and would incorporate a re-hash of project management techniques such as Gantt charts, to-do lists and the like.