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Pursuing Your PhD Along

THE PhD Roadmap

Advice & Resources for Each Stage of Your PhD Journey

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Preparing for your Phd

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Starting your Phd

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Preparing for Prelims/comps

  • Take notes from the beginning:

    • Make a list of every article you read (from seminars to new publications) so you can have a centralized place of all core articles of interest to you and your research.

    • Take notes on each paper for comps/prelims (e.g., use an Excel sheet to denote the major contributions, theory, and method for each paper).​

    • Organize notes effectively to manage the wealth of knowledge gained through research.

    • Build your citation library early.

  • Read all core articles relevant to your field:

    • ​Start by reading the older literature to gain insights from the foundational work in the field.

    • Pay attention to reading lists curated for your seminars for essential readings. Experts hand-select those lists and there’s a reason those articles are included (including any optional readings).

    • Here are a few lists of core articles to read prior to prelims/comps:

  • Know each step of the research process as detailed in the Research Roadmap.

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Teaching for the First Time

  • Write your teaching philosophy before teaching for the first time to guide your practices. Then revise this afterward so you already have one item ready for the job market.

  • Attend the MOBTS Conference and Doctoral Institute the summer before you teach for the first time to hear about the best teaching methods in use and to get ideas to make teaching more fun for you. The Doctoral Institute application is due the spring beforehand.

  • Ask senior students and faculty who have taught the same class before for their materials so you don't have to start from scratch. But make sure to personalize them to your personal teaching style.

  • Don't say yes to every teaching opportunity - get advice from others before saying yes to certain courses. 

    • Be skeptical of teaching/service "opportunities" that drain time and energy. Many of these will often be presented as “opportunities” and while they can be, they may not be worth the cost. Always. Be. Questioning.

    • Develop a tactful way to say no to teaching tasks that don’t benefit you.

  • Find something about teaching and service that interests you. We all have to do it, and it’s a lot more fun if you find a way to enjoy certain aspects of it.

  • If you're going to use clips/videos while teaching, check out Jordan Sanders' crowdsourced Google Sheet of clips/vidoes for common topics in our courses.

  • Leverage an inclusive pedagogy (courtesy of the SIOP LGBTQ+ Committee).

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Going on the Job Market

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Completing Your Dissertation

  • Start thinking about your dissertation topic as early as possible. It will inevitably change, so thinking about different ideas early on will help you to iterate toward a great topic.

  • The year before you graduate, apply for as many grants and awards as you can. Here's an initial list.

  • Form a strong and helpful committee - they ultimately decide whether or not you graduate so you want people you trust.

  • At the end of the day, you just need to graduate. So if it comes down to doing an even better dissertation or graduating on time, choose to graduate on time.

  • Begin thinking right away about tenure:

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Go to:

Honing Your Management Abilities Along

The academia life roadmap

Advice & Resources for Multiple Career Management Skills

Developed by Chris Winchester & Beth Campbell with the help of 100+ wonderful colleagues in the field

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© 2024 The PhD GPS. All rights reserved. We do not own the rights to any of the work shared on this site. The advice/resources do not represent any institution, university, and/or person.

THE PhD GPS

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