the post PhD experience

I've been talking to quite a few people lately about their post PhD experiences. (I guess someone HAS done a PhD on that cos it is a very interesting phenomenon). I'm struck by one common experience - not wanting to look at the thesis (i.e. read any of it) after it has been bound. A couple of people spoke of not opening their thesis for over a year. Another shared experience appeared to be the lack of interest in writing out of their PhD, and another was the inability to write for substantial periods of time after completing their PhD.

I NEED to write soon and fast out of my own PhD. Unlike some students I didn't produce journal articles during my PhD candidature. I regret that now for two reasons. The first is that I think it would have helped me complete aspects of my analysis faster if I had. The second reason is that I now find trying to write, and trying to write journal articles quite difficult.

Due to my plan for the next few weeks (which I constructed for this blog a couple of posts ago) I am making some headway. I returned to an analysis chapter in my thesis (yes, I haven't developed an aversion to reading the final version of my thesis)and I am using this to shape up a draft of a journal article. Although it isn't easy, I have found that having the detailed CA analysis of sequences of talk "already done" gives me a good start. Since each of the sequences took many weeks to analyse and describe (sometimes months) I am now coming to look at them as my "capital" for future work.

I also had an important realisation about what was "crippling" my previous attempts at writing. I was still in PhD mode. So even a journal article turned into a mini thesis.

my thanks to those who shared their PhD experiences with me recently. zheng lin, if you are reading this blog, I was particularly struck by your own comments today about taking a year away from your phD work after it was finished. and now look at you ...