PhD candidate testimonial

I wanted to share a little of my story with you if you are considering doing a PhD in the hope that it might be helpful for you. 

My professional background is in digital media, education and innovation having worked in a range of organisations including TAFE, the ABC and UTS as well as in startups and community-based organisations.  

I enjoy working in strategy, innovation and transformation roles and have a wide range of interests including technology and social change, new economy and the commons, resilience and experiential learning - among many others. My educational background is a BA in Communications and an MA in New Media. I found in my mid-career I wanted to try to extend my own research and practice based on the work I was doing at the ABC in technology, innovation, learning and social change however I was never able to find anywhere that felt my work might fit. I was hoping to integrate my study with my professional work so that they might mutually inform each other in other words have a 'dual track' career. 

However, when I tried to find somewhere to apply to do a PhD I felt my ideas and approach didn't really fit with any one discipline and I couldn't find any supervisors that had an interest in the industry application of some of the ideas I was interested in. Also, I had young children and I realised it was probably too ambitious trying to hold down a challenging job as well as juggling family life at that time. Instead, I focused on developing, leading, implementing and documenting a range of experimental initiatives in the ABC Innovation and then in the UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit. 

So fast forward a few years and this feeling was still with me that I wanted a framework to do my own research and writing and to really develop my professional identity in the innovation research space to influence policy and systems change for social good. The opportunity came up to apply for a PhD at TD School (formerly the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation) while I was working at UTS and I submitted an application and was fortunate to be successful in starting my PhD in 2019. The focus of my research is on resilience and experiential learning for young people in the context of climate disruption and uncertain futures. It's been an amazing privilege and opportunity to take a deep dive into an area I'm passionately interested in and to start to develop my own authorial style and think about influencing policy and systems change in education and learning through an evidence-based approach. 

However, starting a PhD is not for the faint-hearted and is challenging in many ways. Some of the challenges I have experienced include the solitary nature of a PhD where you need to back yourself to create, develop and argue for the legitimacy of your research and approach. Being used to working in more creative and collaborative environments, this was a big shock for me. It does require a huge amount of time, determination and passion as well as being prepared to actively build your own support ecosystem. I have also experienced a high level of imposter syndrome in the first year of my research in becoming a student again and leaving the status and financial security of more traditional employment. On the other hand, I have learned a huge amount and enjoyed working with so many interesting and passionate colleagues and students at TD School that I don't regret a minute of it. As well as developing a good amount of resilience myself along the way ...