
{"id":3406,"date":"2020-03-30T07:26:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T07:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/the-hidden-perks-of-bad-supervision\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T07:45:40","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T07:45:40","slug":"the-hidden-perks-of-bad-supervision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/the-hidden-perks-of-bad-supervision","title":{"rendered":"The hidden perks of bad supervision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>What to do when your supervisor does not believe in you? <\/b>Years on, I still can\u2019t understand why she accepted to supervise me. Had she been a much younger professor, eager to get her first PhD student, I would have understood her desire to enter academic adulthood. But a full professor? Even at this stage of my career, I would not take someone whose topic falls so far from my own interests. If the person seems talented, I\u2019d suggest a couple of doors to knock on, hoping that my colleagues have time to supervise them. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">\u201cWe are craftsmen,\u201d said a friend of mine. To learn to do the job we need someone more senior to teach us. \u201cBut what can she teach you?\u201d he asked. I did not know at the time and I still don\u2019t. But I am grateful to her anyway: she showed me the kind of power games that I would never want to be involved in; she showed me what careless supervision could do to a student and inspired my \u201cdo nots\u201d list as a supervisor.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I am far from being the perfect supervisor myself but, you see, calm sea has never made a good sailor. I am grateful to all those who made my path more difficult. You need to face hardship to develop (professional) antibodies and stay healthy enough to cope with the challenges of your work environment.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I will always be grateful to her for her boycotts behind my spine when I was doing things that were not convenient for her politically; for her overemphasizing details without concentrating on the \u201creal stuff,\u201d or focussing on \u2018form\u2019 while apparently ignoring the content of my work. With a bit more support from her side, I would have stayed there and would not be what I am now. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I\u2019ve had many informal advisors compensating for the fact that I was under-supervised for a long time. Whenever I would meet someone praising my work I would ask for advice. An interested and constructive discussant at a conference, a slightly more senior colleague I would be working with, a professor who coached me into a special issue of a journal. Any contact point was an excuse to get back to the person and ask \u201cWhat do you think of this chapter\/idea\/article?\u201d Would I have done it if my supervisor was more supportive? I do not think so. When your home is warm and cozy you rarely go out looking for challenges. But when they switch off the heating, you need to go to places and create your own path, as J. K. Rowling is said to have done, finding shelter from her under-heated flat in an Edinburgh pub, where Harry Potter was born.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I am also grateful to my second supervisor for dropping me after a few months. He was the real expert in the field but he was perhaps too busy with other things. So, in the end, the message I got was that he thought I was too dumb, unprepared or worth of his attention. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">\u00a0What to do when you realise that your main advisor is not really interested in your work? Find a second supervisor that has energy, competence, and interest. This is what a colleague, who guided and advised me informally during my PhD, told me. I had learned about him upon my supervisor\u2019s suggestion. We met and he made it clear that he would not supervise me. \u201cWe study the same country but I am a historian,\u201d he said. I respected him, he respected me. We are friends now.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">Following a convincing introduction from our mutual colleague, my second supervisor invited me to deliver a presentation and then discuss the terms of our collaboration. He seemed cool, down-to-earth and was available to supervise me so we agreed I\u2019d send him a chapter by the summer. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">He never replied with feedback. After three messages, I eventually got a response: \u201cI am busy; more soon.\u201d We eventually met in person at a conference some months later. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I don\u2019t like intercontinental travel. I travel a lot but try to limit long haul flights and I had flown across the Atlantic mainly to meet him but the outcome was not what I expected. His feedback sounded more or less like this: \u201cYou do not have the level I expect from a PhD student. Were you based at my university, I would ask you to take a few courses, flood you with homework and you\u2019d eventually learn. But you live too far away so I can\u2019t do anything. Goodbye.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I was back to the initial situation; none of my advisors believed in me. What to do? Well, you can think they are right and drop it. But you eventually need only one person to believe in what you do and this person is you. Eventually, luck comes to those looking for it: at the conference, our discussant (a big name in my field) commended my work and gave me hope. Perhaps I was not that dumb, after all. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">By the end of the conference, I understood that I would never finish my PhD under the current conditions. I was motivated to see the end of the process but I did not feel that my supervisor could offer any substantial guidance or advice so was not motivated to \u201cwrite to then share with her my results.\u201d Nor did I want to ask (once again? I was too ashamed of how my second supervisor had dropped me already) for another supervisor. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">The tipping point eventually came. She said that I had enough material and I could think of formulating a theoretical argument. Not only did I do that, I even found myself thinking, \u201cWow, now that\u2019s a great argument! Is it really me formulating it?\u201d What I suggested at that time is at the center of my research focus today and I am proud of it. But she did not understand it or, also possible, did not really listen. And it is her not understanding me that forced me to make a choice: If your supervisor does not believe in what you do, would you follow them to change your path or not? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I decided that I\u2019d rather change my supervisor. I contacted a professor at the end of her career. She worked at a less prestigious university, was virtually unknown to most of my colleagues, but was nice. She facilitated my transfer to her university that December and, thanks to a loophole, I was allowed to defend my thesis in no time. She read with passion what I wrote and was ready to correct my style. Each month I would submit a chapter, travel to Brussels and get the feedback she pencilled on my freshly printed chapter.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I submitted my thesis in April but my defence was not allowed. Two of the five people she chose for my committee declined her invitation. They claimed that my topic fell \u201cshort of their expertise\u201d (translation: your supervisor is no longer powerful, even if I was her PhD student myself I do not fear upsetting her). Another member said my thesis was missing some important references. I agreed to meet her to learn about the missing references and discovered that she just wanted her works to be cited. Was this all academia was about? Satisfying egos of people higher than you on the scale?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">But, again, here came another life lesson. If you are in trouble, do not be ashamed and admit it. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness and everyone gets there at some point of their life. However, if people around you do not know about your situation, why should they propose their help? A great limitation of my defence was that it had to be in French. But it is by talking openly about my \u201cfailure\u201d to defend and my frustration that two senior colleagues (one of whom I did not even know could speak French) offered to come to my defence. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">My supervisor was retiring next year so the defences of several students became a matter of urgency over quality for us. I could have written a better thesis. My chapters\u2019 logical sequence was not flawless at all, my written French was criticized. My defence looked like a street fight, with grenade questions thrown in from all fronts. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">But I made it and it was the last time I had to place my work in the hands of academic power games that I could not understand or alter. Once on the other side of the barricade, I don\u2019t mind getting harsh critiques as a Dr. instead of a student. And that changes it all. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">We celebrated in a small Greek restaurant in the Matonge (the Congolese neighbourhood in Brussels), not far from where she lived. I have not seen her for years but I will always be grateful for her help, for caring so much about me. When I defended, I was already working as a scientist and had benefited from feedback from so many colleagues. But the moral and emotional support she could offer was priceless and, in many respects, unique. I would never have reached the end without it. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">To different extent, most PhD paths are riddled with obstacles, crises and turbulence (or open conflicts). Conflict, disagreement and rejection are part of life. But it is in those moment of crisis that you have the chance to learn lessons that will accompany you for life. Chances are that most of the negative things you\u2019ve lived, once drained from emotions, will become lessons. And these lessons will teach you patience, empathy, solidarity, endurance and eventually to be content about your life.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><i>Do you often feel stressed? Wouldn&#8217;t it be nice to share your highs and lows with a group of researchers who understand you? Join\u00a0<strong><u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/researchervoice\/\">Researcher Voice, a\u00a0support group for researchers<\/a><\/u><\/strong>\u00a0on Facebook that focuses on their physical, mental, and emotional wellness.\u00a0<strong><u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/researchervoice\/\">Click here to join<\/a><\/u><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/feel-alone-join-a-group-that-supports-your-research-journey\">read this article<\/a><\/u><\/strong>\u00a0to take a sneak peek into what&#8217;s going on in the\u00a0group.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What to do when your supervisor does not believe in you? Years on, I still can\u2019t understand why she accepted to supervise me. Had she been a much younger professor, eager to get her first PhD student, I would have understood her desire to enter academic adulthood. But a full professor? Even at this stage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1967,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2668,2671],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-motivational-stories","tag-stories-of-success"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The hidden perks of bad supervision | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Having a string of bad supervisors could have been depressing but it showed this researcher how to carve out his own space in academia.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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