Over-supervised?

by theforeignwriter

Hi guys. This is my first blog. The first thing I have to say is that I apologise if you find grammar errors and mistakes: this is not my mother language. I’ve been learning English for a couple of years and it hasn’t been easy. However I believe I have done a big progress.

I am excited because I am writing here. I’ve read hundreds of good bloggers and all of them say that having a blog is not easy… I hope to accomplish the first and most important goal of a blogger: perseverance.

I am a third year PhD candidate at a prestigious Australian university. My supervisor is a well known professional in his field and people say that I am lucky of having him as a mentor. I agree.

Nevertheless my good luck, I am not completely happy. Although I have published several papers, more than the best PhD candidate at my university, things are not clear for me. I know that the process of getting a PhD is sometimes painful but there is something more important that I would like to find.

When I started my PhD, one of the things that I read about this was that it is much better having a supervisor that really follows your process. My supervisor is a good one. Probably the best one. However I feel that I am over supervised. I am not feeling confident; I don’t feel that I can argue my topic with him… because I feel that I am doing the PhD that he wanted for me.

I have analysed these thoughts and I believe it is because of my learning process: I am learning how to do a PhD and I am still learning this language. I remember a few years ago when I was a successful clinician, a good  professional who helped the companies where I was working…a person who did not have any fears about his life, profession and knowledge. However I am different now… I feel I am an strange here; a person who is following another’s ideas and a guy who is fear of the future and a robot who was not programmed to overcome procrastination.

I really don’t know how to feel better; how to be the expert that my supervisor and other people told me I was going to be; how to be that successful professional that I used to be.

If you have some words, I really appreciate you let your comments.

thank you 🙂

Ric.