There are lots of reasons to do a PhD, but some are more valid then others! A PhD is a big financial, time, and psychological committment.

A PhD will develop not just your technical research skills and non-technical teamwork, communication, and leadership skills, but also develop you as a person - but it is hard work! Depending on what PhD you choose to undertake you will develop different skills and experiences.

Once you work out what you want to get from your PhD you will have a much clearer idea of what PhD opportunities might be a good fit for you.

Also, remember that there may be other pathways (e.g. one year leadership fellowships) that are better suited than a PhD to get the experience you are looking for. Chat to lots of people about different opportunties that might offer what you are looking for. That said, if you are committed to a clinical-academic career, there is no way to get away from a PhD!

You might see someone you know surrendipously fall in to the perfect PhD with minimum planning! In reality, it's likely that they have been exploring PhD options for many months, if not years. It will take time to work out what you are looking for and what project, supervisor, and place are the best fit for you.

If you are aiming to apply for a competitive fellowship, for example, from the NIHR or MRC, you should plan to have at least 6-12 months to develop a strong appliation.

If you are currently in a training programme, don't forget that you will need to apply for approval to go out of programme. Depending on local processes, this might well take several months.

Academics will often advertise PhD opportunities on social media. If you know what research area(s) you are interested in, follow relevant academics on platforms like Twitter/X and LinkedIn, and lookout for any interesting opportunities they might share.

Most PhDs will be advertised through findaphd.com so look out for opportunities on there. Project-funded PhD posts  are likely to be advertisted on either NHS Jobs and/0r jobs.ac.uk.

Once you have identified you preferred research topic, proactively look for potential supervisors. If you are interested in applying for a competitive fellowship they may support you, or they may be able to help you access local funding streams.

To find potential supervisors, identify the leading research research groups in your topic ara of interest are by searching for recent publications on that topic on PubMed and reviewing recent grant awards (e.g. NIHR, MRC, or Wellcome) related to that topic.

When you come across a potential supervisor, do some basic due diligence:

• Do they regularly publish good quality publications? (PubMed)

• Do they have evidence of ongoing high-quality research? (personal or group website)

• Do they (or their team) have a track-record of supervising PhDs to completion? (personal or group website)

• You may also like to have a look at their social media to get a general feel for their activities.

• If you feel comfortable, reach out to a current or past PhD student through email or social media to chat about how they have found the PhD.

Once you have found a potentially suitable supervisor, email them to aks for a meeting. If you are planning to apply for a PhD they have advertised, it's essential to contact the named supervisor/ contact before applications close to signal your interest and commitment and to ensure they have you in mind when shortlisting for interview.

Treat any first meeting with a potential supervisor as a formal event. They will be making an impression of you, just as much as you are forming your impression of them. Keep email correspondence professional and polite (remember to make use of words like 'please' and 'thank you' and address your emails as 'Dear Professor X' rather than 'Hi Tony'). Make sure you are on time to your meeting and try not to reschedule unless unavoidable. Ask to meet in person if feasible- most people find it easier to form a rapport face to face and making the effort to come to them signals your seriousness. Don't open by asking about money - everyone knows this is important, but you don't want to give the impression that this is all that matters to you, so you want to be gentle around this!

When you meet them, you might want to ask questions like:

• What project(s) are available - are these set in stone or is there some flexibility to adapt these projects?

• I am looking to develop the following skills - will this be possible?

• What funding sources would you recommend I explore?

• What projects have previous PhD fellows worked on and what outputs did they achieve?

• I'm interested in pursuing a clinical-academic career - will there be opportunities like lecturer posts here after the PhD?

Take a look at my page about how to fund your PhD.

If you are interested in exploring PhD opportunities at the Global Surgery Unit, please get in touch.