Staring at the ceiling.
I think this should be known as the "Uncle Phil" method.
How did you pick your dissertation?
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The best dissertation is a done dissertation.
^This. This is one the very best pieces of advice for grad students.
I got the same advice from a drunk senior professor once at a grad school party. "You gotta get your degree," he slurred, eyes glassy from too much booze. "It's your union work card in this business. Just write a piece of sh*t and get it over with. 'Cause if you don't finish, your career is finished." In vino veritas.
The smartest guy I knew in grad school never finished. He thought too much about his topic and wrote too little. Classic perfectionist: nothing was ever good enough, and every detail had to be fleshed out to the Nth degree. OTOH, I wrote a merely passable thesis, passed the defense, and moved on.
Git r done.
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I chose a question that emerged from a few years of working in the field before my PhD. I initially planned on doing another topic inspired by my MA work, but realised I was more passionate about the second idea. After I'd picked my topic I interviewed a postdoc about how to choose a supervisor, what to look for/look out for. Then I went and spoke to my first choice in the department (who I chose based on topic but also interpersonal qualities - I liked how he gave feedback), and ran my ideas for a committee by this person and then spoke to each committee member. Ultimately everyone I wanted agreed.
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Like most people, I stumbled into mine mostly by accident. It actually started in law school where I used some of my time to read major law and courts works. I read a particular book at the exact time I was taking a specialized course and things clicked a bit. I didn't choose my PhD program knowing I would write on exactly that topic and I played around with a few things in my first year but during the summer of my second year I went back to the idea and did some initial research and ran with it. The only advice I give someone, and its repetitive of what you see here, is the advice I was given: whatever the topic is, make sure you like it because it's going to stick with you a lot longer than you expect. As I'm about 9 years out from finalizing my dissertation topic and at the end of my fourth year TT I see this wisdom of this. I'm about to put out my third article from it of four or five expected. I'm tired of the topic but still find it interesting enough to work on even if I'm looking forward to the day coming where I'm finally and completely done with it.
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Are people still worried about finishing dissertations anymore?
Indeed. The advice to just finish is best for the context of advanced grad students who need motivation. But like everything, it's a balancing act. The diss is a major project that takes years of effort and is supposed to impress people enough into giving you a job.
There is no magic formula for how to find the project and it's usually trial and error. But it is good training for future research projects.
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Are people still worried about finishing dissertations anymore? It's pretty easy to slap three articles together from your tenure as a grad student. If you have a job, then your committee will be more than happy with the final product.
Yes, people are "still worried." Because there are still plenty of people who do not finish.
"If you have a job": you do realize that competing as an ABD in this job market often puts you in a weak position given that there are numerous qualified people with PhD in hand submitting CVs for jobs, right?. I serve on search committees and have a bias against ABDs -- I usually go for the person who has PhD in hand. ABD is too much of a crap shoot and a needless risk in a buyers market.
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Yes, people are "still worried." Because there are still plenty of people who do not finish.
"If you have a job": you do realize that competing as an ABD in this job market often puts you in a weak position given that there are numerous qualified people with PhD in hand submitting CVs for jobs, right?. I serve on search committees and have a bias against ABDs -- I usually go for the person who has PhD in hand. ABD is too much of a crap shoot and a needless risk in a buyers market.I've never told a student student to defend without a job. They should at least have a post-doc or vap lined up before defending.
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The diss is a major project that takes years of effort and is supposed to impress people enough into giving you a job.
I serve on search committees. What impresses me is not the dissertation so much. Just git r done.
Rather, I want to see:
1. thoughtfulness, maturity, comportment, civility, professionalism
2. the ability of a candidate to demonstrate a solid "pipeline" of research productivity.
3. their ability to demonstrate a record of real and successful teaching experience (not just being a TA) along with a willingness and ability to teach a variety of preps
4. a willingness to roll up their sleeves and pitch in/help out
5. evidence of good professional citizenship (i.e. can I work with this person?) -
I originally picked a topic that was pretty narrow and kind of dated. I got there by looking over my seminar papers and trying to think how I could build off of them and work toward a topic I was really interested in. I think my advisor noticed this, because he told me I should just write about the topic I was really interested in.
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Adviser: I had met him before starting grad school and coauthored with him so that was pretty much it.
Topic: seminar first semester. Read a pretty influential book. Thought it didn't do a good job with a specific outcome it was examining. Started doing more research and realized that no one had a good answer, so this book had the "best" answer and was still lacking. Decided to address it and that became my dissertation.