I’ve been informed that I should start thinking/looking for a postdoc. I’m a bit in denial about this. It just doesn’t feel like I’m close to graduating. Right now it seems like this nebulous goal. It shouldn’t feel that way because I listed my aims in my proposal 2.5 years ago. I look at those aims, though, and see only 1/4 are completed. 2/4 are in progress and are closer to completion. The last 1/4 haven’t even been begun and could easily be another year of experiments. So, by my calculations, I’m at least (emphasis on at least) a year out.
However, Advisor assures me that it should be more like 6-8 months. In fact, he mentions this Summer to People Who Are Not Me. These mentions tie my stomach up in knots because it seems impossible. And then I worry about not graduating if I don’t make this timeline (and keep in mind that I’m only in my 5th year and the average in my program is 5.5 years). Advisor has told me that he would prefer me to graduate and he doesn’t see me leaving the program without graduating. (And as Dr. Man points out, Advisor has done this before, many times, and I haven’t. So, perhaps I should trust the person who has experience.)
Aims in your thesis proposal are not etched in stone. It's not that uncommon for people to graduate before completing all of them. If your adviser feels that you're ready, then you're ready. This is a good thing.
I understand how scary this feels – I'll be done this summer too and as much as I want to be out of grad school, the uncertainty about what will come next can be paralyzing!
Have you gone over w/ him (Advisor) about things you might not complete from the proposal and therefore graduate (yikes?!) this coming summer. Overall, I'm sure it would be great to be done; if he will pass on things, then get him to say so (maybe by a review and signing off somehow of parts of the proposal you are concerned about?). Does his idea of "summer" include writing the dissertation *and* defending? Or just the start of writing?
Anyway, moving on to something new and unknown can often tie a person (at least me) in knots.
Be glad that your boss is trying to get you out of the door (in a good way), would you rather have a boss that keeps you chained to the desk for the maximum 8 years before being forced (somewhat reluctantly) to let you leave.
Biochem Belle: It probably is a good thing. But it means that I've got to make a decision about what to do next. And it's much closer than I anticipated.
Psycgirl: Yes! Exactly. It's the uncertainty that's getting to me. I don't even know where I'll be living!
SF: I haven't yet talked to him. We talked a little bit last fall. And he mentioned a year then. He's just been mention me defending in passing. Labmate is getting married this summer and he mentioned that he hoped I would have defended by then. It's things like that. I should probably just talk to him, but it's intimidating. Knowing me, I'll dither about it for a few days and then talk to him. 🙂
GR: You are completely right. It is much better than that!
A (only somewhat sober at the time) committee member of mine once told me that the committee only expects a subset of items on one's proposal to actually get done in the dissertation. I wish I could have that in writing 😉
Your fear is perfectly understandable, but if your advisor thinks you are ready, you are more ready that you can see for yourself! Good luck!
I understand. I'm supposed to turn in my thesis in about 5 weeks, eek, that is so much closer than I thought. I was afraid of what Genomic Repairman described (which is rather common around here), and I'm glad that it's this way round. But still… stressed, nervous, not quite ready.
I think that this is a common tactic in preparing students to graduate. The PI sets and ambitious deadline, which could potentially work if everything goes absolutely perfectly. The grad student knows of course that everything will not go perfectly, and so feels the time crunch and works her ass off to finish slightly later than the proposed deadline.
It's a little bit like haggling. Unfortunately, very stressful for the grad student, but you'll come out OK. Hang in there.
I *just* finished, a few months ago and what got me out was having a hard, fast, I have a job and need the degree by this time deadline. So starting to look now for post-docs and wrapping up is a good thing!
Sometimes I think advisors do put impossible deadlines on us, knowing we will work until we drop and that the work will be completed almost on time. hang in there, once its done it will be so worth it.
As other commenters have mentioned, having an advisor who is actively thinking about your graduation is a very, very good thing! 🙂 And in my field, it is common for people to start looking for postdocs a year before they expect to defend, especially if they're interested in high-profile labs that get a lot of postdoc applicants.
I'm a bit confused by your concern about "not graduating if [you] don't meet this timeline." If, for whatever reason, things get delayed, why would that result in you not graduating?
Looking for a postdoc might be a good thing. I started looking when my advisor suggested that I was in my final year (though it didn't really feel like it to me). I found that preparing the various letters of application and updating my resume to show what I'd done in the course of my project turned out to be a welcome break from writing up my results. Once I had a job offer in hand, with a set start date the progress on my writing suddenly took a huge leap upwards–there is nothing quite so motivating as plane tickets. I knew I needed to finish, because done or not I was getting on that plane, and I do didn't want to do the final edits to the manuscript and thesis submission on a long-distance basis.