Hi Guys!
Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted but everything has kinda been a bit crazy!
So an update…
I GOT A PhD!!!!! So you can probably tell I’m a bit excited about this one!
Basically I got in touch with a PhD supervisor back in July to have a chat about a project. Once I decided I liked the project, I had to put in the application. However, this PhD is a co-tutelle project (basically I spend time at both universities and get a PhD from both!) between both Coventry and Stellenbosch University (in South Africa!) so I had to do the whole application process twice! So much stress you wouldn’t believe, especially with the Stellenbosch system! I must’ve out my family through the ringer on that one as we were away in the Highlands with very little signal around the application deadline and at that point there were still issues with the Stellenbosch side of the application. I ended up just emailing everything that could possibly be relevant to everyone I could possibly think of so that they had all the information they needed for the application even if it wasn’t all necessarily on the online application portal. Once all of that craziness was done I got an email to give me an interview. Email arrived on the Thursday, interview on the Monday to include a 10 minute presentation on my masters project. Of course that’s such a lot of prep time and not stressful at all! (and I still don’t really know how you condense 3 months of intensive lab work into a 10 minute presentation!)
So thanks to the pandemic, the interview was over zoom – cue me getting a friend to show me how to screen share (and sitting with me for half an hour while I practiced screen sharing and then stopping sharing over and over again) so that I at least looked like I knew what I was doing even though I was totally terrified the entire time. The interviewers were really nice and didn’t seem to mind to much when they asked a simple technical question and my mind went totally blank and I couldn’t remember anything of the 20hrs research and revision I’d done over the weekend. Needless to say after the interview I thought there was no way I’d ever be offered it but hey at least I got some more interview experience right?
Two days later I was on a lunch break at work and I get an email from the supervisor to tell me I got the PhD! I couldn’t believe it! I was buzzing and couldn’t stop grinning all day! Good thing I was wearing a mask or I’d have looked like the Cheshire Cat! A friend was with me when I saw the email so I had to go and tell my boss right away as by the time I got back to the lab everyone on the unit knew! Everyone was really pleased (even my boss!) and excited for me even if they’d rather I didn’t leave. The one and only thing they asked for as I was leaving is a selfie with a giraffe when I’m out in South Africa!
Since then I’ve been officially doing my PhD at possibly the strangest time to start! While I’ve been working away on getting my background knowledge up to scratch, writing a literature review and filling out paperwork, I haven’t yet been able to go anywhere near campus so I haven’t yet seen any of the labs or met anyone in person. Its so much harder to fill out these complicated and excessively detailed forms when you can’t just nip down the corridor and ask someone!
Hopefully all of this will change soon as I am meant to be having my lab induction in 2 weeks time so fingers crossed that all goes ahead as planned!
I have met the lab team in Coventry (virtually of course) and they all seem really lovely and very helpful so its going to be great when we can all get together in person for the first time! I have also met my counterpart at Stellenbosch (she will come to Coventry for a bit the same way that I go out to Stellenbosch) and both her any my supervisor out there seem great! Again I cant wait to meet them in person when I finally make it out to South Africa!
Well I think that’s everything?!
So much has been going on recently and we are back in Lockdown 3.0 so I really hope you’re all doing okay and are finding the pandemic situation a little easier to manage this time around. As ever my inbox is always open for whoever needs it so just pop me a message if you need to chat!
Thanks for reading!
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Blogging by Bex 
I’ve just found this Bex. Congratulations. Who would have thought it sitting eating drop scones in my kitchen with SYRUP ON( never forgave you for letting the boys know that was possible) make sure you enjoy every second.
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Thanks Arlene! We need to have a catch up sometime it’s been far too long! Haha totally okay with taking the blame for that one! They were so good! Its such a strange time to be starting something like this and it’s been incredibly frustrating at times but I’m definitely enjoying it all the same!
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