At a roundtable, a PhD student asked what did I think were the most important skills of a PhD student.
The obvious answer was writing and methods.
You have to write papers and you have to be able to use a method to crunch data.
The question made me reflect on what was more important for success as a student and as an early career scholar.
So if asked what are the three defining capacities of a successful early career scholar?
I would respond
(a) resilience, (b) positive affect, and (c) selective memory.
In that order.
Resilience is the more important defining attribute.
A successful student typically has to overcome rejections, high pressure to perform, lower than optimal income and more.
For many students, the challenges of earning a PhD are more difficult than imagined.
So you have to be able to dust yourself off and keep moving forward if you are to succeed.
Positive affect makes it easier to be resilient.
Keep in mind - I am low on positive affect - you can succeed without seeing the silver lining in every situation.
However, positive affect really helps you overcome challenges.
It will help you spin difficult times into learning experiences and forgive people who play the academic game of thrones.
Selective memory makes it easier to move forward.
I’ve noticed that most successful faculty let go of conflict over time - at work and home.
By doing so, they are able to focus on the immediate problems at hand.
It is very difficult to focus on research or teaching if you are unsettled or actively chasing a grudge.
Building these capacities make it simpler to overcome the complexities of academic life.
How to do so?
That’s for the next post!
Best of luck.
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