This short post is by Dr Danya Hodgetts, sport manager, lecturer and researcher and reflects on an issue which eventually will afflict us all…
We’ve all been there.
Go on, admit it.
You’re working away solidly on your PhD and then starting to daydream… about being a doctor.
About how life-changing those two little letters preceding your name will be. About how cool it will be to add that prefix to credit cards, business card, airline bookings, email signatures…
And then you get there (yes you can, keep up the good work!). Then what do you actually do? Integrating that title into your life might not be as easy as you think. I realise this post is as weighty an issue as has ever been discussed on Thesis Whisperer (right up there with how put together the sexy librarian number), so I’ve given it a bit of thought.
I figure you can play it three ways:
The whole hog
Change everything. Then spend an inordinate amount of time explaining to all and sundry that you’re not that kind of doctor. Even then your parents and grandparents won’t understand, and they’ll be unwittingly deprived of immeasurable bragging rights.
The strictly business
Sit on the fence and just use it to stick on essential professional materials (and school reunion RSVPs)
The ‘playing it cool’
Get hit with the stark reality that things aren’t really all that different, and that the only people who understand what kind of a doctor you are happen to be doctors themselves.
What did you (or do you intend to) change when you finished your PhD? Did this change over time? If you have graduated, what did you actually do?
Dr (ahem) Danya Hodgetts graduated with her PhD in September 2011. At present she has assumed the much loftier title of Mum.
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