Solo Session: “Failure” in PhD Explained

Students and Graduates!

The heavy feeling of “I’m failing” that hits when supervisor feedback is slow, sharp, or hard to predict, and how that can spiral into imposter syndrome, low achiever or fraudster thoughts. In this late-night talk, we reframe failure as a normal learning stage to strengthen your research and keep going.

—> Identify gaps to improve.

—> Reframe your approach to your PhD.

—> Normalise "Failure". 
If this resonates with you, whatever stage you're at your PhD, than this late-night talk is for you!

Thank you all for tuning in, it has been a pleasure!

Bibliography:

Humphrey, C. (2023, November 16). Feeling like a failure? 4 strategies for beating the post-PhD blues — Jobs On Toast. Jobs on Toast. https://www.jobsontoast.com/blog/feeling-like-a-failure/

Maslach, D. (2025, December 16). I Finally Understood Why So Many PhDs Feel Like They’re Failing. Medium. https://medium.com/@contact_49854/i-finally-understood-why-so-many-phds-feel-like-theyre-failing-56c74dec8a55

PhDiaries: A reminder for when you think you are a failure. (2024, August 20). Student News. https://studentnews.manchester.ac.uk/2024/06/19/phdiaries-a-reminder-for-when-you-think-you-are-a-failure/

Transcript

Welcome To PhD Launch

Fear Of Not Being Good Enough

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello students and graduates, welcome to PhD Launch, the podcast of late-night talks in which PhDs have a drink and talk about their research topics. You're writing down what you found in the research literature, thinking that your results are as accurate as possible to present to your supervisors in your next meeting, and hoping that progress was made. Yet you are worried that your data and arguments aren't good enough, fearing that your supervisors will dismiss them and you'll have to rewrite them with new findings. Failure is a feeling that affects all PhDs because we're dependent on the feedback of our supervisors, which often takes time for them to reply to us due to their other academic demands. That feeling gives you thoughts of imposter syndrome, lower achiever, or fraudster, and that might make you think about quitting your PhD. But what if I told you that this failure is just a learning moment that you're passing through and which doesn't affect your whole research? Even if your analysis and results weren't great, it doesn't mean you're not fit for the doctoral degree. They are areas of improvement where your supervisors encourage you to explore new sources to produce research. For example, in all four years of my PhD, I encountered that many of my arguments I wrote had a lack of new bibliography at the time. And so I had to review my findings over and over again in order to join the dots. When you feel like that, there are different solutions to overcoming them, and I would like to share with you three of them. 1. Identify where you need to improve. If you feel that there's something preventing you from moving forward with your PhD, you could pause and reflect about what you can do to improve. This could be your writing skills or analytical data interpretation. It's also important to address your concerns with your supervisors as they also have been through that and can give you advice on where to improve. For example, they can advise you to reach out with the writing department of your university or attend PhD mentoring workshops. 2. Reframing your research approach. Upon receiving constructive feedback from your supervisors, take them as opportunities to explore new sources you might not have heard of. You'll be amazed at how your previous analysis probably didn't correlate with your main argument. And so your supervisor's feedback is a way to reframe your approach to carry on. And number three, normalize failure. Everyone fails during their PhD. It's part of the process. And instead of talking about failure, focus on growth. In your PhD, you will have times where it's meant to make mistakes across your chapters and case studies. It's a matter of trial and error until your main arguments become stronger and accepted by your supervisors as well as by your viva voque examiners. If failure wasn't normal, would you write your PhD dissertation in the first place? Failure during your PhD is bound to happen, but dealing with it and moving forward is significant. And it's a test to your capabilities as an independent researcher who produces knowledge to be cited by students and debated by scholars. Thank you all for tuning in. It has been a pleasure.