A supervisor is one of the most important persons in your PhD journey as it is a mentor, who is supposed to lead and guide you through all years of your study and provide knowledge and emotional support. It is necessary to choose a good one at the beginning as you will be closely working with this person next 4-5 years. You need to have a good connection and be on the same page with this person.

Universities usually provide lots of opportunities for PhD students and it’s your job to grab as many as possible. You need to pursue your academic career very efficiently and use all opportunities. However, you should keep in mind that whatever you do it should all be beneficial for your PhD study and all your activities should help to build one big PhD puzzle.

Quite often PhD researchers overcomplicate their studies as they are attempt to ‘save the world with their research’. As a result, it takes some years for them to complete PhD degree or not to finish at all. It is important to be realistic and remember that the purpose of PhD is to become an ‘independent researcher’ and not to change the whole world.