{"id":2072,"date":"2020-06-23T14:14:13","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T13:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2020-07-01T10:51:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T09:51:25","slug":"five-ways-to-make-the-most-of-your-time-as-a-phd-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/five-ways-to-make-the-most-of-your-time-as-a-phd-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Five ways to make the most of your time as a PhD student"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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PhD students spend the longest time in\nthe university when compared to other students. And, this extra time is a great\nopportunity to get involved with different roles inside and outside of the university.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of my doctoral study,\nI\u2019ve engaged with several teams which has helped boost my self-confidence. I\u2019ve\nmade many new friends along the way too and found my own small community in\nCardiff, thousands of miles away from my home in India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that my PhD study is coming to an end \u2013 I submitted my thesis last month \u2013 I thought I might share five ways in which PhD students can make the most of your time in Cardiff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Diploma alongside your degree<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Skills\nDevelopment Service (SDS)<\/a> in Cardiff\nUniversity\u2019s Students\u2019 Union (CUSU)<\/a>\nprovides a number of courses, one of them being with a Diploma\nof Professional Development in Leadership (DPD)<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With leadership skills being sought\nafter by so many employers nowadays, I thought this would be an opportunity\nthat was too good to miss. And even more so because it was free! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside my research, I attended\nworkshops for the DPD course and participated in 200 hours of work experience,\nalthough only 50 is required, from various leadership roles I\u2019ve held (more on\nthese later). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you probably already know, most postgraduate\nresearchers (PGRs) work as teaching assistants while helping organise different\nconferences and workshops. Why not use these hours to get a Diploma along with\nyour degree? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find\nout more about getting a Diploma with the SDS<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Cardiff Award<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The Cardiff Award is a programme\nprovided by the Careers\nand Employability Service<\/a> at\nCardiff University. It\u2019s entirely virtual with a lot of resources to improve\nemployability skills and attributes via an online platform called Your\nCareer Journey<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the programme, I attended\nsessions on CV and cover letter writing with direct feedback from the\nUniversity\u2019s Career Advisers, who helped me personalise them for each job application.\nI also wrote reflection logs from my various extra-curricular activities, that\nhelped me answer different skills-based questions in applications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read all about my experience\nof the Cardiff Award on the\nStudent Life blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not enhance your employability\nskills by joining this programme? The certificate looks great on your CV and\nLinkedIn profile, making them stand out from other applications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Residence Life team<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Residence Life Assistant (RLA) is a\nstudent role in the Residence Life Team<\/a> and make up one part of the Student Support and Wellbeing Centre\nin Cardiff University. We support students living in residences in\ncollaboration with the University\u2019s Security and Residences Management Teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve worked as an RLA for two consecutive\nyears since the team started in 2018. Part of my role is to organise events for\nthe students and in the past two years, I have managed to share my Indian\nculture with the community via events like Holi and Diwali. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve met some amazing friends in this\nteam, and it\u2019s considered to be one of the most diverse teams at Cardiff\nUniversity. The role has also helped me manage my finances as it covered my\nrent and bills in exchange for my working hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to be part of a vibrant\nteam of creative and responsible peers and at the same time receive financial\ncontributions towards your rent and bills, I highly recommend applying for this\nrole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the\nResidence Life Team\u2019s website<\/a>\nfor more information about the role and how to get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Societies and athletic union<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The CUSU has over 200 societies and\nmore than 65 student-led sports clubs in their athletics union. You can join\nany number of them depending on your interests and hobbies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I joined the Bollywood\nDance Society<\/a> for two years\nand thoroughly enjoyed the different dance sessions. Dancing has always been my\npassion and this society allowed me to groove to Bollywood music. I performed\nwith the society on many different occasions, but one special occasion was at\nthe National Museum of Cardiff. We also won the Best Arts and Performance\nSociety at the National Societies Awards 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to meet people outside the\nPhD office with similar interests, take a look at the activities at\nthe CUSU<\/a>. Better still, most of the societies\nand sports clubs offer Give It A Go sessions where you try out their activities\neither for free or a minimum amount. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Volunteering opportunities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I love giving back to society and the\npeople, and have volunteered in different roles over the last few years. I\u2019ve worked\nas a Postgraduate Executive with the CUSU Vice\nPresident Postgraduate Students<\/a>,\nhelped the Cardiff Business School Student Engagement Team during Freshers\u2019\narrival week, helped run postgraduate trips with the Graduate Centre in CUSU,\nand I\u2019m currently working with the Doctoral\nAcademy<\/a> to help PhD students during the\npandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve also volunteered outside the\nUniversity, mainly for sports events as I enjoy watching them. I volunteered\nduring the World Half Marathon 2016, UEFA Champions League 2017, and the ICC\nWorld Cup 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can choose how much time to\ndedicate to volunteering and for which causes. It can be an on-going role\nwithin the University or one-day events with external organisations. Whatever\nyou choose, these kind of experiences help you create memories that last\nforever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PhD experience can be a long and\nlonely one. Getting involved with outside activities help improve your\nemotional wellbeing and mental health. The best part is you can join any of the\nabove options anytime during your PhD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me personally, these roles made me feel more engaged with the university and society. It made me navigate my transnational journey by transforming Cardiff from just another pit stop to a final destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violina\nSarma<\/strong><\/a> is a PhD\ncandidate in the Logistics, Operation and Management Section of Cardiff\nBusiness School. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PhD students spend the longest time in the university when compared to other students. And, this extra time is a great opportunity to get involved with different roles inside and […]","protected":false},"author":1360,"featured_media":2100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[719],"tags":[1529,1521,28,100,1522,977,1520,1528,1530,1523,1527,1230,372,346,1524,198,16,1525,113,1518,481,1526,1301,1044],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-experience","tag-bollywood-dance-society","tag-cardiff-award","tag-cardiff-business-school","tag-cardiff-university","tag-careers-and-employability-service","tag-cv","tag-diploma-of-professional-development-in-leadership","tag-diwali","tag-doctoral-academy","tag-employability","tag-holi","tag-job-applications","tag-jobs","tag-leadership","tag-linkedin","tag-phd","tag-research","tag-residence-life-team","tag-skills","tag-skills-development-service","tag-student-life","tag-student-support-and-wellbeing","tag-thesis","tag-university"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paOfaS-xq","meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/07\/IMG_6085-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2102,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}