Tag Archives: My PhD is complete!

This time next week I will be a Doctor!

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I have spent the morning ordering a bound version of my thesis and organising my academic gown. The puffy hat will finally be mine!

Last Monday, I received advice that I had fulfilled the academic requirements for my PhD and that conferral would occur on the 31st of July. As I read the letter, I had a feeling of joy and my favourite person one of relief!

It is the culmination of the first chapter of the journey thatI entitled “What’s Next” when I started this blog. It’s a theme I have returned to since, as a fifty-something, I contemplated retirement from the professional firm I had been privileged to have been a partner for more than 20 years. With the completion of my PhD, I feel that the transition is complete, and a new chapter of What’s Next will begin.

When I commenced the journey with the assistance of Michael and Tim, I had no idea where it would take me. Through many conversations with Michael and Tim and the benefit of Hermina Ibarra’s book “Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career”, I am now just over 7 years into that journey.

Across that time, my favourite person and I have been lucky enough to travel to Italy several times; I have seen my first EPL game live and walked the beautiful beaches on the Isle of Sandy in the Orkney Islands. Other highlights have been attending my first large academic conference and becoming a published academic author. Across that period, there has been the joy of two of my children marrying, the arrival of three wonderful grandchildren and my youngest daughter’s graduations.

So “What’s next”?

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I’m almost there – Conferral awaits!

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Late last Friday afternoon I completed the final step in my PhD journey when I resubmitted a short abstract that for some reason the University could not find. It had originally been lodged at the time I submitted my thesis for examination, so lodging it again was not a big deal. However, it was a bit of an anticlimax from submitting my thesis with all the sign offs which I’d done the day before.

In any event, it’s all done now and conferral of my PhD should occur at the end of July.

Knowing it is all done, was a liberating feeling at first , followed by a sense of excitement that led to a difficult nights sleep helped by having the Tour De France to watch until the early hours of the morning.

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