PhD Pathfinder

Find your superpower

October 5, 2020May 20, 2021

What are your strengths and your weaknesses? This is a question most often heard from a recruiter’s mouth. But it’s a question that everyone should think about once in a while. Because you might be surprised by what you discover about yourself – if you keep an open mind. A…

Why is academic supervision so bad?

September 28, 2020October 12, 2020

Sorry for the provocative title. I’m sure not all supervision is bad – there are obviously some gems out there. But I’m also sure that a lot of the supervision could be a lot better. If we would prioritize it. One of the most pervasive issues doctoral students deal with…

Zoom gloom

September 21, 2020October 12, 2020

During the spring, when COVID-19 made us lock ourselves indoors and switch to online mode, we soon became familiar with a new feeling: zoom gloom or zoom fatigue. It’s the feeling of complete exhaustion after just a few video conferences, be it on Teams, Zoom or Meet. After a whole…

September 14, 2020October 12, 2020

When starting their PhD journey, many new doctoral students might ask “Is it worth it?”. All the way at the other end, some soon-to-be PhDs might start to ask themselves “Was it worth it?”. The answer to both these questions is, that it will probably be worth it in the…

September 7, 2020October 12, 2020

In academia, it’s easy to think that the next break is just around the corner. “I can focus on my writing next month when the teaching is over.” It’s easy to tell yourself that the amount of workload is normal. “Everyone else seems to manage the same workload so I…

Welcome to doctoral studies!

September 2, 2020October 12, 2020

Congratulations on starting your doctoral studies! As you embark on your PhD journey, I want to give you 5 tips to make it a little bit less bumpy: 1. Ask for help Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, its a sign of strength and bravery. You’re going…

August 31, 2020July 4, 2021

One of the best and the worst things about being a researcher is self-management. On the one hand, you are the boss of you. But on the other hand, you really need to be the boss of you. Often this doesn’t work unless you are a very good self-manager or…

August 28, 2020August 30, 2021

As I start my new job as psychologist for doctoral student at Aalto University, I am not only building this position from scratch at Aalto, I am shaping a totally new field in psychology and doctoral student wellbeing in Finland. Because this is new and ground-breaking, I want to tell…

Whether you need support to survive and thrive on your PhD journey or you want to improve your self-management skills as a scientist, the PhD Pathfinder is the right place for you.

Serving as your PhD Pathfinder is me, Maria Törnroos, a work and organizational psychologist (PhD) with plenty of experience and expertise of all the ups and downs of doing a PhD. At the moment, I am working as a psychologist, advancing wellbeing for doctoral researchers and early career researchers at Aalto University in Finland. You can read more about me, my academic past and my visions for the future in the ‘About me’ section.

The Best Thing Today

The Best Thing Today is a podcast series by Aalto study, career and advanced study psychologists. With their guests they discuss issues like remote working, social distancing, the effects of the Covid pandemic on studies, and much more. They also give advice for the everyday life in Aalto. The Best Thing Today is – naturally – in English, and the podcast’s counterpart in Finnish is called Paras hetki päivässä.

Maria Törnroos’s Audio columns are based on her blog PhD Pathfinder, www.mariatornroos.fi

Join Maria and Maija on this treasure hunt and hear how you can improve your time-management skills