PhD Recap

Every PhD Is Different

I recently completed my PhD (Dr.-Ing.) in Germany successfully. Earning it was demanding and at times exhausting, but it was also one of the most educational periods of my life. During my whole time as a PhD student, I became increasingly aware of how different doctoral paths can be. Of course, a doctorate in law differs greatly from one in the natural sciences or engineering, like the one I completed. That part never surprised me. What did surprise me was how much PhD experiences can differ even within the same field and at the same university. Over the years, I came to one simple conclusion: every PhD is different.

My PhD - a Breath of Diverse Tasks and Responsibilities

The PhD programme I completed combined teaching, organisational work, project management, leadership, mentoring, and research over five years. Research was always at the centre, but it was by no means the only part of the role. Within the first three years, a large share of my work focused on supporting the chair itself, including teaching, laboratory management, and a range of organisational responsibilities. I was responsible for two teaching subjects, both of which were highly practical and required close coordination with others. Alongside this, I delivered a lecture and its accompanying exercise, and I also taught this topic as part of a yearly membrane course for industry participants. Over time, some of these chair-related responsibilities such as teaching could be handed over to newer PhD students, but others stayed with me throughout the full duration of my doctorate. A constant part of my PhD was the day-to-day organisation and coordination of laboratory operations for around ten active users. I was responsible for a laboratory used not only by me and my students, but also by other PhD researchers and their students. I also took ownership of two custom-built projection lithography devices, a precision balance, and a digital microscope. In practice, this meant instructing new users, maintaining the equipment, troubleshooting problems, and making sure the laboratory remained a reliable working environment. It also meant introducing structured workflows, writing and updating SOPs, and ensuring that data and processes were documented properly. Beyond teaching and lab operations, I also took on several organisational and leadership responsibilities that were not directly tied to my dissertation topic. For over a year and a half, I managed an industry collaboration on improving haemodialysis, with bi-weekly presentations and quarterly reports. In another collaborative project on cartilage replacement, I voluntarily led a group of six PhD candidates for one year and helped ensure that the subgroup met its goals. This involved defining a realistic scope and timeline, distributing tasks, preparing and moderating meetings, and presenting the group’s progress to internal project members and external stakeholders.

At the same time, I was leading the research work that formed the basis of my dissertation. My PhD topic was part of a DFG-funded project within the Collaborative Research Centre Functional Microgels and Microgel Systems. For four years, I was responsible for this project part, which had an annual budget of approximately €100,000. I planned timelines, resources, and budget, coordinated stakeholders within the project, and reported results to an international research audience. To perform the actual research, I line-managed around 40 students in total, including bachelor’s and master’s students, research interns, and student assistants. This responsibility went well beyond academic supervision. It included assigning and prioritising tasks, coordinating timelines and workloads, setting expectations, reviewing progress regularly, giving structured feedback, supporting problem-solving in day-to-day work, onboarding new students, and ensuring that each person was able to contribute effectively and develop over time. Every other week, I met each of my students individually in a Jour Fixe, in addition to the ongoing exchange in daily work. I also established a bi-weekly group meeting with my current students, usually three to five in parallel, together with the students of a closely collaborating colleague. These meetings created a space to discuss general challenges in the lab, exchange experiences, and help students develop confidence in presenting their research. For me personally, the most valuable part of line-managing students was the mentoring. I genuinely enjoyed supporting people, giving them clarity and appreciation, and seeing how much they could grow when guided well. This support structure helped me build a strong research output, which resulted in three first-author publications and three additional publications. In the final two years of my PhD, the focus shifted more strongly towards the research directly relevant to my thesis. I spent this period investigating research questions, supervising students, writing papers and my dissertation, and preparing for the oral defence. Alongside that, I attended conferences, presented my work, wrote project reports, and contributed to proposals for future projects that would continue after my own time at the chair.

I am listing all of this not to make my PhD sound unusually busy for the sake of it, but to show how broad the role really was – something I myself would never have expected. For me, a doctorate was never just about doing experiments and writing a thesis. It also meant taking responsibility for people, projects, teaching, infrastructure, and cooperation with external partners. That is one of the reasons why I describe myself as a scientist and project lead. It reflects my experience more honestly than a research-only title would.

Differences and Similarities of PhD Programmes

In conversations with other PhD students, I have realised that this kind of PhD, with its breadth of duties and responsibilities, does not seem to be the standard everywhere. I have met doctoral researchers from different disciplines, universities, and countries, and I always found it fascinating how different their day-to-day realities could be. Some were almost entirely focused on one narrow research question from the beginning, often with a very clear publication strategy and a strong thematic continuity. Others had far fewer teaching or organisational duties, which allowed them to go deeper into one topic over a longer period of time. In some groups, there was also a stronger sense of building collectively towards one shared scientific goal, with each PhD project fitting more directly into a larger and more coherent line of research. Many doctoral paths seemed more structured and more closely tied to a defined research direction within the lab, while also having less comprehensive organisational structures within the chairs, mostly combined with a much smaller number of PhD students.

My recent contact with PhD students in the United States during a four-month research stay added another perspective to these impressions. First of all, their examination system differed significantly from the German one. They have to undergo two additional examinations during their research time: One where they have to prove their knowledge in oral exam and one where they already have to write the theoretical part of their dissertation thesis as well as propose the structure of this document. Both exams needs to be passed at specific stages of their PhD in order to later be allowed to hand in their dissertation and complete the final exam. Compared to Germany, where one “just“ has to hand in a written thesis and pass a final oral exam, the American procedure is much more demanding. Furthermore, the American PhD students had much closer supervision than the one I was used to. While I had my regular meetings with my professor every half a year, they discussed their research every week with their professors in a Jour Fix. Based on what I saw there, my experience in Germany felt broader and more independent. I had more room to shape things, take ownership, and learn beyond the narrow boundaries of my thesis topic. At the same time, their path allows for more depth in one specific area from the very beginning with more scientific supervision by the professor and more in-depth input from peers.

That is probably the main tension I noticed in my own PhD. I learned a great deal about project management, prioritisation, communication, and how to keep complex work moving under pressure. I learned how to switch between very different responsibilities and still stay reliable. But at times, I also wished for more opportunity to go deeper into one scientific line of thought, to build more directly on the history of one topic within the chair, to follow a more continuous research journey from the start, and to have more colleagues to discuss my research with in depth. Some PhD students begin with months of focused literature work, identify a gap, and then shape a sequence of publications around one connected theme. My own path was less linear. It involved more topics, more interfaces, and more parallel responsibilities. That made me more of a generalist, which I value, but it also came with a certain loss of depth.

Still, for all their differences, PhD journeys also seem to have a great deal in common. No matter the field or country, research means learning how to deal with uncertainty and setbacks. It means developing your own judgement, continuing even when there is no clear answer yet, and staying curious. It also means growing as a person, not only as a researcher. All PhD researchers I met had this self-development and passion for research in common.

Every PhD Is Unique and Educational

For me, that is why I would never say there is one best kind of PhD. A doctorate can be highly educational in very different ways, and the kind of experience that is most valuable depends a great deal on where someone wants to go afterwards. In my case, I benefit strongly from having had a PhD that was broad, demanding, and full of responsibility. It taught me how to prioritise, how to work effectively under pressure, and how to create structure in complex environments. It also showed me how much I enjoy supporting others, coordinating projects, and helping a team move forward. Looking back, that combination has shaped me at least as much as the research itself.