Category: news

Categories
news

Funding the Podcast

Last year I had what I thought was a bright idea: I would create a Patreon campaign to support the production of the Viva Survivors Podcast. An ongoing patronage programme where people who wanted to fund the creation of a resource sharing PhD and viva experiences could – completely opt-in and no barriers or paywalls in front of the episodes. That’s the very last thing that I want.

I had high hopes and then… nothing! No patrons, no enquiries, nothing. And then after a couple of months a piece of EU legislation around VAT and digital sales came in, and I had to take down the campaign anyway (it would put me in an incredibly difficult position to have to register for VAT, and the application of the rules to platforms like Patreon are not clear yet).

Back at square one? Not at all.

Continue reading “Funding the Podcast”
Categories
news

Viva Survivors Update

While I continue finishing my second book on the viva, it seems only appropriate to share some of the recent episodes of the Viva Survivors Podcast over here! I’ve interviewed two recent PhD-completers in the last few weeks, and both episodes are now up over on Viva Survivors.

First of all, in Episode 35 I spoke to Dr Eljee Javier, who told me all about her research in the experience of visible ethnic minorities who were native English speakers engaged in teaching English to non-native speakers. It was great to get a flavour of her research, then also hear about her viva experiences.

Two days ago I posted the latest episode, Episode 36, where I spoke to Dr Anna McFarlane, who recently completed her PhD on William Gibson, one of my favourite contemporary authors. It was interesting to hear about her research – and also to have an interviewee on the podcast who had, what we might call, an atypical viva experience – albeit quite a good one! You’ll have to listen to see what I mean.

These were two great interviews; I’m always looking for more people willing to share their PhD and viva stories, so please get in touch!

Thanks for reading.

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

 

Categories
news quick thought

The Last Three Weeks

They’ve been quite intense actually! In the last three weeks I have:

  • delivered seven workshops, including facilitating a Grad School;
  • three of the workshops were Viva Survivor, and I also spent half a day working with PhD supervisors and telling them about my research so far into the viva experience of PhD graduates;
  • travelled to Wales and Scotland – including my first workshop in Edinburgh;
  • finished the first draft of my second book;
  • been ill for a day, which really knocked the wind out of my sails;
  • read several books – including a few from my reading list for 2015;
  • signed up with Payhip, and from next month I’ll be selling Fail Your Viva through that service as well as through Amazon.

I’ll write again on Friday with details of the books that I’ve read so far, and why I think they might be interesting to you, dear reader. I’m also working to arrange new interviews for the Viva Survivors Podcast – and if you’d like to join me on the podcast to talk about your viva then do get in touch.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

Categories
news

Quick New Book Update

I’ve not written as many posts in the last week, as I was powering ahead with writing and also out delivering workshops as well. Which lead to me missing a couple of posting slots. But then yesterday:

A first draft is just the first step – next, after a break to let me forget it a little, comes editing, then sharing with a few people, then the other side of self-publishing (covers, files and so on)… But it’s on the way, and on track for a release before Easter!

Watch this space for more details, and thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

Categories
news

Catch Up, 26th January 2015

Previously in this sort-of link round-up slot I’ve had some kind of format where I talk about things in certain orders and so on. But after having spent a lot of time writing out to a clear structure lately (he says, conversationally referencing his next book) I thought I would write as things occur in this post.

Work

I spent some time away last week at my first KESS Grad School of the year; it was great to work with a group of MRes scholars, hear about their research and look at some interesting case studies. Very happy that I have some more of these in the coming six months. This week I’m away in Bangor for a couple of days, talking to staff and PhD candidates about vivas, and on Friday morning I’m at LJMU to talk about viva prep there too. Busy times!

Continue reading “Catch Up, 26th January 2015”
Categories
news

Books in 2015: A Goal

2015Books

For someone who loves reading, I make a lot of excuses for not getting around to books. “I didn’t have time yet.” “My Kindle was out of power.” “I got it in print but it’s massive.”

Well no more! My plan is not to limit myself to the ten books in the photograph during 2015, but I plan to make sure that I do read these books in 2015. Here’s the books and they whys:

Continue reading “Books in 2015: A Goal”
Categories
news

Goals for 2015

On Monday I shared some of my highlights for 2014, but of course a New Year is not all about looking back, it’s about thinking and planning ahead too. I’ve written about setting objectives and goals before, so I’ll try and follow my own advice when it comes to thinking about my year ahead! Some of these are objectives, some are announcements, some are hopes and dreams for 2015.

Continue reading “Goals for 2015”
Categories
news

2014 in 14 Bullet Points

Happy New Year!

For the first post this year I thought it would be good to summarise my 2014 and what stands out for me. On Wednesday I’ll talk about some of my plans for 2015 as well, but it’s important to look back before planning ahead I think.

  1. I had a full year of me and my wife seeing our daughter change and grow before our eyes.
  2. I started blogging again in September, and was able to keep up four posts a week minimum until I took a break for Christmas.
  3. I conducted a survey about the viva experiences of PhD graduates in the UK, and shared some of the results.
  4. I produced 11 episodes of the Viva Survivors Podcast.
  5. I worked with over 800 researchers on various workshops.
  6. I didn’t read quite as many books as I hoped (see this Friday’s post for my 2015 reading list).
  7. I continued delivering Viva Survivor workshops and loving doing them – and started talking with supervisors about Viva Survivor too.
  8. I finally chucked out my undergraduate maths lecture notes (after going through and extracting some useful stuff). It’s over twelve years since undergrad, and I didn’t want to move house in a couple of years and still be carrying them with me.
  9. I decided that my next ebook was going to be Frequently Asked Questions About The PhD Viva, and I’m working towards publishing it in the next three months.
  10. Speaking of books, my first ebook, Fail Your Viva, is still available in the Amazon Kindle Store! I sold over 200 copies last year, and it was borrowed about 20 times too from the Kindle Library.
  11. And staying on the viva track for one more point, I started making plans for the Viva Survivors Podcast, and am happy that I was able to keep up two episodes per month for the last three months of the year.
  12. I started another podcast with a friend, where we waffle on about role-playing games. It’s A Gaming Podcast About Nothing, if you’re interested.
  13. I started a Patreon campaign to try and support the Viva Survivors Podcast financially, but I’ve had to suspend it until (at the very least) I find out what changes to the VAT laws would mean for me.
  14. I realised that I have a creative itch for role-playing games that is not being scratched; so now have to figure out what I want to do to start that ball rolling.

What were the highlights of 2014 for you? Did you get things done as you expected? What surprised you?

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

Categories
news

A New Book About The PhD Viva!

Since before I started the Viva Survivors Podcast I’ve been delivering viva preparation workshops, and over the last four-and-a-bit years I’ve been asked a lot of questions in a lot of a seminar rooms. Over the last couple of months a regular series of posts on this blog has been about common questions I get asked about the viva. It’s been great to be able to share these, and hopefully they will help those of you that have the viva in your future; it’s been really helpful to me for in a couple of ways too! I’ve had some more writing practise, and it’s helped me think things through for workshops that I have coming up.

But I get asked a LOT of questions, and as I’ve kept records for most of this year I know what keeps coming up again and again. That’s why I’m using these recent posts as a springboard to my second book, which has the working title of “Frequently Asked Questions About The PhD Viva” – which is a very does-what-it-says-on-the-tin sort of name, so we’ll see if that changes. (I like it though!)

So what can you expect from this book?

Continue reading “A New Book About The PhD Viva!”
Categories
news

Catch Up, 8th December 2014

Hello! How are you doing? This is the last catch up post for this year, although on 31st December I plan to share a “year in review” post that will summarise what I’ve done this year, some of the most-read posts I’ve written and other projects I’ve been involved with. And on the 1st of January I currently plan to talk about my goals and big projects for the year ahead!

The last few weeks have been good, a mix of working from home – which is lovely because I get to play with my daughter more – and workshops in Sheffield. I’m at Liverpool for most of this week, and starting to plan ahead for January’s workshops. I’ve also been doing a fair bit of writing too!

Continue reading “Catch Up, 8th December 2014”