The 7 types of PhD supervisor | Avoid one type at all costs!

In this video, I share with you the seven types of PhD supervisors that I have encountered throughout my time in academia. Which one have you got?

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▼ ▽ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – micromanager
2:31 – ghost
4:40 – the slave driver
7:21 – the boaster
9:11 – rich and poor supervisors
11:39 – the supportive supervisor

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▼ ▽ TOOLS

[TharosaRajaratne]

I love the fact that there are absolutely no introductions in your videos. Just straight to the goodies. Love it!

[benholstder]

The narcissists. They hate themselves but can't deal with it, so they act grandiose and hate everyone else instead: the staff is always bad, students are trash, other academics "don't know what they're doing" and what's worse they criticize their own students to you. Numerous times I heard him call them stupid, incompetent etc. The way they create a toxic environment and pull you in it is extremely dangerous. Suicidal thoughts made me realize that this was not okay and I changed advisors ASAP.

[knuppelgast]

The PI of the lab where I did my MSc thesis was such a supportive guy. We had weekly meetings where he would show interest in everyone's research (also BSc and MSc students) and would frequently give advice. I remember quite a number of times where he would randomly email around papers that might be interesting, or would contact researcher from other universities for a plasmid (that I didn't even ask for) after quickly mentioning it to him during coffee breaks. I am now finished with my MSc thesis, but I still had contact with him about my future as a PhD student. I am not going to do it at the same university, but he still gave a lot of advice in general and helped me look at some PhD positions in detail (to see whether they would be good or not).

[ademikunle]

Don’t stay with the slave driver. It’ll affect your life generally. Also, you’ll end up becoming a slave driver yourself because you’ll get used to it think every student has to go through the same treatment. Run boy run!

[tukufelicitas]

I am in this same situation right now, I am glad someone is talking about it because by the grace of God when I graduate from this program, I want to start writing about supervisors like this since most students go through it but nobody really talks about it. Thank you Andy

[Tebsana]

I'm not sure PhD student but a research masters student, and I've been really fortunate to have a supportive supervisor. I want to do a PhD so this video is really helpful as it'll help me see red flags for potential PhD supervisors

[wellesmorgado]

I had a nice chap as my supervisor (R.I.P.), but he was mostly of the ghostly type, near retirement. He was really old and poor (no grant at the time). I think this might be more common among theoretical PhD's, and it taught me to do my work all by myself. Maybe a micromanager type would have me publish much more, but I think the human side also has some importance, and my supervisor was cool headed and helped me keep going in a good direction.

[Afs]

Well-done! More often than not we see supervisors that solely seek their own wishes by just crunching your true aspirations.

[cea]

My supervisor was a mix. He was a very early career theoretical physicist and had no money, which was his justification for being a slave driver. After more than half his students left, and he got more grants, he tried being a micromanaging yet supportive supervisor. The ratio between micromanaging and supportive changed constantly depending on whether he was poor or rich at the time and just seemingly random mood swings. The trick of setting time constraints was helpful, but he would still ask for results before the set time, despite many of them being simulation results and the time estimates being very accurate and impossible to do quicker.

[bhangrafan]

Excellent advice, informative perspective, all undergraduates should watch your channel before deciding on a PhD.

[Stirdix]

I swapped advisors a lot, and have seen a fair bit.

An undergrad, I started with a boaster (whom I left on generally good terms; I just didn't enjoy the research area), followed by the ghost (rarely saw him, did very little - very relaxing summer for an REU, worked maybe four hours a week, but not so good for my professional development).

I wrote my senior thesis under someone who probably would have been a micromanager if he had fewer students, but he was a theoretical physicist managing like 20 students/post-docs (and operating relatively independently, unlike some experiments). The lack of time per student balanced out what would have been a micromanaging personality to make a person who was very detail-oriented in the research while not being overwhelming.

Grad school, I moved from someone who was probably supportive (we didn't talk much before - due to non-research obligations - I basically ghosted him for a year, during which time he took on another student instead, since he hadn't heard from me) to a ghost (or something; not sure, I may just not have been pushy enough about staying in touch) to my current advisor.

My current advisor is wonderfully supportive and also a really good match with me personally (in that we approach problems in similar but complementary ways and often want to go down the same rabbit holes).

[ajreed]

I have a current advisor that is really supporters since I reached out to them when considering the PhD a year ago. The only thing I have noticed with them is that then tend to dominate the conversation during our meet-ups, where at most I talk for about 10 minutes total. I do not see this as a bad thing, rather trying to navigate how to express my thoughts in a real collaborative way.

[Natketty]

My previous supervisor was a weird compositon of all the flaws of the supervisor types ahahah Just a complete nightmare. Even regarding money, he had money from grants to put cameras all over the lab to spy on us all day, but made us re-use yellow tips!
Edit: a comments below talking about the "narcisist" type perfectly describes him! Yes, this is a category in his own!

[lluvik]

i just always find it so incredible to witness how much they know, they seem like an infinite pool of knowledge

[adam.o]

I posted on an earlier video of yours about a PhD supervisor from Australia I had, who was clearly a Micromanger/Slave Driver. As a result, i swaped departments due to toxic enviroment they created. Just wanted to let you know, my current supervisor is a very nuturing and supporting supervisor, who is constantly on the prowl for oppertunities for me to publish. I actually had to moove countries for this to happen, but i'm glad I did.

However, they have now put me on a career projectory pathway and started prepping me for a postdoc by making me a teaching assistant and i just realisesd something after watching your video. Due to my experinces, i have become 'the boaster' for the first years i am mentoring, as i thought this was a good thing lol 😵.

[christophcrockett]

I truly appreciate all of your insights! Your videos have given me much more confidence for my upcoming program. Each of your videos very much feels like sitting down with a knowledgeable friend who is going to give it to you politely, but straightforwardly. Your videos have helped me to develop a firm sense of many particulars.

[dr.vanathiperumal]

Well said. Managed without weekends and social life. With little time to enjoy life.

[guybeauregard]

Looking back, I'd say my supervisor was an enthusiast, supportive all the way--and also able to deliver tough love when needed. I learned a ton in the process, not just about the research field, but about how to do this job with enthusiasm. Writing the dissertation was at times a miserable experience, but that was not because of the supervisor!

[peterkelemen]

Just starting my postdoc tomorrow and it's a great video to see what kind of supervisor should I become. Great video!

[digitaljobshop]

I had the ghost supervisor. He ended up losing his job and I had 2 years left without the lab there and my supervisor didn't answer any of my emails. Had to get the VP of institute involved. I made it out with 1 first author paper and barely graduated, took 7 years.