0

I have recently defended my dissertation. It was not my wish to defend since I was only three and a half years into my PhD. The reason was my advisor was pushing me to graduate. Even though I thought I had more things to do. However, I had enough paper to graduate, and my committee members were more than impressed with my work.

However, the drama started after passing the defence. We had one paper pending. Now, he is blackmailing me that he will not sign my thesis until I finish the whole paper. I have not found a job yet. I could not due to extreme pressure and torture for the past three years. I will need to focus on paper rather than looking for a job. I have a family with one kid who I need to support.

What can I do at this point? Is it worth it to complain against him at this last stage? Will I need his recommendation in future? Any suggestion is appreciated.

Improve this question
0

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
5

"What can I do at this point?" You could finish "the whole paper" so that he will sign your thesis. This will end the "extreme pressure and torture for past 3 years" and allow you to look for a job so that you can support your family and kid as soon as possible.

Improve this answer
2
  • I am an international in a foreign country. Everyone here usually finds a job first and does the final defense.
    – Optimistic Stupid
    Commented Jun 14 at 14:36
  • 1
    Or finding the job triggers a defense. If your advisor signed you would be graduated and the clock would be ticking on visa issues.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Jun 14 at 16:01
4

The question as posed is confusing. If you have published other papers, you are familiar with the process of preparing papers for publication. If the paper is work from your PhD, it sounds like it is just a matter of finalising a manuscript for submission rather than needing to do extra research. This sounds like something that you can do while also looking for work or even while working full time. Can you elaborate on the problem?

  • Is it that the paper will not be about work that you completed during your PhD, but about something that requires new research following on from your PhD work? If that's the case, since you have mentioned that you'd have been happy to stay as a PhD student for a while, is the problem that your funding has been discontinued since you passed your defence? That sounds like something you need to talk to your university about (your graduate research office, postgraduate co-odinator, department chair, or dean, depending on how things work where you are). It doesn't need to be posed as a complaint against your advisor: just explain the situation in neutral terms and ask if there is a way for your funding to be re-instated until you have sign-off. You are still a student until then, after all.
  • Is it that not having officially graduated is impairing your job search because "defence successfully completed but PhD not yet signed off" doesn't look as good on a job application as actually having the PhD in hand? This might not matter as much as you think (though that might depend on what sort of job you are looking for, what country you are in, and how fierce the competition is).
  • Is it that your family commitments mean that you would not be able to manage working say one day each weekend or a couple of hours after work each day on finalising a manuscript while also holding down a full time job? Worry about that once you have a job offer in hand -- meanwhile, you should be able to both work on the manuscript and look for a job.
Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    The work is related. I need to do some extra work, like 2 weeks' worth of experimental work. I am willing to do that. But, the data needs verification as well. And that needs time. Anyway, reading your comment it feels like the best for me is to finish the paper as well as continue searching for a job. For the funding, it is still alive. I will seek help if it is stopped. As I am a nonimmigrant student, finding a job is much more important for me rather than finishing the paper. My thought is, that if I shift the focus too much I will be in trouble. Thank you for your kind comment.
    – Optimistic Stupid
    Commented Jun 14 at 14:52
  • 1
    by trouble i mean unemployed and later leaving the country
    – Optimistic Stupid
    Commented Jun 14 at 14:53
  • Finishing the paper will be another paper on your CV, which will make your job applications stronger.
    – Significance
    Commented Jun 15 at 16:32
0

This is confusing. You don't like your advisor. Likely they didn't like you either. So they pushed you through to graduate early, which seems the best-case scenario for everyone involved. Now they just want you to wrap up a final paper before you leave. This is fair enough and very common as I assume resources were invested by your advisor on this and perhaps it was part of the negotiation your advisor made with your committee to let you graduate faster (i.e. that you had all those papers and one final one that will be sent in).

This seems like the most productive way to end a non-ideal mentor-mentee relationship. You got a degree and a list of publications to bolster your CV, they got some papers and another graduate student through, and now the final piece is one paper needs to be finished up.

Frankly the notion that you cannot wrap up a paper and look for a job at the same time is over-dramatic. Postdocs juggle advising students, writing multiple papers, handling part of group/lab business and looking for faculty jobs.

You can do it.

Improve this answer
3
  • 3
    Sorry, but I feel I had to downvote this. Nothing in the question indicates that OP only needs to put some finishing touches on an existing paper, it may well be that this "last paper" still requires months of full-time work. And independently of that - OP defended and is not sponsored anymore by the university, by definition their previous advisor has absolute no, zero, nilch rights to demand anything from them.
    – xLeitix
    Commented Jun 14 at 10:47
  • It requires significant experimental work. As well as verification of data from collaborators as well. However, I have seen questionable data being published without further verification within my team, which I cannot do. I agree that the best thing for me is to finish things up.
    – Optimistic Stupid
    Commented Jun 14 at 14:39
  • 1
    @xLeitix in many universities the student is not done until the advisor signs off on the thesis. The oral defense is just one part of it. It is very typical that they will hang around until the end of the semester during which they defended to wrap things up, hand over any data, if in an experimental lab, dispose of wastes, clean up, etc... (basic close out). But the student can raise a case with their department/college and force the completion of all degree requirements. At which point they will completely burn their bridge with their advisor. Do it and accept the consequences.
    – R1NaNo
    Commented Jun 14 at 16:33

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .