Hello everyone,
It turns out it’s much harder to keep up with writing every week and posting it online than I anticipated. However, I'm finally ready to start discussing my journey. Rather than delving into my personal motivations for pursuing a PhD, I want to focus more on the overall procedure and how my first month unfolded.
As a PhD student in Germany, you're typically employed in public service, which means salaries, working hours, and other work-related procedures are publicly accessible and non-negotiable. These working conditions are negotiated on a broader scale and apply across the entire public service sector, though different sectors within public service negotiate separately. Fortunately, there will be a €200/month increase later this year followed by another increase in early 2025, making the compensation somewhat more competitive with industrial wages. Overall, it can be said that wages for PhD students and those employed in industry differ, with the advantage typically leaning towards the industry. Of course, this heavily depends on the industry and location, but as an engineer in Stuttgart, this is the case. I'll delve into why I still chose this path in a separate post.
Reflecting on my first month of work, I can say that it required some adjustments compared to working during my studies as a student. I've had internships and working student positions before, all of which were limited to a certain time frame and, in my case, aimed at gaining experience and supporting my studies financially. However, working now as a full-time employee provides a much less flexible schedule, although where I work, PhD students still enjoy a relatively flexible and individualized schedule compared to those in the industry.
The public service system in Germany is quite traditional, and there's a lot of paperwork and forms that need to be filled out and signed by hand, with the original copies often needing to be submitted in person to HR. This may be specific to Esslingen, but overall, bureaucratic processes in Germany tend to slow down the overall workflow, in my opinion. So, during my first two weeks, I was quite occupied with filling out forms and identifying the necessary and important ones for my role, as there are many, but only a few apply to me. Thankfully, the team I'm working with was very helpful in guiding me through the necessary procedures and paperwork for us as PhD students. Since I'm already very familiar with the University of Esslingen, I had no trouble getting acquainted with the internal procedures and facilities. Therefore, the first few weeks felt a bit strange as I returned to the place where I had studied for the past six years, now as a full-time employee. Some might find it boring to return to the same place for so many years, but personally, I appreciate routines and familiar surroundings to a certain extent. Overall, it was motivating to witness my personal development and find myself in such a position, especially considering I never imagined pursuing this path.
Aside from dealing with bureaucracy and adjusting to my new role as a PhD student, I also received a further introduction to the topic and problem of my future research. Overall, the first weeks involved a lot of research on various topics. In the past weeks, I began working on multiple projects, one of which involves developing a calculation program for injection molding processes of thermoplastic polymers. For this project, I revisited some lecture materials and delved deeper into the process of injection molding. Another crucial task was gathering information and writing a research proposal. It's fascinating to observe that in many areas of research, the number of publications is decreasing while becoming more detailed, but that's part of the excitement. Moving forward, I aim to provide weekly updates. So, until next Sunday!
Best regards,
Robin
P.S.: As I am not a native English speaker, please excuse any mistakes that may appear here and there, although AI is already a great help. Additionally, all posts are written from my perspective and reflect my opinions, which may differ greatly from yours, but I am always open to discussion.