PhD Done. Life Not So Much.

I see a lot of posts celebrating the end of a PhD.
The thesis hand-in photo.
The graduation gown thrown in the air.
The proud smiles and class rings.

Finishing a doctorate is worth celebrating.

But here’s what almost nobody writes about.

What comes after?

The heaviness.
The identity void.
The delayed reckoning with sacrifices you didn’t fully feel while you were busy surviving.

The PhD is not the fuel

Many people chase a PhD believing it will resolve something fundamental. That once the title is secured, things will fall into place. Purpose will be clearer, identity will solidify, and life will finally begin.

That belief rarely survives contact with reality.

Once the PhD ends, the role that structured your days disappears. If you move into a postdoc or academia, the degree is no longer something to celebrate. It becomes the minimum requirement. What follows are deadlines, grants, meetings, reviews, and an endless sense of provisionality.

The fire that carried you through long nights, failed experiments, and reviewer comments burns out surprisingly fast.

If you step into industry, the lesson is similar in a different form. You enter a workforce that does not care about your intellectual journey. The title does not carry prestige. You have to prove your value from scratch, every day.

If the PhD itself was your only source of motivation, what remains afterwards can feel hollow. You start asking uncomfortable questions. Why did I sacrifice so much? What was all this for?

When identity disappears

Most public narratives about the PhD are polished.

“No regrets”… “All worth it”… “Best decision of my life”.

What is rarely discussed are the quieter moments:
- The panic that hits the day after submission.
- The emptiness after years of structured identity suddenly ends.
- The personal sacrifices that now feel irreversible.
- The double-edged nature of postdoc life, where everything is temporary.
- The realisation that leaving academia does not automatically grant status or clarity.

I remember sitting alone in my apartment during lockdown, in the middle of my postdoc. Every email felt heavier than the last. Contract reminders, funding uncertainties. Each one reinforcing the same message: my life was on hold.

I spoke to colleagues and friends. Many felt the same. The invisible clock, precarious contracts, and delayed personal milestones. We were all circling the same questions:
- Who am I now?
- Where is this actually going?

The cost nobody tallies up

Let’s be honest about the trade-offs.

For me, the PhD cost:
- Financial stability
- Relationships that mattered
- Temporary living arrangements that were not ideal

The “no regrets” mantra flattens reality.

The debt of a PhD is not only financial. It is emotional, relational, and existential.

Pretending otherwise does not help anyone.

The post-PhD void

Post-PhD life can feel like standing on a cliff with no visible path forward.
- Personal relationships hesitate under uncertainty.
- Career decisions are tentative, compromised, provisional.
- Isolation amplifies identity confusion.

This is the void.

Many experience it but few write about it.

The person you were has ended, and the person you need to become has not yet arrived.

What the void can teach you

The mistake many of us make is rushing to fill the emptiness.
- Another postdoc.
- Another grant.
- Another metric.

Sometimes that is necessary for financial survival. I did the same. But in hindsight, I regret not using that moment more deliberately.

A few things I learned too late:

1. Your identity is not the PhD.

   The title is temporary. It does not dictate your future.

2. Plan for life after submission, not just the next contract.
   The end of the PhD should not be the first time you ask what kind of life you want to build.

3. Use the discomfort rather than escaping it immediately.
   The emptiness is an invitation to reflect. Who are you beyond productivity? What actually matters?

4. Build meaning beyond metrics.
   Jobs come and go. Publications accumulate and fade. If your foundations are weak, doubling down on evenings and weekends for more output will not fix it.

   Life is meant to be lived. Family, friendships, travel, love. These are not distractions from success. They are part of it.

Final thoughts

Finishing a PhD is not a victory lap for everyone.

Sometimes it is a wake-up call. Your identity has dissolved. Your old fuel no longer works.

The truth is messy.
PhD done.
Life not so much.

Ready to take your research to the next level?

Whether you prefer learning at your own pace or working closely with my dedicated team of experts, I offer support to help you plan, structure, and elevate your research journey. Learn more and find the right option for you at ResHub.

SciSpace’s new Zotero integration

At some point, every research project hits the same wall: too many PDFs and no clean way to pull them together.

SciSpace’s new Zotero integration connects directly to your library, so you can summarise papers, compare methods, and generate structured reports without manual uploads. Everything stays organised in one place.

Less file management.
More time thinking and writing.

I walk through this workflow, and other SciSpace features, in my SciSpace webinar

Try it now

Disclosure: SciSpace offers a free version, with optional premium features. This is an affiliate mention. If you’re considering the premium plan, these discount codes apply:

• AMHJAN40 – 40% off (annual)

• AMHJAN20 – 20% off (Monthly)

Stay up-to date

Stay updated with free weekly content by following me on LinkedIn,Instagram visiting my website and subscribing to my YouTube channel.

That is all for this week. Enjoyed this newsletter? Hit the subscribe button below and share it with a friend.

1