Never let it be said that the postdoctoral community is an unhelpful one.

When we asked our Twitter followers to offer advice to would-be PhD students, using the hashtag , the response was overwhelming. Around 1,500 took up the challenge in the first four days, offering their tips, tales, wisdom and wit on the subject of obtaining a doctorate.

Some were pessimistic ¨C particularly those in Ireland. Postdoctoral fellow at 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ College Dublin¡¯s School of History and Archives, Carole Holohan, warned those new to the PhD process to ¡°prepare for some dark nights of the soul¡±.

Her colleague, Emily Mark Fitzgerald, a lecturer in UCD¡¯s School of Art History and Cultural Policy, struck a similar tone. ¡°PhD is a huge sacrifice of time, energy, money. Do serious, honest and informed soul-searching before undertaking,¡± she tweeted.

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Will Brooker, reader in the School of Performance and Screen Studies at Kingston 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ in London, outlined the transformational journey that PhD study represents. ¡°You will hate your topic or love it in a dangerous way,¡± he said. ¡°You will become a hermit, go insane for a while, or you will not complete.¡± He added, however, that it was ¡°very probably the last time in your career you will have so much time devoted to a single research topic. Enjoy it.¡±

We started the hashtag both to build a bank of PhD advice, and to highlight a recent cover feature written by Tara Brabazon, head of school and professor of education at Charles Sturt 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, Australia, in which she outlines the 10 truths your PhD supervisor will never tell you.

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In addition to tweeting his reaction to the article, Raul Pacheco-Vega, assistant professor in the Public Administration Division of the Centro de Investigaci¨®n y Docencia Econ¨®micas
Aguascalientes in Mexico, used to give his thoughts. In it, he says Professor Brabazon has picked out ¡°a few gems¡±, including the advice that warns against being supervised by academic superstars, or ¡°SuperProfessors¡±, as he terms it.

However, he feels the article should have reminded PhD students that both they and their supervisors ¡°are humans, and [should] take a more human approach to supervising/achieving a PhD¡±.

¡°I had a great PhD supervisor, a fantastic doctoral committee and my experience was positive, and I would hope my own students¡¯ experience to be the same,¡± he says.

Back on Twitter, the PhD community is still adding to the #PhDtruths advice, making the hashtag a useful resource for early career researchers.

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¡°Schedule actual breaks: during the day, at weekends and a real non-conference holiday if poss. It is not indulgent, rest is vital,¡± said Caroline Magennis, teaching fellow at Harlaxton College, the Lincolnshire-based British campus of the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Evansville in Indiana.

Andrew Tatusko, assistant director for faculty development at Pennsylvania State 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, concluded: ¡°Remember that you are a PhD student ¨C a privilege most in the world will never have. You have no real right to complain about it!¡±

Send links to topical, insightful and quirky online comment by and about academics to chris.parr@tsleducation.com