Hello everyone,

I'm preparing my PhD in electrical engineering, and have been thinking. To be a good researcher, someone has to be good with scientific writing, maths/physics/... good in circuitry and electronics, and having some teaching skills. When someone wants to master something he has to dedicate his time and efforts to it, but having expertise in for areas at once !! i wonder how is it possible.

what are your opinions ?

 

i'm looking the way over the top of my head right now but the people who "master" a lot of areas take each next sort of as a "new cake to bake recipe" they follow the instructions study "THE cake analogs" , experiment - and find "oh, this is how it's made" - if you can do one cake you can do pretty much the similar - finally the entire field of science gets somewhat covered , starts resembling to itself . . .

 

Hello everyone,

I'm preparing my PhD in electrical engineering, and have been thinking. To be a good researcher, someone has to be good with scientific writing, maths/physics/... good in circuitry and electronics, and having some teaching skills. When someone wants to master something he has to dedicate his time and efforts to it, but having expertise in for areas at once !! i wonder how is it possible.

what are your opinions ?

The closer you come to being an expert in an area, the more experience you have gained in reading about your area. Reading example after example of scientific writing give you a certain framework to build from. On other words, the writing part will come to you if you bother to research the literature in your field. Don't worry about it too much.

After that, the theory is that a person needs 10k hours to become an expert in a specific field. That is the key, the expertise is in a specific field of electrical engineering - not every field of electrical engineering. Therefore you don't need to be perfect in EVERY area of physics, math or whatever that supports the various other areas outside of your degree. N e you graduate, you will have learned HOW to teach yourself a topic. Over your career, you will broaden your knowledge and interests and continue to learn.

You will have entrance exams, graduate schools make some students take remedial courses, it all tends to work out academically for 75% or so of people who start PhD programs in most areas. Of those 75% (+/- 25%), some leave on their own without a degree or with a masters degree for personal reasons.


As for the expertise in teaching and being taught, there is little emphasis on the quality of teaching - no classes in: teaching methods, evaluation & testing methods, psychology of learning or even simple project planning. If you want to be a good teacher, go to the library, read a few textbooks on those subjects and you will be miles ahead. It is mostly common sense AFTER you read - unfortunately, most PhDs have an over-inflated view of their own level of common sense.

 

Do what I did and still do.

Learn and work with whatever interests or challenges you at the time. Just keep expanding on what you do know one day and experience at a time.
In 20 - 30 years you will have far wider and deeper understanding of things that the vast majority of people who are supposed experts in any field will.

Also get used to be told you're 'overqualified ' as you go. People who are very good at one thing do not like working with people who are very good at a lot of things.

 

People who are very good at one thing do not like working with people who are very good at a lot of things.

People who only know one thing generally cannot imagine someone knowing many areas so they don't believe it is possible, and when they do realize they are working with someone with many skills and much knowledge, they don't care for it much.

 

People who only know one thing generally cannot imagine someone knowing many areas so they don't believe it is possible, and when they do realize they are working with someone with many skills and much knowledge, they don't care for it much.

As seen daily on internet forums.

 

you will have learned HOW to teach yourself a topic.

That is incredibly important!

I have always surpassed my teachers. Not because they were stupid, but because the scope of the class was limited.
Some people can do as they have been taught. Some people use what they were taught as the entrance to teaching themselves the rest of the subject. It accumulates.

I started by wiring kits. Pretty dumb work, just following instructions.
That led to studying schematics. So much I couldn't figure out! But it was enough to get me a job fixing TVs.
More schematic studies. More accumulated understanding.
That was enough to make all household appliances seem simple.
Then a job in precision analog meters. The light bulb in my head finally went on!
My next job was senior engineer in a power supply company.

Then I went back to school. Two courses in computer languages and I can teach myself the other languages if I can just get the book about syntax and commands.

Moved to Florida where there's plenty of work in Air Conditioning. A few months of that and I'm a consultant!
Back to school and I get a State License.

A side job working military communication radios. Piece of cake.

What do you know? A simple plan of teaching myself, and I go from an assembly line monkey to State Certified Designer.
I can fix any household appliance, work any kind of thermodynamics problem, figure out any refrigeration system, write programs to solve larger problems, understand most schematics...

Knowledge accumulates.
You just keep walking into new technologies, learn as you go, and you will have several areas of expertise in a dozen years.

 

@Forum Algérie

One more thing... Don't self-select yourself out of your goals. If you want to go to graduate school, fill out an application and take the GRE test and whatever else is needed to get into graduate school. If the SCHOOL says, NO, then you did all you can. If they say, OK, then you apparently have what it takes to get there. I would recommend filling out applications to schools in what ever part of the world interests you - and you can meet the language requirements.

Be brave, push yourself as far as you want, don't ask whether or not we think you can do it. Don't ask whether you think you can do it, just start trying and push, then shove, and work and learn and get get up and do it all over again until you are finally kicked to the curb and told convinced you should stop and try another fork in the road.

Good luck, be brave and enjoy your adventure.

 

has to dedicate his time and efforts to it

it is not exactly there - this is not the mind state
it's more like you have to be/stay constantly interested/exited what you're doing and keep (loving) doing it no matter what
the "dedicate" is when something has to be done and you're the only available volunteer idiot forcing yourself into something - you personally don't believe but realize the significance of