> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://once-upon-a-phd.gitbook.io/once-upon-a-phd/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://once-upon-a-phd.gitbook.io/once-upon-a-phd/en/declaration.md).

# Declaration

Declaration

### Origin of This Book

This book mainly collects, organizes, and recalls the past under the ups and downs of the four-year PhD career at the [**Swiss Federal Institute of Technology** ](https://ethz.ch/en.html)(ETH Zürich) from the end of 2016 to the beginning of 2021, as well as some reflections on the subsequent review. When thinking about writing this book, I can push it back to 2018. At that time, I accidentally turned to the forum and saw the book [**The PhD Grind**](https://web.archive.org/web/20190930200154/http://pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir/pguo-PhD-grind.pdf) written by [**Dr. Philip Guo**](https://pg.ucsd.edu/). He shared his mental journey during his 6-year PhD study at Stanford. Inspired. Considering that what he provides is the perspective of direct PhD students in North American universities, I hope to provide some different experiences and perspectives from the perspective of doctoral students in European schools, and hope that it can serve as a reference for everyone.

### Potential Readers

The potential readers of this book include but are not limited to:

* Undergraduate and master students who are interested in Ph.D. and research life
* PhD students who are going through the sour process of reading a Ph.D./research/publishing an article
* PhD students who are confused about their future life and want to seek career transformation
* Faculty members who are unable to figure out how to communicate better with the doctoral students they lead
* Social people who want to jump out of the siege and consider Ph.D. in 996 at work and little progress in technology
* Seven aunts and eight aunts who want to educate their children to pass university entrance exams and then read Ph.D.
* Passers-by who are simply curious about what mysterious experiments scientists are playing

### Period of Writing

Part of the content of this book is sent out for some things encountered during the Ph.D., written immediately, and previously published on the Zhihu platform below some answers. Other parts of the content are the memories written in WeChat Moments and Google Photos during the period from the completion of the defense to the job search, which can better extract the emotional story itself and see the problem and essence behind it.

### Tone of Writing

There are a thousand Hamlet in the world, and there are a thousand different doctoral careers. In the mundane sense, I am probably not a player who has successfully completed a Ph.D. I have neither the Nature and Science main journals/subjournals held in hand to teach and worry-free, nor is there a job offer from Huawei's talented youth with a million-year salary. My personal point of view and perspective in this article is a few chirps from a rookie who has been confounded by academics, work, and life. Please just smile when you see the discomfort.

### **PDF Version**

The format of the whole book is adapted from the LaTeX template and cover design of my doctoral dissertation, and some details have been changed to make it more readable, and some names and titles are omitted, as well as some too private details.

### Defensive Declaration

The content of the article only represents personal opinions and is for your reference. It has no intention of preaching or persuading others. If there is any bias, please criticize and correct me. Please don't disagree, forgive me.