 Do you really like science? But you hate the fact that takes forever to get a PhD. This is Dr. Nancy. I was in your shoes years ago I got my PhD in three and a half years with 14 publications on one patent now I managed a team of product managers in a Fortune 20 technology company today I'm gonna share with you how I got my PhD in three and a half years on average in the US It takes about five years to get a PhD in special majors such as Biology takes about like seven years to get a PhD and people also asked me in the past Nancy How did you cut the time in half but still been able to publish 14 papers? Today I'm going to share with you the five things I did very differently from most of the PhD students Hopefully it's going to inspire you to take some actions today First of all, I proactively take control of my destiny What it means that I never let others to put label on me. I don't let other people to tell me what to do I make the decision and I do not take no for an answer Let me give you an example, which is also my own life-defining moment The earlier in my PhD program I remember I was in the lab doing experiment my PhD advisor went down to the lab and said Nancy I don't think you have the intelligence to get a PhD After she said that she just left work out the room and disappeared At the time I was pretty shocked and surprised all kind of emotions go into my head So I went upstairs and stopped her in front of her and said Dr. Bee It is my decision to quit PhD or say not yours. I do not want you to tell me what to do So I am going to prove to myself whether I can do a PhD or not I like to have another half a year. Let's make a plan to figure out what's the best way for me to prove to myself I can do a PhD or not. Honestly at the time back my mind is that I didn't feel I was qualified either. I didn't have the confidence that I can even get a PhD I came from a fashion design school I was a botan on my class guys And I made a video about how I transitioned from fashion design to engineering and why I decided to do that You can see the video here Given that it came from fashion design school I was way below my class everybody's level was here as a PhD student. I was here I have lost things to catch up with them Of course, I didn't feel like I can't get a PhD and for example in the class called Thermodynamics The most other PhD students took the class three times They did it in the undergrad, they did it in the master program Now it's the third time taking the same class with me with me coming from the fashion design background I have no experience my first time. Now I need to compete with these guys who already took the same class Three times That's ridiculous. Of course, I was in the bottom of the class. Of course my PhD advisor saw me while she was struggling And she decided to Help me to save some time in my life Just quit the PhD and you do something else because probably take me ten years to get a PhD I didn't think my science like knowledge was better than others. I wanted to Just prove to myself what I can accomplish So I made a decision to prove her she was wrong Eventually, I became one of the youngest engineering PhD in the program history and number two is I Trying to make other people like me especially professors This sounds very simple, but let me define what is mean by making people like you That is to improve yourself and provide unique values to other people So that people see the spark in you people see the potential in you and they decide to like you and help you Let me give you example, you know, all the PhD students they need to pass a prospective Exam and usually less than 50% of a student can pass it. There was a professor in this like a Committing panel. There are five professors in this panel one of the professor I took his class He made assignment for all the PhD students to run simulation of atoms of polymers guys Simulation of atoms inside of polymers. I didn't know experiences extremely difficult But what I decided was that when all other PhD student want to drill down into one way to run the simulation I use two different methodology to solve the same problem My model wasn't as deep as everybody else. However, my model was able to prove that This methodology was right and the other methodology was also right because they achieved the same outcome And the professor was very impressed He told all the student in the class and said that Nancy was the only person who was able to use two different ways to solve this problem afterwards When he pulled me on the side and told me that I Really like you I was quite surprised that you were able to solve problems in two different ways given you came from a Fashion design background So I'm going to help you and speak for you during your prospective exam Another piece of information is that the decisions were made when you're not in the room What I mean is that in those PhD prospective exams they are a panel of five professors and Those professors will see your exam result and to live pass of you You answer questions then you walk out the room then they collectively make decision of whether you can pass or not So it happens to be that the professor who really likes me is part of the panel And he was able to vouch for me sponsoring among all the professors and of course I also did my best in completing those exams But with him like influencing as a professor told them how brilliant I was solving problems in two different ways in his class it helped out So eventually I was able to pass the prospective exam with one shot Most of the student did two shots number three is the art of collaboration Let's emphasize on the art because everybody know we need to collaborate How can you make other people collab with you is the very important influence in skills and Specifically when I collaborate with other people I Understand who is better than me in many different aspects what I can learn from other people learning is my super power I learn way faster than most people but after I understand who is better in certain ways I will try to improve myself in other ways So I provide certain things and he bring in certain values we together collaborate Then those kind of collaboration really accelerate my PhD research process I had made several videos about how to influence and you can find multiple videos like this right here Number four what I did differently from most of the PhD students is to proactively improve my writing and Presentation skills I spend the time and money in investing in those key skills that Hey guys, I do not think that my science knowledge is better than any of my classmates But what I believe is that how you present your outcome is very critical So therefore I spent the time and money Taking public speaking classes and doing writing classes doing different kind of group training small group training different coaches I Did everything I can to improve those key skill set which also carries really long way when I start to work for other companies Number five is the art of negotiation So negotiation the key fundamental skill set. I believe everybody need to take a negotiation class in their life Do you know that all the engineers and the PhD students and scientists never take those kind of negotiation classes But negotiation class is the fundamental class part of all the business students all MBA student take Negotiation class so all the engineers was already set behind because they never take those kind of basic fundamental skills at training but to me because I Really specialized in personal improvement. I always want to learn new skills I learned that being able to negotiate is able to carry me really long way So I invest in this new skill set what I did was for example, I was able to Negotiate a summer internship with my professor So she gave me three months to do an internship and usually lots of PhD students do not get it until they graduate I did it the first year was in my PhD. I also negotiate when I graduate as you know, I graduate in three and a half years and became one of the youngest engineering PhD in the program history The all comes on the fundamental skills have been able to influence others and negotiate It's not about negotiating money It's more about how can you work together and get a deal that now you might graduate from your PhD program If you want to learn how to negotiate a job offer, you can check out video right here I also want to learn the three reasons people fell in negotiations check out this video as well After watching this video, are you ready to set the right target and try to accelerate your PhD program? I hope you are if you want to accelerate the process achieving your goals You can consider watching this video about how to achieve your goal faster and join my Accountability partner group and we can all help each other to achieve the goals faster All right This is Dr. Nancy and make sure you subscribe to this YouTube channel And so that in the future when I make more videos like this, you're able to be the first person Check it out. Good luck with your PhD program or whatever goal you're trying to achieve This is Dr. Nancy Lee follow me on Instagram and YouTube. See you guys