Book
It’s Not Over, Until I Win
A companion to doctoral study
This book summarises the podcast series Dr Oli’s PhD Journey. It uses storytelling to name the parts of the PhD experience that are often lived privately: supervision, loneliness, impostor feelings, integrity, and the mental cost of prolonged uncertainty.
“The aim is not to instruct… but to accompany.”
What this book is about
A PhD isn’t just “more education”. It’s a psychological task: living with incomplete knowledge, ambiguous standards, and long stretches without reassurance. This book focuses on what that process demands of a person—intellectually, emotionally, and relationally.
It treats uncertainty as structural rather than personal failure. Instead of offering a “how to do a PhD correctly” formula, it builds a vocabulary for what students commonly endure, and what humane supervision and self-trust can look like inside unequal systems.
Who this book is for (and not for)
For readers who…
- are considering a PhD and want an honest picture of what changes after “first contact”
- are mid-PhD and need language for loneliness, pressure, and the erosion of confidence
- supervise students (or mentor juniors) and care about trust, containment, and the whole person
- want reflective guidance that is descriptive rather than prescriptive
Not for readers who…
- want productivity hacks, rigid frameworks, or a universal “correct” way to do doctoral study
- expect a memoir with identifiable individuals or institutions
- are looking for clinical or therapeutic advice
- need simple answers to complex, uneven systems
Inside the book
Themes
- Why people start PhDs (and what they imagine will happen)
- Supervision, trust, and being treated as a person
- Loneliness and the strange social life of a PhD
- Authority, impostor feelings, and learning when not to speak
- Integrity, ethics, and learning not to cut corners
- Mental health, endurance, and the cost of prolonged uncertainty
- Finishing, letting go, and what remains afterwards
Disclaimer stance
This book is based on lived experience, reflection, and publicly shared material. It is not a memoir and it is not a clinical text. It does not offer medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. Where mental health is discussed, it is described rather than prescribed, with an intention to normalise experiences commonly reported by PhD students.
Excerpt
“A PhD is finite, even when it does not feel that way from the inside.”
From Chapter 3.