After my last thread, I thought I'd start another one to ask people if they feel that their confidence increased the longer they worked on their PhD? I know it may sound a ridiculous question, but it would be quite comforting to hear from people who suffered with lack of confidence and started to feel more self assured later down the PhD track?

I think confidence goes up and down very erratically and probably in no relation to anything concrete. But generally I would say confidence will increase over time.
My confidence has been all over the place recently. I felt great I had done 10,000 words of a literature review, then it was criticised and I felt like giving up, spoke to some other PhDs and found it it was normal so confidence up again, then realised I had no idea how to re-write it - confidence down, had a great meeting with my supervisor - confidence up, felt useless after teaching an undergraduate seminar (see post on graduate teaching) - confidence down, then had a paper accepted at a conference - confidence way up again - see what I mean?!

I agree completely with pamw - it goes up & down!

at my old university in switzerland, they once conducted a representative study on "issues and resources" of students. note here that they studied roughly 20-26 year old "masters" students (we didn't have bachelors but studied 5-6 years to directly reach a masters which was to a huge part independent study and research orientated). so in some sense it might be similar to PhD-situations here (not in all senses, of course).
anyway they found that overall, confidence dropped throughout the studies, the longer someone had been studying, the less likely they were to "say something" in seminars, and the more likely they would doubt their abilities, etc.
so, whilst i def. agree that it goes up and down depending on current happenings - i wouldn't count on confidence going up automatically with time.

Hi! I am 18 months into my PhD and I would definitely say that I have gotten more confident over time. To start with I felt really out of my depth and like a 'lucky' fraud who had winged her way in. The other people on my course where generally quite a bit older and had more work experience which was daunting. Plus, a few other people were teaching straight away or presenting at conferences or writing a lot - I was totally terrified as I was just bumbling along, reading and handing in work for my supervisor as and when. THEN, I passed the first year and realised I had had no serious criticism yet and maybe, just maybe, I deserved to be here. I worked so hard to prove to everyone and me that I desereved to be there. This year I am much more settled and confident and even looking forward to my first conference and getting something small published. last year I was terrified of going to conferences! All in your own time!

Hey bellaz. This is a bit of a difficult question with so many factors involved. It can depend on how your project is going, how your personal life is fairing, your health, etc. etc. Assuming that all is going well, and your project is becoming more clear rather than more cryptic, I'd say yes, it's likely that you'll feel more comfortable and settled in what you're doing. I think the more material you are exposed to, the more confident you will become. Having said that, I guess some would say that the more material they read, the more terrified they become! You will probably find that as you become more and more settled, you will start to feel more at ease with the PhD, kind of like a relationship. The longer you are with the person, the more comfortable you become (or more irritated with them--depends on which way you look at it!)

I think my confidence has dropped. I was quite confident/enthusiastic in my first year.

I was more confident at the start than at the end - but this was more to do with a dawning realisation that the more I learned and knew - the more I realised how much I didn't know!!

I think it varies depending on what you achieve and fail to get during your time but if you have the long term goal of getting to the end of PhD always at the back of your mind, then confidence grows, but very slowly as time goes by. Also, it helps when you set goals at the beginning with room for failures and each time you reach the goals and see you are going in the right direction, confidence grows. However, it has to have a planned route and alternatives.

Thanks to everyone for their replies. Reading my question today it actually sounds ridiculous! It's a question with many variables. I guess I'm just desperate to hear that it will all get better at some point. I woke up this morning thinking 'O god, yet another day of sitting at my desk reading!' It's a bit of a catch 22--in order to balance my life and not let the PhD take over, I've been dragging myself away from the PhD and going out to do other things, but then I found that I've been spending more time recently doing non-PhD stuff and neglecting my work. Yet, I think I've needed to step away from it so it wouldn't consume me.

Confidence definitely increases but only at the end I found. After the first year I thought I knew everything , at end of second year I was a mess and during the third year I realised how little I knew and dreasded anyone asking me about it - after submitting I feel like the worlds expert againa nd cant find enough people to talk to about all the things i know!
I do think iot is important though to get things in perspective and not let your PhD define you in terms of your general confidence about yourself.. so it is important to do other things and acheive in other non work related areas. The PhD is just a job after all and noone knows everything about their job.

Yes confidence definitely increases. In my final year, I feel that I'm able to talk absolute crap and get away with it totally. Previously I felt people questioned my crap but now I know this isn't true.

Seriously, it really does. The more you have to explain your research/work to other people, meet people at conferences etc your confidence really builds up. I used to be very shy in my younger years, I reckon I would have suprised my old shy-self.