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Abstract
The final year of a Ph.D. program is a crucial transition from doctoral student to independent academic and social actor. Within years, new graduates often become supervisors themselves, navigating an academic ecosystem increasingly transformed by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Despite its importance, research tracking individuals across both stages remains scarce. Grounded in ecological systems theory, this autoethnographic study examines critical incidents and emotional encounters across two phases of my academic journey: completing my doctorate in Hong Kong (2019–2020) and serving as a research supervisor at a Macau university (2023–2025). Drawing on reflective journals, I document my thesis completion, the shift to online teaching, job searching, academic recognition, and the emergent challenges of guiding students who utilize GenAI tools. Findings reveal that both transitions were profoundly social, psychological, and emotional. Feelings of empowerment and disempowerment fluctuated based on interactions across ecological systems. Notably, exosystemic and macrosystemic constraints encountered as a student did not vanish upon becoming a supervisor; instead, they resurfaced as structural pressures I had to either reproduce or interrupt. The paper concludes with recommendations to better resource final-year students and novice supervisors through these critical transitions in the GenAI era.
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