Doing a PhD is a fairly intense undertaking, and not to be taken lightly. Especially if you haven’t done any form of research before. The first, foremost, and possibly most difficult step in the process, is to figure out what you would like to learn so badly that you’re willing to spend about four years of your life, doing it. By no means is the PhD guaranteed to be a pleasant adventure, so getting the subject right is quite important. Check out Matt Might’s illustrated guide to a PhD and PHD Comics. The comics are funny, but they’re also a pretty good reflection of what happens in a PhD. The second step is to find an advisor/supervisor who shares the same interests as yours. This is also crucial, if you want any semblance of a fruitful relationship.
A key thing to note is that a PhD can be (or rather, is mostly) a lonely endeavour. The refinining of the research question, the designing of the experiments, the evaluation framework, the writing (and re-writing) of papers and thesis are all essentials parts of doing a PhD. And all of these have to be done by you. Alone. Your PhD advisor’s job is not to do (or even assist) with any of these. A PhD process is meant to certify that you are capable of being an independent researcher. Hence, the advisor’s input is necessarily limited to conversations, discussions, provocative questions, pointing out possible avenues, and the odd motivational speech. If you greatly prefer a team-based problem solving process, then a structured PhD process is going to be tortuous.
Finances
If you are self-financed or have other means of funding your PhD, hooray! Stop reading and apply already :-).
There are avenues for finding funding to do your PhD, notably the Irish Research Council’s Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme. The School of Computer Science also runs a PhD scholarship scheme. Typically the application deadlines are in November of every calendar year. If you’re looking to do a PhD with me, you should contact me by around September, so we can establish if our interests are aligned. Please read through my research page before you contact me.