I have moved abroad to do a PhD in Europe (in a STEM field). Currently, I am in my second year, and I have realised that my supervisor has little to no knowledge about the fields (simulations and mainly physics) that I am working in. Whenever I ask him questions about these two things, he often replies with (if not every time): to be discussed at the meeting/ask others. Of course, he is not active in the meetings, where other team members instead reply and lead the discussion, where many times I feel that if he says anything, he is there to ask (introductory) questions to understand what I am doing, question my results and not replying with advice/papers. I interpret his replies as saying "I can't help you" or "I'm not interested in helping you." He has not managed to suggest a single relevant paper within either of my fields, although it would have been helpful given that I was quite new to both of those fields when starting my PhD and was expecting to receive help from my supervisor.
Given the unfortunate state of my PhD, I was at least hoping he would provide help from his expertise area (data/instruments) when comparing my simulations to the data. However, the reply I get is, you guessed it: "to be discussed on the meeting/ask others". This has led me to think about what he is any good for in my PhD. This has led to confusion, a lot of struggle, isolation, working alone, and not-so-quick progress. What I have managed to do in my first year is to approach and talk to experts in my field(s) at a few conferences, get them interested in my results, and successfully actually receive help from them by email, which has been useful.
On a personal plane my supervisor was not good in introducing me to the lab, the people were not interested in speaking English with me during the breaks, and he didn't try with others to speak English and thus include me in the discussions. He even continued speaking his mother tongue with others (I am the only non-native speaker in the lab), which led me to feel even more isolated and not well. This led me to search for a company to spend the breaks outside the lab, resulting in spending breaks in other buildings/labs that were warm and more welcoming. In my opinion, he didn't do a great job here either.
Recently he has also not shown interest in spending money for me to go to relevant conferences, saying they are not relevant/funding is limited, which is not true, and causes additional frustration and tension. I have tried to present my current situation to the student representatives and staff of the doctoral school but little support and empathy have been shown to me. I get the reply that I should either quit if I don't like my PhD or try to find people who can help me with my subject outside the lab. I am wondering here how to approach tasks such as finding willing professors when I have just started my Ph.D.? I have tried to reach out to a few behind my supervisor's back, but really no success.
I feel that all this burden is put on me, while my supervisor who I assumed to be an expert in the field(s) and should supervise me, is not affected at all.
In the end, I feel that I don't get enough support which results in not-so-quick progress and I am not sure if I will be able to graduate and am even less likely to continue in academia. I am thus reconsidering applying for another Ph.D. project, as there are currently several openings in the same city, and I know a few supervisors.
Do you mind providing any insights?
