Doctoral supervision continues to be an interesting pedagogical site. As the university changes, so do the expectations and circumstances for doctoral education, including supervision. Although it is unhelpful to overstate the homogeneity of the doctoral student body of the past, there is no doubt that global and local changes to higher education have diversified the doctoral student body in Australia. This article explores the doctoral student experience from the point of view of two "non-traditional" students studying in Australian universities. Drawing on post-structuralist theorising around subject and subjectivity formation, the exploration focuses on these two students' lived experience of doctoral study with a focus on how subjectivity or selfhood is being (re)constituted and negotiated in pedagogical encounters with supervisors. It is argued that the self-narratives that doctoral students perform are of utmost importance to the doctoring process and that much would be gained pedagogically from listening carefully to these stories.