The present investigation focuses on understanding the experiences of professional training and identities that face-to-face and virtual doctoral students construct in a training program as educational researchers in Mexico. The relationship between experiences and emerging identities as researchers, academics and learners has not been an important focus in research on doctoral students. Similarly, virtual doctoral programs are scarcely offered in Mexico and their impact on the trajectory of doctoral students has been barely documented. The present research is positioned in the qualitative-phenomenological approach and is based on the conceptual referents of the sociocultural approach to identity in practice. The research questions guiding the analysis were the following: (a) How do the face-to-face and online doctoral students experience their doctoral career? (b) What strengths, opportunities, difficulties and threats do they experience? and (c) What identities do you create in your doctoral career?