The maximum time is 7 years at my uni :-)

I'm looking for a job in cell biology research, but I didn't think that posting it here would help me in any way :-)

It was £150 at my uni :-)

Hello David, I believe I know you from another forum! :-) I can't really give you any advice as I'm a scientist myself, but welcome :-)

I doubt it's because you haven't finished in 3 years - just because it's not finished at all. Someone who has completed the PhD is guaranteed to have one, and can probably start straight away, and focus entirely on the job. Imagine if you got 20 (I wish!) applications, and 19 of them had completed their PhDs and one hadn't - who would you shortlist?

I hate to say it, but the fact that your PhD isn't finished might be the problem :-(

Oh yeah - I had that throughout my PhD. Probably worse actually, because I was sharing a rig with another student.

Great time to browse the internet and eat sweets. Just kidding. I mean analysing data and reading papers, obviously ;-)

Oops, didn't read your next post. I don't know about awards like that, sorry :-(

Virtually every postdoc I see in my field is for cancer research or molecular biology... so I'd imagine there are lots of PhD opportunities for those areas too :-)

I'm sure that it totally is.

Do postdocs count as "youth"? :p

Nice one! Wow, 11 chapters... I only had 5 8-)

Congrats! Feels good, doesn't it?

Saying that, I spent the 24 hrs after mine crying :-)

I'm finding it hard enough finding any postdoc jobs where I actually have the skills needed. Consequently, I'm not even getting interviews.

I had an interview at Boots though. Didn't get that job :-(

If you're working with cells, it could be anything really! I take it you've checked if you're growing them in the same stuff, not using too late a passage etc? Are the incubators working ok? Do you use any buffers that may be out of date? Any other chemicals etc. that may be out of date? Pipettes that may not be calibrated? Any substances that you use that are slightly different (i.e. from different suppliers) to the ones the postdoc used?

I have no idea what kind of experiments you are doing btw, just when you mentioned cells it just made me think of how many variables there are ;-)

That's awful, and I really don't know what you should do. If there is anyone at your uni (postdocs, other staff) who will look at your presentation, then definitely get it organised asap. I'd probably e-mail him again, and phone him while he's still there.

I'd offer to look at your slides but I'm probably in such a different field that it would be no use :p