I happily hide behind the identity of 'Assistant Lecturer'. At 29, I often get asked what I do. So I respond with that, and if people probe further, I let them know I lecture whilst completing a PhD.

In our department, staff refer to us as 'colleagues' which is a nice touch; more generally as 'Research Students'.

I too hate the tag of 'student' and people in the non-acadmic work, ie friends and some family, still ask me 'how's school?'. That will usually receive a comment under my breath followed by 'fine, but I hate Maths'.

Hi LAC30,

I'm in the Humanities and just starting my second year. To answer your question: I'm very rarely, if ever, on campus. I go in if required by the department (ie training session or staff meeting) and to meet my supervisors (once a month) but other than that my time is split between home and research archives, I'd say about 70-30. When I begin teaching in January I'll be on campus more, but only one day a week as luckily all my teaching has been squished into one day and I was also sneaky and able to book office time on that day as well.

I do often feel guilty about not really being a 'presence' in the department, but I'm getting tonnes of work done at home and as far as I'm concerned, it's the quality of the research which will determine my future opportunities, not networking. I have made a promise to become more involved in the final year, if only for the selfish reason of getting my face into the view of Professors selecting post-docs; other than that I really have not found a reason to go to University much.

You also cannot beat the comforts of home - writing and reading in your joggers, not spending money on the train, having the TV on in the background, being able to errands every now and then, etc. Having said that, I do have a determined work ethic. As my wife leaves the house for work at 7am, I'm up then too and start work around 8am and usually go right through until the missus gets home at 5pm, and most the time without a lunch break. So whenever I feel guilty about not being on campus, I'm usually always consoled by the crap-load of work I manage to get done. And the missus loves it as I do a bit of house work too!

Best wishes,

The best advice I received when I started my PhD was to dive right in. As a Humanities researcher, I had ordered a tonne of books from Amazon and expected to spend the first few months reading around my subject, etc. When my supervisor heard of this, he told me to scrap that and just crack on with the research as it's a great motivator and actually helps shape the literature you'll end up pursuing.

I just had my end of year review to judge whether I can proceed on to my second year, and I was awarded 'exemplary progress' - so it's fair to say the advice was probably right.

Best of luck to you.

Hello LD,

I'm in the same position so I've sent you a PM with a link to a PDF pamphlet written by a post-doc from my university, dealing with teaching as a PhD Student.

Best wishes,

Hi Docinsanity,

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

Well I'm getting the overall idea that it's probably best to concentrate on the PhD and be thankful I'm not being put under pressure! I can live with that. Perhaps I'll get a paper ready at the beginning of my final year to ensure that it (hopefully) is published before my Viva. I just really like the idea of the security two published papers may bring to my post-doc chances.

Thanks again chaps and chapesses.

Thanks Heather, that's very helpful. Yes I'm doing my PhD by theses as most Humanities do, not publication.

Your last remark, to focus on writing the theses and let the articles 'flow' from it when it's in the final stages/finished is, I expect, my supervisors main point. But I've always been led to believe that one needs as many articles under their belt as possible these days.

Best wishes,

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well, especially those awaiting Viva results.

I am just coming to the end of the first year of my PhD, in Humanities. I've hit the ground running as I had studied this particular area pretty much from my undergrad dissertation, through to my MA and into my PhD. I was therefore fortunate to be informed that my MA diss was good enough to be converted into a potential article for submission to a peer-reviewed journal, which is great. I've done this now and I'm currently waiting to hear back.

On the potential success of this, I asked my supervisor how I should plan my future publications and how many/when I should be looking to do them. However he told me that I shouldn't worry about publishing now if this current one is successful and that I should only begin to prepare another paper towards the end of the three years, and that I'd be fine getting a job after my PhD and generally that I shouldn't worry.

Considering how much post-doctoral life depends on publishing success, is this good advice or is said academic too far removed from the real state of young career researchers? Regardless, if I do want to go ahead and prepare another article for publication, I would be doing so against my supervisor's advice, which would leave me in an awkward position.

Any thoughts?
Much obliged.

It's a good question Tt_Dan, and one I asked my supervisor within the first few months of starting my PhD, as I had just visited a conference where a very revered and reputable professor had been talking about the very area which I had launched my own project upon, to my dismay as I sunk in my seat.

But my supervisor said it was a positive sign, one that showed the area which I had sought to develop my field's theories was both attractive and longing to be explored, and as long as I monitored the professors own work and ensured my methodology and perspective was not going to infringe, then it could only add to my own results.

And that has proved to be true. This professor has knocked out a couple of articles which I have been able to draw on for my own work in which the black-hole of previous research has led me to fumble around in the dark a bit. I have picked up on some of the themes this professor had explored and used them to help shape my own ideas, while remaining away from the main theme they were following.

So don't worry! We can't all be completely original - but it doesn't mean we can't be part of a pioneering movement!

Hi Marasp,

I have to echo Keenbean; I submitted my first article for publication in January, and have just this week received my first response: revise and resubmit. I consider this a great success - even taking the wife out to celebrate tonight! I know that as long as I make the suggested changes then my article is more than likely going to appear in a prestigious journal; that can only be fantastic news. So what if there's a bit more work ahead?

Just think of it as writing a book and sending it to the publisher. There's absolutely no way they're going to just publish it as is. There's months, sometimes years, of to-and-fro feedback, edits, changes, revisions. I don't know any lecturer in my department who have ever been able to publish a journal straight after submitting it. Remember, the editors on those journal boards have reputations, so it's in their interests to scrutinize everything.

As long as it's not outright rejection, I think you should be very happy. And, of course, even if it were rejection, just get back on the horse and crack on. Academia is one long slog, and I expect our work will continually change and revise through the feedback and opinions of others. And rightly so!

Best wishes,

A good piece of advice which I was given at the beginning of my PhD by my supervisor was to write almost from the get-go. Writing helps formulate ideas, begins to give you the outline of a structure, and can even be handy for incorporating in to later chapters even if most of what you write early on never sees the light of day as it is.

That is of course retrospective advice, so apologies to you guys, but perhaps it can help others who are just starting!

Ha! Excellent news, well done! I was exactly like you, I had by then already been offered funding elsewhere, at a less prestigious university but one I was familiar with and felt comfortable with, so ended up turning Cambridge down 8-)

Congratulations again!

I'm facing this question right now as well. I've been married for two years and my wife has been very supportive of my lllooonnnggg academic career! I'm in the first year of my PhD and we're now talking about trying for our first at the end of the year. It sounds terribly calculating, but for me that would mean a newborn most likely during my final year.

That could be bad for two reasons: concentration on my work, especially as it would be the period when most of the writing up is being done at home and prepping for the Viva, but also for my own personal reasons of feeling like I couldn't be there for my wife and child as much as I would like.

But then, is any time a good one to start a family? Perhaps you just have to go for it and hope everything works out in the end! Whatever you decide, good luck. For me, I think it's full-steam ahead!

It's always wonderful to hear such positive posts, especially around here.

Congratulations! What are your plans now?

Disconnect your interest, like pronto! Seriously, call up your service provider and get it cancelled, and just use the one on your phone, if you have one!

I find being married and doing a full-time PhD to be a real balancing act. My wife, who is extremely supportive and has contributed so much to me getting where I am today, nonetheless does seem to harbour intentions for me to work within normal 9-5 hours, which is very difficult to do when you're trying to self-motivate yourself and work when the ideas come to you.

She also looks to me to spend the entire weekend work-free, which is, like someone else just said, usually spent doing the 'family' rounds, both hers and mine, and any other time is quality time between us or seeing friends in the evening.

That leaves me approximately about 35 hours a week to do my work, which just isn't enough. So when I go beyond this, which is often, it can sometimes spark a bit of a conflict.

Furthermore, as I work from home a lot reading and writing up, I am expected - and perhaps rightly so - to do most of the house work and even contribute to cooking. It is difficult as a 28 year old male to take these rols on, and sometimes I do find it hard. But I guess at the end of the day no matter how hard I work, I'm far more lucky than those who go out and slog in an office etc, so I don't mind it as much.

But you're definitely right - doing a PhD as a married partner can present its own challenges.