Fantastic stuff Bug! And I think we all owe you a big thanks as well :) Best, keep in touch! KB

Hi Natassia! It sounds as though your uni has a slightly different system to mine, but we had two reviews in first year, then one on second and one in third year, which I have in a few weeks. But I have never been asked to produce particular documents for the review apart from a short report about what we have been doing since the start/previous review, and providing a copy of all written work to date. Of course, the first review mainly was talking about the research proposal anyway, and it was pretty laid back and quite helpful really. The people in the review had a few suggestions and questions about what I was planning to do, and made a few points that I needed to give more thought to, and suggested literature that I hadn't already considered. It wasn't intimidating, it was really chilled out and freindly, and no-one was on a mission to catch me out. To be honest, I actually quite enjoy reviews because I tend to get a lot of positive feedback from other academics about what I have done, whereas my sup just seems to take it for granted and doesn't bother with praise any more! Hopefully it will be a useful experience for you, but I don't think you need to be stressed about it! Good luck, let us know how it goes! Best, KB

Hey all! Just looking for a bit of advice from those who are used to this job-seeking nightmare!

Basically, I have been aiming to stay on in the same department after my PhD for a number of reasons, and at the moment I am named on one grant application (outcome due in approx 2 months) and am planning to submit another couple. There are also other grant applications that have been submitted that would be of interest if they were successful. But I'm keeping my options open, and last week I applied for a job at a different uni (on the other side of the country). It's my first job application and I really didn't expect anything to come of it, but today I have been informed that I have been offered an interview next week. Okay, so I'm pleased etc, but I'm worried about what would happen if I was offered the job (very big if!)before we found out about the big grant at my present uni? Firstly, it would be a horrible dilemma to choose between a solid offer and a maybe-but-maybe-not situation at my current uni, but if I accepted the job elsewhere, and then the grant at my current uni was successful, would it matter that I was named on it? Could they just advertise for someone else to take the position?

And finally, is it normal to only get a week's notice for an interview?! I feel like there's so much I need to do in so little time, not to mention making up some excuse as to why I'll not be in my office for two days next week!

Thanks! KB

Hey people, thanks for your replies. I should have said, of course my first response was 'we're not kicking your mum out of her home'! It looks like she will need to stay with his relatives (one is relatively young but severely disabled, the other is getting quite old and frail) over the weekends anyway now, as they can't manage without her. But even so, it's her home and of course I imagine she will want to pop in and out now and again. I'm not comfortable with the idea of living there AT ALL, and of course I would feel so guilty about living there free. Even apart from all that, there's no TV, no internet, the decor is really not to my taste (okay, I'm getting picky now lol!!) And you're right- we live in a relatively cheap part of the UK where we could rent somewhere for not much more than £600 anyway.

My boyf has only lived away from home for his masters year a while back, and basically his mum buys his food, his clothes (yes, seriously!), pays for his petrol, you name it. He doesn't contribute to bills or anything- just lives there completely free. Personally I couldn't do it- I'm too independent and too old to be relying on my parents for every last thing, and I don't think it's good for him at all to be so tied to his mum's apron strings. He's very naive and has no idea how much a trolley of food or a tank of petrol costs (he gasped the other day when I put £50 worth of petrol into my car!!). Despite all of this, I love him to bits, I should add, seeing as though it sounds like I'm just whining about him!

I think I will stand my ground on this one and insist that I won't move in so long as I have enough income for us to rent somewhere else. There's no reason I couldn't stay on in my flat for a while longer. He really does need to become a bit more independent and take more responsibility but I don't want to bully him into it. He does have a job and he works hard, so he's not lazy- he just likes the easy option. But am glad it's seemingly not just me being awkward.... relationships eh?!!!

Thanks all, KB

Hey all- some of you have been rather helpful with previous boyfriend (well, fiance now!) questions so I thought I'd throw another one out there. Basically I am coming to the end of my PhD (Sept 2011) and hoping to stay on at the same university after my PhD, although this is unconfirmed as we are waiting on the results of funding. My boyf will be applying to teacher training in Sept to start in Sept 2012 at the same university. We are hoping to move in together this September.

Now comes the dilemma! He currently lives in his mum's house, and his mum mainly stays with other relatives (who need extensive support with daily activities) but comes home for most weekends. She has recently said that if I don't get funding straight away for a project, my boyf and I can stay at her house rent-free for up to a year whilst we sort ourselves out, and she'll stay at her relatives' house permanently. It's a really kind offer and I might end up being really grateful for it.

But now my boyf has said that even if I get funding we should stay there for the year anyway to save up money. I completely get that, but I really don't want to if we can afford our own place, for a number of reasons- I don't really like the house, it's his mum's house and I wouldn't be very comfortable living there- we would even have to sleep in her bed, it would cost us both about £300 per month to travel to the university from where it is situated, and I just don't think it's a good start for us living together. I envisaged us choosing somewhere new together that we both liked and making it our own.

I don't want to sound ungrateful, and if things don't work out we might really appreciate the offer, but I just don't want to do it if we don't have to. My boyf (as much as I love him!) basically does whatever involves least effort and can't understand why I'd want us to choose a place together. He thinks it's a 'girl-thing'.

Is it a 'girl-thing'? Am I being silly over something that really shouldn't matter? I think maybe I am but I can't help how I feel! Does anyone else have this type of experience? Thanks- I'm stuck on this one and fear I'm being a bit ridiculous! Best, KB

Hey Hiccup! I'm in a completely different subject to you, but I don't think there's any problem with buying in a bit of expert help where relevant if you have the resources- it's not like you're doing a PhD in programming and buying someone in to do the programming for you! Frequently in our team people have to bring others in to do things we're not qualified to do ourselves. My pal is doing a PhD on art therapy in dementia and is hiring an art therapist to do the therapy, another project involves taking blood samples, which obviously we can't do ourselves, we often have to have specialist statistical advice, and there are loads more examples. So I don't think it's a problem- you can't always be an expert at every little thing because research often cuts across different disciplines, so go for it! Best, KB

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Hi there! Where I am we get a cheque every three months for the stipend- I think you can arrange to have it paid atraight into your account but I haven't bothered. The rest depends a bit on where your funding is from. The PhD students in our department get some money each year to cover expenses such as travel costs, conference costs, equipment etc, but it isn't very much- only about £800 per year. But if your funding is from a research council and your costs have already been factored in then all of your travel and so on should already be covered. In my case when I ran out of travel expenses (quite early on because I had to travel quite far to see my participants and also have been to a few conferences) my supervisor had to pay any extra costs out of her funding.

I would contact your supervisor with these questions- I wouldn't imagine that you would be expected to cover these costs yourself as they will come to rather a lot! They may have already been covered by the funding source anyway. Not sure about how your accommodation will be arranged- will you be based at a university in America?

Best, KB

Hey Daisy! Sounds like you're having a rough time right now. To be honest, getting to grips with all of the relevant literature can be one of the hardest and scariest things to do, especially if you're right at the beginning of your PhD. I remember feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start and how much to include. Other people in my team who are just starting their PhDs are also having the same problem.

I think the first step to make sure you're not missing anything is to do a systematic search, and pick out all the papers that look relevant. Then you need to decide what to include. If it's a systematic lit review then you can choose your criteria to only include a manageable amount of literature. Either way it's always hard to decide what your criteria should be/which literature you should include. Remember that you can breal it down into as many sections as you like- it might be helpful to break the literature into smaller areas and work on each area separately to start with. The other thing is that if there really is a huge amount to cover, you can write it up as more than one paper or chapter. My original lit review has now been split up and published as three separate reviews, and will form three chapters of my PhD! So don't worry about having to fit it all into 8000 words or whatever.

Finally, supervisors can be intimidating (mine sure is) and it's easy to feel stupid next to them, that's quite normal. But if you're getting feedback that you're struggling to address then maybe explain to your sup that you're having trouble with the review and see if you can come up with a plan about how to approach it, what might need to be included (or ommitted) etc- sometimes specific questions work best with supervisors as opposed to a general 'help, I can't do this'! You will get there and through to the other side of it- just keep plugging away and try to break it down into smaller tasks. Good luck with it! KB

Well if it helps any, my project became a lot clearer to me after I had thoroughly reviewed the literature and made enough sense of it to write a literature review! I was kind of in a muddle at the start of my PhD, but after my first literature review I started to get a better idea of what I needed to do and why, and after a further two literature reviews (yeah, a bit excessive maybe but I got carried away lol) I was also able to work out the most appropriate theoretical framework and understand more about the practical implications of my project. I think it really does help to clear your head and focus your ideas, so I would definitely try to get to the end of it, it'll benefit you in the long run. And it will be nice when you get to writing up and all you have to do is update it a bit, as opposed to starting from scratch! Hope that's enough to begin to motivate you! Good luck, KB

Yeah there was- I checked it out and Wal started one a couple of years ago (oh my god, where have those two years gone?!!). I bet all the 5* ers have got one star by dodgy means lol! KB

Unlucky Caprico. The problem is, you just don't know who you are up against. It might be nothing to do with your interview skills, you might just have been pipped to the post by someone with more experience or some genius who has already published his/her work in 10 super-impact-factor journals or something ridiculous. It probably isn't a reflection of your ability at all, just the competition. I would def email and ask for some feedback though, at least then if it's anything specific you will know. Keep going, you'll get something in the end if you persevere. Best, KB

Oooops lol! It did cross my mind that this was a slightly unethical way to collect stars, but I remember a very similar thread quite a while ago where people were doing exactly the same (and I was dying to get that 5th star!). We should be ashamed of ourselves lol! But I agree, many users who just pop on to ask one question don't even know about the star system, so don't use it. Which means that our stars tend to come from the much smaller group of people who regularly post here and really are a part of the PGF community. And given that you can only vote for someone once, I think in the end you do run out of people to vote for you, even if you do keep being helpful! KB

Hey Batfink you did!! So pleased, been waiting forever for that one :) I'm so happy I'm going to have to think up a new thread so I can give some stars out and share the love!!! Thankyou :-) KB

Haha, great thread! Me too for a star please, I'm DYING to see how far away I am from my 5th star, I've been on 4 for about a year lol! Good thinking Batfink (up) Best, KB