Hi,
I'm only coming to the end of my first year but, from what I've gathered, the final year may not be the worst for Humanities students PROVIDED they've been focused and writing consistently throughout. In my (humanities) dept at least, some people seem to put off drafting chapters for as long as possible. Obviously this is will delay them further on.

I think that with Social Sciences / Hard Sciences your time frame is very much determined by your data collection / experiments and this can delay the writing up process until the final year(s), leading to a very tight race to the finish.

So, I don't think you should be worried that your task seems manageable. Instead you can be proud that you worked hard from the beginning.

(up):-)

======= Date Modified 19 Jul 2012 09:51:51 =======
Hi Pineapple,
Sorry to hear you're so tired. I can imagine. It is exhausting doing these things day in, day out, particularly when you coming to the end.
Do keep positive; you will be awarded the PhD and that will last a lifetime. The tiredness will not!
I fully endorse working under the duvet. That's where I do my best work!
Best of luck in the coming days. :-)(up)

Hi Heidi,

I am absolutely delighted to hear your great news! You truly deserve it, particularly after fighting through all your difficult circumstances, prioritising your daughter and maintaining a great attitude.
Very well done. All the best for you and Bea as you enter the next stage. :-)(up)

======= Date Modified 14 Jul 2012 22:29:28 =======
Hi RLD,
I'm trying to (loosely) follow Dunleavy's 8 X 10k layout too, because I imagine examiners do appreciate consistent chunks, but naturally this won't work for every thesis.

20k for a lit review sounds fairly big alright, but maybe you are researching a particularly crowded area? I'm not sure what stage you're at, but initial chapters tend to be less dense than the finished product. So if you write 20k words early on, you may be able to condense it down to <15k later on. Also, maybe you can split your lit review in two at a later date; people have mentioned doing that on the forum before.

Good luck negotiating with your supervisor. They may well know what's in your best interest, so I'm not sure I'd put up much of a fight. :-)

Congratulations, Dr. Gudwin. Enjoy the celebrations!

======= Date Modified 06 Jul 2012 18:47:05 =======
======= Date Modified 06 Jul 2012 18:46:40 =======
I noticed this a few months into my PhD actually, when I wrote 12k words in no time. My Masters dissertation was about 20k words, and while I completed it in about 2 months (which was very quick according to others), even now that feels very slow!

Good idea for a thread, Pineapple, since I've definitely found myself telling people how my writing speed has changed. But, since my audience wasn't PhD students I worry it may have sounded like I was trying to undermine their undergrad degrees or Masters! It is definitely a nice sign of our progress as academics.
8-)

Hi Button,

It sounds that way, although is 'paid maternity leave' necessarily equal to the level of your research payments? I imagine so, but it could potentially be less.

Either way, it is good news for you if you are trying. (up)

======= Date Modified 25 Jun 2012 22:12:40 =======
Well at least they are taking steps to resolve the situation. I'm not sure about the funding question; I haven't come across any cases where this happened, but there may be a small possibility. I don't remember your specific post from before, but I doubt a university would ever provide more (already scarce) funding to a student because of supervision. There are just too many people who have issues with supervisors and they may say you have to take some of the responsibility for your own lack of progress - especially if you have a second supervisor. Not saying that is fair, but I can see imagine them making that point.

Good luck with your amended topic/new primary supervisor. (up)

I wouldn't worry too much about your transcripts. If everything else is positive you should be fine. If you have an interview and it comes up you can explain that it was due to ill health, etc. Best of luck applying. :-)(up)

Do you mean you failed or that you passed, but with a low grade? I imagine failing could pose a problem, but not a low passing grade.

I think most people are aware of differences in the PhD process in the U.S: several years longer, ABD (all but dissertation) status, large emphasis on teaching (consensus that grad students are taken advantage of as cheap labour), but I've been wondering about the employment market.

Some advice blogs (particularly http://theprofessorisin.com) lay out such specifics requirements for getting a job post PhD. For example, that you should not waste your time going to conferences (unless for the most highly-regarded), that you should only try to publish in the very best journals, that you should hold off on turning your PhD into a book you get a deal with a University Press. 'The professor' also claims that publishing in edited collections (and book reviews) are a waste of time.

Maybe these should just be considered 'ideals', but is the job market in the UK/Europe for instance really AS competitive?
I realise there is an expectation to publish, etc. but I feel like attending conferences is seen as an important part, too. And that publications in lesser-known journals do still count.

I suppose I'm asking if those hiring are quite as particular in what they look for, or is it acceptable to show that you have been active involved in the research community, in its various forms.

All thoughts welcome. :-)

Yes, I do know people who had PhD interviews over Skype. Some don't require interviews at all and will accept or reject based on the application. There is wide variation. Good luck. :)

Hi Ian,

I worked in a background checking and pre-employment screening company in North America and one of the areas we covered was education verifications. This involves contacting the universities listed and finding out if their qualifications are listed accurately. Even though normally this is to catch people who are claiming degrees they never received, if you uncovered the opposite - that someone had received a degree and not listed it - it would still raise a red flag. It does come down to misrepresenting yourself, but I doubt an employer would hold it against you assuming they were interested enough in you to pay for the check to be done.

It's a sad state of affairs, but I doubt I would remove it (if I do manage to get one!) except for unskilled labour. But if people seeking work in industry have found this helps then maybe it is the way to go.

Ok, operation (mince) is underway. Since this is a serious matter you can expect regular updates in the ''One Goal'' thread. My one goal: (mince) - clearly.