bit too early for me to go bed. but anyway...

i suppose. i was even going to suggest it would be better to talk over msn or something to stop hogging this thread, but if you put it like that, it sounds ok to carry on!

just thinking, we have turned this thread into some sort of chat room, how greedy of us

pinned up all over my office actually

i do, i'm a softie really

ok, but i really don't want people to think bad of me, thats never my intention.

nope, I'm English

Ok people, i apologise if I come across angry and annoyed all the time, I really am not! If someone says something I don't agree with, then I will say so, but I'm not annoyed with that person, and if someone asks a stupid question I say so, as they sometimes deserve the piss taken out of them.

If you like, I can try and be a nicer person!

i do breathe, i tend to find that keeps me alive

I'm not up-tight!!!

no f**king way!!

I would agree that Hull is certainly safer than Nottingham.

I lived in Nottingham for 4 years, and it was a warzone in some parts. There is so much gun crime in Nottingham it makes Iraq look safe sometimes

I don't want to do a post-doc as working in academia doesn't interest me. I think I will just go an work in industry, I believe that there is more opportunities, rewarding jobs and more money in industry.

Of course that is an opinion, so I respect people planning on staying in academia, as I'm sure they have a good reason for it. I probably could be tempted by the right position in academia, but at the moment I have no plans for it.

Thats a good idea Emmy, I would agree that voluntary work at a country park or something would look really good on your application, and would give you something to talk about at interviews.

a simple thing to do is ensure that the placement you do is worthwhile and is related to an area of research you would like to do. By saying worthwhile, I mean that it should be for a company popular in the topics you are interested in (looks good on a CV), should show that you can do research/work on own initiative and that you did well in the placement (i.e. get a good mark for it).

By ensuring that it is closely related to your research area, try not to be too specific, for example it gives you experience in some lab techniques you may use in a PhD.

You are not expected to know everything when you start a PhD, so the most important thing you can do is keep your options open, and get at least an upper second degree.

I used to live in Castle Marina, which is quite near lenton