Hope you both got your respective chapters finished! Unlike me, who went out and drank beer and played pool instead of studying...sigh...and so am getting further behind as I keep going on this task, on a Monday morning when it should've all been done yesterday....

There's been a few posts about the no. of hours needed to do a PhD lately, so you might want to check other threads too. 18.75 hours a week is doable, although the 30 hours a week will take up just about all of your free time. Even though you don't have dependents, there's always other commitments - housework, exercise, and a bit of a social life etc. But I worked 20 hours a week and studied for about 30 hours, and it was fine. Hard work, but definitely achievable.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Yes, I know the job market is tough - at one of the places I'd like to work, they also received 140 applications for two positions. But then there is the issue of taking a risk, and not regretting missed opportunities....and as one of you has mentioned, I could still go back to the public service down the track, although would probably have to drop down a level...

...food for thought...

You might be hating it, but at least you're doing it! Keep going! Me, I'm writing a summary of all my field work for my sup - wasn't even on my list of things to do and is taking me all week-end. Am soooo far behind my schedule...

Week-end's half over - we'll have done our reespective bits by the end!

Hello fellow students

I'd appreciate some advice/thoughts about life after a PhD. I have a fairly well-paying job in the public service, and am on leave without pay for a few more months to write the thesis. I hope to have it done by March. There's the possibility that I can snag a research job in my field - won't pay as well as the public service, and will undoubtedly be a short-term contract, probably 18 months.

Half of me would love to chuck in the public service job - for all the reasons people can probably think of - and half of me is terrified of trying to live from contract to contract, in an area where there's not a whole lot of work. Like much of academia I suppose. I know of one person who has a contract position, and she has to write her own submissions to get funding so that she has a job...that sounds well grim to me! Teaching in my area isn't really for me - am a much better researcher than teacher, so that also limits my options.

So I'm wondering if I should take the big plunge. I need to decide in the medium term, as both sets of employers will want to know my plans. So - have others experienced life going from contract to contract? Is it a feasible way to live?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Gosh there's a bunch of sad/unmotivated people at the moment! Sounds like tonite is a write off - enjoy your bee(s), don't feel guilty, and have the night off. Then get back into it - you only have to suffer the week-end, get the chapters redone, then you can move on! You want the PhD, right - so I'm afraid you do need to do some work. I had to do a redraft of an article I'd written recently, which I thought was pretty good, but my supervisor made me rewrite it. I hated rewriting it and was resentful - but after I was done, she had another look, was happy, and it was much better. They usually do have good reasons for torturing us...So just get into it!

...says me, who's procrastinating my being on this forum...

I'm also in the writing up stage, with 8 months left to go, and have a daunting amount of work in front of me too. But keep writing. Have you done a plan for the next 6 months? Spell out all your tasks, and have some rewards, and some breaks in there too. Give yourself positive reinforcements all around the place - on your screen saver, stick notes on your wall etc. Make studying as pleasant as possible, listen to music, drink good coffee, take regular walks and breaks. I know this is hard, but suspect we will look back on this period of our life with some fondness - we're actually pretty lucky to live a life where we get to study, and think, and work on topics we hopefully love. Unlike the rest of the working world!

There's a bunch of us writing, and grappling with similar problems, and we'll all get there. Even if you don't want to do research when you finish, think how nice it will be to be called 'Dr' and what an achievement this will be!

Yes, I agree with the other 2 posts - you need to go and speak to someone professionally asap. It's really hard going to a counsellor, it's emotional and painful, but it will help. It sounds like you need some coping strategies, and need to regain some control over other parts of your life apart from your PhD, and a good counsellor will be able to help you with this. There are times in life when we just can't do it by ourselves, and need to call on professionals.

Your living situation also doesn't sound ideal - can you move into a share household with some other students? Try your uni's accommodation service. This could help with your isolation.

Good luck, and don't be too hard on yourself.

As someone who is now in her 40s, but was mistaken for a teen-ager until I was 25, I am now glad that I started the ageing process later and you will be too! You might also like to point out to people who make disparaging remarks about how young you are/look, that this is a form of ageism and they might like to consider their discriminatory attitudes.

Maybe it's because a lot of us don't live in London, or even the UK, and so don't know about these colleges.

Hi again everyone

Thanks for your advice - it made me feel a lot better. I took a couiple of days off, then had a look at my sups' comments, and most of them were relevant (unfortunately!). Changed the article extensively, and realised that she's trying to make my writing more precise, so I spell out everything, don't make even the smallest assumption, and don't jump to even small conclusions without evidence. Which is what we're supposed to do in a PhD I suppose. So the article is definitely better and have resubmited it.

Today I discussed with her that I thought her style of feedback wasn't the best on this occasion, especially since I wasn't expecting so many comments on work she'd already seen before. Didn't get a lot of satisfaction from this conversation - I think supervisors can be pretty tough sometimes.

Anyway, lessons learnt and now onto the next deadline...

Yes, you must do this in person. He's been good enough to be your supervisor, and you should do him the courtesy of telling him in person. Don't expect it to be confrontational. It won't be as bad as you think - someone else on this forum said that the reality of going through with something they didn't want to do has never been as bad as the actual reality, and I agree with that.

I can't solve this one either - but Endnote seems pretty inflexible to me. In my version, it capitalises the authors, which I don't want but haven't figure out how to change. Not all that helpful really...

Aussiechick's right. You need to get some help on this. Can you go to your co-supervisor? That's who I'd go to first. Also, your department should have some guidelines about the role and responsibilities of student and supervisor - have a look at those and see who they recommend you talk to. I'd discuss this with your co-supervisor, and if they can't help, let your supervisor know you're taking action, like seeing the head of school.

======= Date Modified 14 Jul 2009 12:27:58 =======
Well, it's nocturnal for me now, but not for the majority of users I suspect. Anyway, I'm on board and will be travelling the night train for a while longer. Have just finished writing an article which my supervisor is finally, exhaustingly, finally, happy with, and am now plodding through formatting the references. Then there's another piece of work done for a bit!



Is freezing here, but have some tea, some chocolate, some music and the end is in sight.