Hi Pamela

I started my PhD while working full-time, have since turned into a full-time student, but will shortly be going back to working 4 days a week while in the last few months of writing up. Working full-time and studying is hard, and needs determination. I used to get up at 5.30am and do a couple of hours studying while I was fresh, then go to work. Then would force myself to work after dinner, even if for only an hour or so, and would try and do more menial tasks.

Are you able to take study leave? I also purchased additional annual leave from my employer, so that I could take one day's annual leave each week, and thereby have a 3 day week-end, which enabled me to get some momentum going with the writing. I also expect I'll be using my remaining annual leave over the next few months. I also used to cook really big meals and freeze them, so I didn't have to waste time cooking after work. If you can afford it, hire some help - someone to do the cleaning, so you don't have to worry about that either.

So - shortcuts, take as much leave as you can, and write as much as you can. Don't forget to take the occasional time off to recharge and spend time with friends and family. It will be over eventually. It will be hard, but it can be done! Good luck!!

Hi Kallie

Natassia's right - you need to talk to your supervisors about a career plan. Lots of students pick up teaching work along the way, or research assistant work, so you'd probably end up doing more than just your PhD. As for a job - it depends on your field, but academic positions at the moment are extremely hard to get in my area, social sciences. There's been lots of posts on here about how hard it is to get into academia, and so while you might have that as your ideal, realistically, you'd also need to have a back up plan in case you can't find a job. There are way, way too many PhD graduates for the number of positions available.

Hey there

I also think that confidence comes from being in a workplace, knowing the job, knowing you can do it and getting lots of positive reinforcement as well as working with people, hopefully in a good environment. A PhD doesn't have that - we're all starting again, from scratch, we don't know what we're doing, and it's also very isolating. Doing a PhD makes people doubt themselves - I think it's an inevitable part of the process. I don't know it confidence comes back - I'd like to think it does, once we finish, but am not sure. It's all a learning process. Trust that you can do this.

There's also an element of bluff and faking confidence involved, which I do whenever I have to give a conference paper for example. So - also pretend until you do feel confident!

Hi Montezuma

I can understand you feeling frustrated - my sups also made me go and collect more data, when I thought I was well and truly done. I still haven't done it all and need to chase up a few more interviews, which I've been putting off...but keep going, you'll get there, and your thesis will be more robust for it. It does seem neverending, but we just have to keep going, day by day, and we'll get there eventually.

I'm in 2 minds about the job - it's not in academia, so doesn't thrill me, but it does pay OK. I'm quite looking forward to being in a 'real' work environment tho, not being isolated and stuck in my study every day going mad. Will be doing 4 days a week, so I'll still have a decent amount of time to study. And yep, am workling hard at the moment to get as much done as I can...do had better get back to it.

Keep going everyone!

======= Date Modified 26 May 2010 12:46:15 =======
I understand where you're coming from Sneaks. I also feel as if a lot of ways I'll be worse off because of this PhD. I've lost a considerable amount in foregone income, and it has cost me a career in the civil service - I turned down 2 promotions because of this PhD. It's also cost me friends as I no longer have a social life, and has not been good for my mental health. I did want to change careers to work as an academic, but there hardly any jobs in my field, and the ones that are around don't pay enough to even cover a mortgage, let alone live decently. I also think I left my career change too late and am not now willing to work for peanuts, be on short term contracts or travel anywhere, like I could when I was younger. I believe I'll get the PhD eventually, but all up, objectively, at this point I don't think it's been worth it.

Right then, how're we all going?

I've had one of those times lately - life getting in the way of the PhD and it's been a bit rough. But have still been working. In the last few weeks I've rewritten my lit review, and also my background chapter, both chapters which I hadn't touched for 4 years, so these were big jobs. Now they're out of the way.

I'm working towards getting a complete draft done by mid July - which is very ambitious, and means I have approximately (geez, I shouldn't think of it in terms of word count!!) 70,000 words to rewrite, but some of the chapters won't need an extensive rewrite, so that's something. I have a new folder on my desk, called 'Complete Draft - Mid-July' and it has 5 rewritten pages in it. I'm on the way.

Also think I've sorted out going back to a not-so-horrible job in the civil service from 1 July, so that will take me away from the thesis too, but have to go back.

So - slow progress, but am hoping to speed up in the next few weeks. Onwards!!

======= Date Modified 26 May 2010 09:59:06 =======
Hey Pjlu and Bilbo, yes, you're both right and very wise. Pjlu, yeh, I would like to stay in my research area, and even if there are no jobs, unis always seem to need poorly paid tutors to exploit, so I could keep my hand in that way, while I see what else comes up. And I do have a career in the civil service to go back to, so that's something at least. And you're right Pjlu, it is a transitional shift in the way we think about ourselves, from being student to researcher. My sup said as much at our last meeting - she told me to 'write like an academic, not a student' ie to write more confidently and like an expert, as I rewrite the thesis again and get it closer to being finished. So I guess I need to start thinking that way too.

And Bilbo, as usual, you're right. There will be articles to publish from my thesis, and I'm glad to hear you're planning on publishing too. That's also a good point about redefining ourselves - we'll all have to do it, and see what comes of it...

And 4 weeks to graduation Bilbo - woo woo! You so deserve every minute of fame that day.

This thread started on DanB's latest thread where he said he was missing PhD life...and rather than hijack that thread, I thought I'd start a new one.

Like others here, I've been a student for a long, long time. While I've also had a career along the way, I've always studied, most of it part-time. In the last more than 20 years I've had about 2 years off studying. I tried to do what normal people do - joined community organisations, tried to socialise, took up hobbies etc, but none of it fulfilled me and so I was always drawn back to studying. But I definitely don't want to do any more after this thesis ends, in a few months time hopefully.

I look at my friends' lives - they work, go out a bit, laze around on the w'end, maybe play sport, and all that just seems so unutterably tedious to me, not working towards anything, except maybe chasing a career...But what else is there??? That's the big existential question...I have a fear that I've gotten to a ripe age, and there's nothing else I want to achieve. That's probably really sad, anyone have any thoughts?

Hey Dan and Bilbo

As much as I'm so totally, totally, over this thesis and can't wait for this torture to end, I suspect I'll also miss the PhD life and studying. How are you both coping with a new identity? Got any tips on how to live life once we lose our PhD identities?

Hey EV, you're a sensitive soul! No offence taken!! And nice to see we're offering the same, sage advice!

Hi John

Well done and congratulations for having passed!! Has your supervisor given you any indication of when he might get back to you? I think it's extraordinary that he hasn't told you what revisions you need to make!! I think you're perfectly entitled to at least know when he might get back to you. Does he know you're applying for positions? Could you let him politely know that you have deadlines and ask again when he might get back to you? I'd be a bit pushy on this one - after all, once he approves your corrections, he won't have to worry about you again, will he? This should be the end of it??

Hey Slowmo, you have my sympathies!! 83 3000 word essays is a helluva lot of work! And getting them done in a week is amazing - I could never mark more than 10 in a row before I needed a break. Can also relate to your supervisor's comments - sometimes I think PhD students can be too hard as markers. Don't forget, we're in the top 2% of academia, and so can't expect most, or even a lot, of students to write as we would. Academics have a more realistic experience of student abilities I think, and so expect a lower quality of work. I also think that academics let students get away with a lot tho and think they should be marked down for shoddy writing!!

Don't worry about the abstract. Write and present a brilliant paper and no-one will notice the abstract. Have a break, a good sleep, then tackle the chapter deadline...

Hey LostSurvivor, count your blessings. Like others, I would loooove to do a PhD in Italy - or anywhere in Europe. I'm in a parochial regional city in Australia which I loathe, most of the locals are horrible, there is no culture, nothing to do, countryside is ugly and it's expensive to live here. I'm also 3 hours away from my university. So, if you're in the heart of Europe, make the most of it. Plans trips, go to all the fabulous places and countries around you, enjoy. It could be a lot, lot, worse.

======= Date Modified 24 May 2010 23:30:43 =======
Hi NeoMagic

I live 3 hours away from my uni, so have undertaken my whole PhD from home, mostly only going to uni to meet my supervisor every month or so. Of course it is possible to work from home - there are lots of advantages - it's quiet, there are no distractions, it saves money, I get to spend time with my dog etc. The biggest drawback though is the isolation. I have gone through really horrible periods of depression due to being isolated - it has done my head in at times. I have countered this by using this forum, as well as a chat room for PhD students, at http://phinished.org/. As others have mentioned, another downside is being overlooked - lots of my peers are being offered casual lecturing, but because I'm not around, don't do networking much etc, I don't get asked. It is also important to go to uni for seminars etc, to show yourself and remain involved.

But maybe you could go into uni one day a week - which is good to get photocopying done etc, and also to talk to people, and then work from home the rest of the week?

======= Date Modified 24 May 2010 23:16:06 =======
Yes it is possible to do both. Lots of us here work part-time and study full-time. Until the last few months, I was working between 10-20 hours a week and studying, and going along fine. It could mean though, that you might not finish your PhD in 3 years - mine will have taken me the equivalent of 4 years. But I've also published/done conference papers a lot along the way. And like Sneaks, I also work 7 days a week, and I don't have many holidays.

You should talk to your sup about the structure - it varies between universities and disciplines.