Hi Summerfox. It's pretty grim in the job market in general at the moment. A few years ago, I was completely in the same situation as you - stuck in a rut. I decided to re-train as a consequence and learnt to drive. I then decided to do a PhD, which I'm in the process of writing up. Who knows where I'll be at the end of it though? What do you want to do, career-wise?
It may be as much help as a chocolate teapot, but here's what I think you should do:

1) Take any job for now - just earn some money.
2) Learn to drive - I know it's obvious, but it'll make a huge difference to your job prospects.
3) I'd recommend considering becoming a teacher so that you can use your skills - but there really are few jobs for NQTs at the moment.
4) Don't feel bitterness and resentment - getting an MA in English (I got a flippin' C at GCSE!) is a massive achievement and something to be extremely proud of.
5) Don't compare yourself with others - the 'grass is always greener' syndrome can be destructive. Anyway, it's not.
6) Consider if there is anything you can do freelance. Despite what you may currently think, you've got marketable skills which are in high demand.
7) Network with other people and potential employers.
8) Don't forget to use your university careers service.
9) Don't give up.

I hope you do decide to go to your graduation ceremony to be acknowledged for all your hard work.

Best wishes.

My God, everyone is going to be in London around that time it seems. I'll hold the fort as the only PGF affiliated researcher in the North then ;-)

Nice thread. Sadly, there are no sources of humour in my thesis. There are in my interview transcripts though. I wonder how I actually managed to get any usable data in fact. I have conversations about how crap Alton Towers is, a conversation (literally) about the price of fish - and there are some swear words in my work. I can't call it humour though, because, my research can be a very emotive subject.

http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cite/sl/print.pdf

http://www.oxbridgewriters.com/study-aids/referencing/oxford-referencing.php

I'm not sure I'd do a PhD at Walden... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Walden%20University

Well done, Claudia!

Chapter sent. Heaven knows if it's any good, but at least the first draft has gone.

Apologies for the typos - I was in a rush!

Cobra, Commando, the seminal and inspirational Rocky movies, Rambo - this is the movie that should have topped them all. Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Swartzenigger, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Chow Yun Fat and...Jason Statham[wtf???] - Crufts for eighties action movie heroes. I was so, so excited to watch this movie to see Stallone hand in hand with all of my favourite heroes fighting a renegade army, hopeless out-gunned and out-manned, but by no way out matched. So what went wrong...

Let's start from the beginning. The Expendables is a film about a group of mavericks, ex-soldiers, for hire to the highest bidder. They take on any work, no matter how dangerous or impossible, such as fighting drug cartels or guerilla armies. Anyway, they're hired to take on a guerilla army who deal in drugs - but there's a twist (I won't ruin it for you). There's all the usual essential components to an eighties action movie - machine guns, kung-fu and incredibly witty one-liners. Like 'this machine gun shoots 250 bullets at minute and makes a big sound. There'll here me coming - but that's all!'

So what went wrong? Well, it is deep sadness, bitter disappointment and a little bit of anger that I have to announce it didn't work. For a start, Jason Statham is not an 80s action movie hero! He's a poor man's Bruce Willis. Speaking of which Arnie and Willis are only in it for about 2 minutes. And Stallone! What's happened to his face? It doesn't move. He looks like a cross between his mum and (with his fixed, highly arched eye brows) the genie from Aladdin. And then there's the chemistry between them. Sorry, but a crack team of commandos don't start talking about therapy and ex girlfriends. That's not how it works in 80s action movies. Rambo never wined - apart from at the end of Rambo 1.

Having said that, I did think that the last 30 minutes was high octane action! A flurry of gunfire, an exploding building and some an exciting final fight scene in which Stallone partly redeems his botoxed face. In conclusion, the movie is Expendable.

Right, well, I've just about got a 1st draft of a that I'll send off tomorrow, so up yours chapter 2! Just needs a few sentences changing, a couple of references adding and a linking summary written. Now I'm going to have a can of beer and watch a film about a killer tiger. Then back to the grindstone tomorrow...

But first, I have a movie review to write...

Yippee, needtofinish! You must feel great that you're so close to the finish line. I'd just like to say that time flies, it really does, so you'll be done by in a flash! If all the pieces are in place, then it should be plain sailing. I'm in a similar position to you, but my writing is going a bit crap. I don't seem to be able to write decent sentences of late. I have about 3 chapters left to do and a heck of a lot of corrections. But everyday I do some work, so we'll see. Well done and good luck!

If you work Mon to Fri, that's 10 hours a day! I can't see something like that becoming best practice. I think it's naive because PhDs don't work like that. Factor in that most PhD students (me excluded) have lives, families and part time jobs, it's ridiculous. Personally, I don't see how they could ever enforce something like that. As we know, we all move at different rates during different parts of our PhD.

That's a good point. I think that all thermos flasks can lead to tea tasting a bit tangy. Not the best idea after all:-(

A winning idea has just hit me. Why not just make a few cups of tea, pour it into a thermos flask and then just pour bit of the tea into a mug as and when you want some?

Hi Kimbo. To be honest, my supervisors don't know much about my research and have largely just left me to it. What I did to compensate was network like hell to try and get more expertise on board. Just e-mailing people who are at the top of my research area with questions about areas I was unsure of. As I became more confident, I felt that not having supervisors who are experts in what I'm doing was such a big deal. I'm not slagging my supervisory team off, because what they are good at (I think Sneaks hits on the most important thing of all here) is how to write and compose a thesis - and even edit.
I think what your friend needs to do, if she really wants to change the main supervisor, is identify someone at her uni who is more of an expert in her area and approach them and ask if he/she would like to supervise her. If she gets agreement, then discuss the matter with her existing supervisor and then approach the head of department, informing he/she that she's found someone else who has agreed to supervisor her and her existing supervisor is okay with it. It's just a matter of paperwork then.