Firstly, congratulations on your pregnancy Secondly, don't panic re: your PhD! Plenty of women have babies during a PhD, it's not the easiest time but frankly, there isn't an easy time to have a child! Regarding your lab work, you may find (after careful risk assessment, which the Uni will be duty-bound to perform for you) that you can still continue to do some (excluding radioactive/mutagenic/carcinogenic/teratogenic compounds of course). Alternatively, it may be possible (resources allowing) for you to have some technician time i.e. you would design experiments and tech would follow your instructions. Of course, there is also the option for you to concentrate on office based parts of your PhD, literature review and/or trying to publish your lit review. It is also possible, if you wish, to suspend your registration for a period of time.

Orian could probably do a great job as a lecturer but he/she is competing against numerous other applicants all of whom are likely to have lots of research output (publications, grant income and hence are highly valuable to a Uni in terms of the RAE), teaching experience, curriculum development skills and membership of the Higher Education Academy - who would you shortlist? Believe me, I sympathise, I'll also failing to be shortlisted!

I think it's unlikely that someone who has not yet completed any post-doc work will be successful in an application for a lecturership, let alone a senior lectureship. Even if the lecturing post was 100% teaching (rather than say 50:50 research/teaching), the Uni would require extensive teaching experience i.e. not just teaching but evidence of curriculum development, assessment design and formal teaching qualifications too. The problem lies with there being not enough post-doc jobs for the number of PhDs wanting them, and nowhere near enough tenured academic posts for the post-docs wanting them. Hence, competition for academic posts really is immense.

Ask for feedback on why you weren't shortlisted, it's a very standard thing to ask for (i.e. no one will be surprised). With anti-discrimination laws in place, employers have to be very careful to state why candidates for a job were or were not short-listed. Always useful to know why you weren't short-listed as can then try to address that issue for the next application. Good luck with the job hunt.

Were the others lecturer posts? If so, don't be surprised not to have been short-listed. Competition is intense and the panel will usually be looking for publications (in press and/or published), evidence of grant funding (with you as a principal investigator), teaching experience and teaching in higher education qualifications.

...and any other caffeinated beverage they could lay their hands on. A true follower of Postgradology will imbibe strong coffee several times a day and will not be averse to the odd chocolate fix. The chocolate choice of the truly devote Postgrad will always be Green & Blacks, in reverence to exiled DanB. On days of special postgraduate celebration (papers accepted, sucessful transfer or final viva) there will be much feasting on sausage sandwiches...

It will depend on your field and how popular the conferences is i.e. if they get loads of abstract submissions then they can afford to be more selective. The 'data will be presented' kind of thing doesn't go down too well in science fields. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained so it's always worth having a go! Good luck!

Journal articles are often reviewed by more than 2 people, my last paper had 4 reviewers. Reviewers chosen for manuscript review will also tend to be specialists in the exact topic of your paper - PhD examiners are looking at your entire 3 plus years of work in which you will have done many things and as such, perhaps can be thought of as more 'general' reviewers of your research. Remember that it is not only the job of manuscript reviewers to access the quality of research presented in the paper (this role having been partly done by your thesis examiners) but also to establish whether the subject is suitable for the journal you are targetting i.e. are the readers of this particular journal likely to be interested? Also, they will access whether you have conformed to the requested style etc. Good luck with your papers!

Yes, in fact, most institutions prefer students to have at least 2 supervisors. I had 3 and this is not uncommon, especially for multidisciplinary projects.

I take it this is your only supervisor? Never a very good idea to just have one (for all the reasons you've stated). Have you tried talking to your post-grad office about your lack of supervision? It might be easiest for your Uni to appoint a 2nd supervisor for you. A second supervisor could be within the institution or external. You might find that some of the academics who don't want to get involved in a transfer might be happy to act as an additional supervisor for you. Your university has a duty to provide you with adequate supervision so get them on the case ASAP. Best of luck.

It's a horrible scary time, I do sympathise. I ended up temping as a medical secretary before getting my post-doc (thank goodness for the RSA typing course I did to fill my 6th form timetable!). It was practically minimum wage but better than nothing. My ultimate low-point was when I tried to apply for a job in Tescos but I was told that there was a waiting list for an application form!

It's quite demoralising to find that despite years of education and hard work, you can't get a job However, you WILL find something eventually. Good luck.

Re: Alan's comments about the pharmaceutical industry. She (although not her field so fair enough if she didn't know) should have pointed out that while drugs may cost pence to produce (and not all of them do by any means!) the price paid reflects the huge costs of bringing a drug to market. The average total R&D cost for new drugs in the late 1990s was $897 million, according to a report by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

More PhD TV suggestions...

"10 years older" (by the time you've submitted)

"CSI: Crying Student Investigates" (alternative career options)

"'Doctor(?) Who' are you kidding?"

And for those struggling to survive on a PhD bursary...

"Meal or No Meal"


...I'll get my coat

Hi Matthew, I'll let you know when it's advertised (if that's ok with the Postgrad team?! )

Lectureships are not easy to get. Generally, a university will want evidence of your ability to produce research output (publications and grants) and evidence of teaching proficiency (teaching experience, teaching qualifications).