Yes, spending tens of thousands of pounds on handbags and dodgy designer tracksuits is another example of grounded behaviour...maybe I'm jealous, I do like a nice handbag myself...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6652331.stm

The whole thing is farcical with the political voting and terrible presenting but it's worth it just for Terry's sarcasm. I found it more entertaining years ago when all entrants had to sing in their country's native language. Then you could use Ceefax to bring up the English subtitles and fall about laughing at the hilarious lost-in-translation lyrics

Krashty has summed it up perfectly - we've all done 'crap jobs' to get by (NB, I mean as I presume Krashty did, jobs we don't wish to do, not that any job is actually 'crap'). I understand how demoralising it is but try to remember that this is temporary. I remember only too well how I felt when my PhD funding (employment as a research assistant) ran out and I was still fairly far off finishing. Prior to that point, I had been in continuous (part-time if not full-time) employment since the age of 15. I was used to having some financial independence and felt incredibly unsettled. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I ending up temping as a secretary on minimum wage and the day I started that job, I felt rather depressed. That was not part of my life plan! You will get through this and you will find a job that you want. Meanwhile, remember that the type of person who will judge you based on the job you do is not worth knowing.

Hi Fluffymonster, I also found that people expected me to be earning loads after being awarded the PhD, people just don't understand academia, do they? Sigh!! I think that they have seen how much stress and hard work is involved with a PhD and assume that the financial rewards must reflect this...if only!

Hi Piglet

I ended up joining the hospital (where I was based) locum bank and temped as a medical secretary. In the end, I only did this for about 6 weeks as my supervisors won some funding and took me on as a Post-doc, a reprieve!! Hope that you can have some similar luck. In the meanwhile, dust off the LBD, you never know...! The post-doc job-insecurity continues though, since that first grant (which gave me a 2 yr contract), I've been on a series of 12m contracts and never know where the next year's salary is coming from (continually writing grants).

All the best

I believe that you should think of your viva as a 'meeting of peers'. The point of the viva is to see if you have made the grade, so show them that you have by thinking of yourself as 'one of them' and demonstrating through your answers that you know your thesis and know how it relates to the wider field. Of course, this doesn't mean that you are not respectful as 1) they are senior academics whilst you are more junior and 2) it's an exam and if there was ever a time to be polite, it's now!

I agree with Orian that it's not worth making a fuss about very tiny changes...however, a friend of mine was led into the 'trap' of being very agreeable to a series of changes which started small and became increasingly more significant. Unfortunately, she had got into a bit of a 'compliance mind-set' and when she finally started thinking 'well, actually, no I don't agree because...' and actually started to defend her thesis (whole point of viva) it was a little too late. She ended up with quite a bit of re-writing and it took her another year. So my advice is, don't sweat the small stuff and of course, it's always worth being polite and respectful in your responses but don't be so compliant that you end up not defending properly!

I'm working too, got teaching all next week and have to prepare

Yikes!!! Can you take some leave from work to give you more study time? If you only do one thing to prepare, have a mock viva (with supervisors or other suitably qualified people (they know your thesis and what's expected of a PhD candidate)). This will expose the weak areas that you can work on in the time available to you. Search for vivas on this forum and you'll find other tips. Good luck!!

Likewise, a person could go into a viva with no publications from their thesis and pass with no problems. PhD research should be publishable (in whole or in part), there is no stipulation (in UK anyway) for the thesis to have been published prior to viva.

Anything peer-reviewed can only be a good thing. It shows that your work has been subject to external scrutiny and found to be up to scratch. However, a person could go into a viva with a string of publications and still fail, it's certainly no guarantee.

If in doubt, cross it out!

The division between teaching and research varies, some lecturer posts may be 50:50, others will have different proportions assigned. If for you, it's all about the teaching, then you could aim to be a teaching fellow (100% teaching), rather than a lecturer.

So there are lots of options available for you. Don't be scared about talking to your supervisors, they are highly unlikely to show dismay (even if they might feel a slight amount!) as that's simply not acceptable in this day and age. Good luck!