I've found I get more work done if the internet's down (unless I need it, of course!)

Data cleaning is taking longer than I anticipated. Oh well, I have nothing else to do today!

Morning everyone.

Today, I am going to make some good progress on my data for my conference presentation. Goals:
1.) Clean the data
2.) Finish plan for analysis
3.) Make a start on the analysis

I'm also going to go for a good walk at some point, my life is getting far too sedentary!

Hah, Sneaks, I assumed it was for the viva! Thanks anyway. PCOS sounds unpleasant - and I do hope it's all okay when you have your next check-up.

Ady, thanks too, it is playing on my mind but if I can focus on work it'll be okay.

Making progress on my plan of things I need to get done before my conference, anyway. Feeling calmer about it all. Hope everyone else's work is going well today!

======= Date Modified 12 Sep 2011 10:58:49 =======
Morning everyone!

Sneaks, well done on calling the scary people, those are the kinds of jobs I tend to put off until they're way overdue and then really embarrassing to carry out!

I just looked in my diary and realised I only have two working weeks until I set off for the conference I'm presenting at, and that scares the pants off me, because I currently have no results to present. Eeeek!

I'm luckily not feeling too ill today. But I get some major test results on Thursday and I can't help being anxious about that - I know it's unlikely to be anything too serious, but I can't help thinking 'what if...'

Anyway. Goals for today:
1.) Plan out analysis needed to be able to present at conference and timetable to get it all done
2.) Prepare for supervision meeting and write up notes afterwards
3.) Start following timetable to get presentation done in time

Viva done. Pretty quick really. The professor had some very sharp questions but I think I handled them all okay. He had a couple of suggestions for clarifying what I'm doing, and a couple of his questions raised some interesting things about the design of my study that I need to think some more about. But overall it was fine, and he said congratulations at the end, and my supervisor seems happy too.

Yay. As soon as they've officially told me I've passed, I'll be heading to the pub!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Thanks Ady. Yes, I think you're right, it is a good thing that we get to do a viva every year - useful practice. Still don't want to do it though! :p

Hi Spark.

I can't really help with the decision between the theoretical stuff and computational stuff as I'm a social scientist so in a very different field. But I would say that it's important that you have a passion for the subject of your PhD, if at all possible - it takes up so much head-space and life-space that it would be a real struggle to do justice to the PhD opportunity without that passion. I know some people do do a PhD just as a job and see it as a means to an end, but I think if you do have passion for another topic undertaking a PhD in this way would become very frustrating, and could well lead to resentment of the actual topic of your PhD, if you see what I mean.

Also, all PhDs are by their very nature highly specialised. If you want your future career to be in the same speciality, or you want to follow a career where the speciality of your PhD is a prerequisite, then that shapes your decision. But if there's a bit more flexibility in that, then you do have the opportunity to follow your interests rather than what you think might be useful for industry. But someone else would be better placed to advise on the exact position in the areas you're thinking about.

Good luck, anyway!

Good luck with the interview, Wally! I'm not surprised the lure of academia is so strong - having worked in a lot of different jobs for fifteen years before starting my PhD, I can honestly say that academia is (currently) the most appealing of the lot!

Nice poem, too... :p

Oh God, I don't even want to think about applying for jobs yet, so glad I have another year before submission, it sounds pretty horrendous from the stories on here!

Anyway, good morning everyone!

I have my second year viva at 2pm, so today is all about preparing for that (I haven't even thought about it since submitting my report!) My supervisors want me to impress the person who's taken over as my internal examiner (last year's one left the uni) as he's the big world-famous professor in charge of the research team that is my best hope of post-doc work at this university. So, no pressure then! At least I'm not feeling quite as ill as I was at the beginning of the week.

Goal 3 done. Hmm, that took a lot longer than I hoped. Time to crack on with the final goal now, though I may call it a day in an hour or so and do some work over the weekend instead of killing myself today.

Goals one and two done (quicker than I thought!) so now time to get on with the journal paper.

Morning everyone!

Squaredot, thanks for the comment about telling supervisors about illness. I'm going to see how I feel today, but will probably talk to one of my supervisors later, if he's on campus today.

Made it onto campus for the first time in a couple of weeks, and am determined to get lots done today. Goals:
1.) Print out the backlog of stuff I've been waiting to print once I got onto campus again!
2.) Write a basic plan for getting my conference presentation analysis done in time
3.) Skim-read several journal articles for possible citing in journal article I'm co-authoring
4.) Write two sections to add to journal article
Actually, that seems like a lot. But I'll see how much I get done!

Oh, Facebook can be so irritating sometimes. My pet hate is people who post something like 'I wish people could just stop being nasty' and then when someone replies asking what's up they say something like 'Don't want to say on here hun x' - ffs, don't mention it at all then, it's pointless and irritating!

Anyway, getting a bit more work done, but my progress is stupidly slow. I can see this journal article dragging on throughout tomorrow, and then Friday will be all about my second year viva, and that'll be another week gone by without having made progress on the analysis for the conference presentation at the end of the month. My partner thinks I should tell my supervisors how ill I've been for the last few weeks but I can't see how that will really help anything - the conference deadline won't change, and the viva has to take place to meet the annual renewal deadline. It's not like undergraduate, where they cut you slack for being ill, after all!

Hi TigerB

I had my first year viva a year ago (and actually, I have my second year viva this Friday - eek!) and I think I had a similar reaction after mine. I didn't know what to expect from the viva, but prepared as well as I could, knowing each section well, etc. But I found that I got caught out by the examiner having an overview of the whole study and asking me about links between sections - I hadn't really thought properly about that side of things and, like you, I felt I couldn't really answer the questions properly. Yes, it did dent my confidence a little, but now when I look back at that experience I think it's given me a better insight into how an outsider might view my study, and I hope that I'll be better prepared for that kind of view in this week's viva.

This PhD is all a learning process - I actually think sailing through the first and second year viva with no issues could end up having a negative effect when it comes to my final viva, or when talking to other academics who might have a different view on what I'm doing. I'd rather learn to deal with these things now than at the end.

I guess what I'm saying is that you're not the only one to feel like this, and actually, it's a good opportunity to learn something about your (one's) own study and your (one's) own reaction to things. Questioning what we're doing is a vital part of doing it - it's what will make us stronger in the long run.

And after my viva, my supervisor (who sat in but didn't speak) said he was very impressed with the way I dealt with questions, even if there were places where I could have answered better, and I've bumped into the examiner a few times since then and she's said the same thing, and been very complimentary about the study. So feeling this way doesn't mean you did badly at all, either!

======= Date Modified 07 Sep 2011 09:04:37 =======
Sneaks, congrats on the job news, that's great!

Ady, thanks, yes it has been a while now so I hope they resolve it soon too, it's getting very frustrating!

Oh well, work time.