Some things will never work, or annoyingly will work for one person but not you, even if you copy what they did exactly.
If it doesn't work, the best thing you can do is work through systematically to eliminate problems e.g. I added bits of protocol back to my protein purification and established they didn't work(!)
I stored my protein under different consitions for days and kept checking the concentration to establish if I really was losing protein.
If nothing else, you can write up the problem solving approach you used in your thesis and/or use as an example in a job interview of something you found difficult and worked through!
Are there any similar examples in the literature so you can compare method, or can you set up a collaboration with a lab that does know about this stuff. It could save you time in the long run.

Scary, I got told exactly that when I asked how I was doing. He meant middling, not the best not the worst.

I'm not sure in terms of money, did you get any info when you started-I got a leaflet from the MRC. perhaps there's a student advice, or financial office you can visit for advice.
It just means putting your PhD on hold and not working on it, which it sounds like you need. They're tricky at the best of times.
What a stressful time for you. I hope things look up soon.

You sound like you need serious help managing your debts, I'm shocked at your level of debt. You're short of money but I've no idea how someone could get £50k debt. Can you not become bankrupt and write some off at that stage?
You will not make large amounts of money as an academic. It sounds like that is important to you. On the other hand as a PhD you may struggle with your starting salary for a few years as you have not been working.

You could look into pharmaceutical careers. Writing/publishing careers would be helped by papers, but may need a PhD.

Maybe you should give him some unsolicited advice on people skills, or networking as he seems to have no idea

I was going to say it was good as a lot of jobs are got through networking, but if he is totally clueless that's different. He could have asked and given you an option if he was genuine.

I know when I was on a committee we brought in major corrections in my faculty, and before that we only had minor corrections as on option.
I'm at the end of my 4th year and see that as I'm being very slow and have had problems with my supervisor!

Anyway, I think you deserve cheering up, it sounds horrible. All you can do now is put it down as a bad experience and finish as soon as you can.

I'm shocked. I think you should try and stop it getting to you as it is them in the wrong, not you.
Having someone impartial in the meeting sounds good. I'm sure you can equally make a complaint about how you were treated too.

Hope it gets sorted out soon. What a horrible situation.

You sound like you are a long way off and it could be distracting. Could you try a short term job e.g. only for a month or so, or wait until you are further along? It does depend on your financial situation, if you can claim benefit or not and whether you feel you could do it.

I can sympathise, I am fed up with a year on a thesis and not having finished. I've had slow feedback, which has really dragged it out.
I seem to have holes all over my thesis and sometimes feel I'll never finish.

What is your first degree in?

Good luck Piglet! Yes, I freeze up and give poor answers. I'm reading out answers to questions aloud, but am terrified I don't stand a chance anyway, which is almost a self-fulfilling propecy.
I've broken out in bad acne from stress too!

Have you tried the prospects planner, and doing some careers planning?
Or been on GRADschool/tried the new wave articles?
I've found a nice potential career after having no idea until a few months ago (4th year of PhD).
I decided early on I hated my PhD, but was determined to finish it, rather than giving up. It's been a huge struggle and not a pleasant experience.

I have an interview for a pharmaceutical-based job, writing, as I want to escape academia. It's really good and would be something I would enjoy that uses my PhD, is fairly stable, and pays me money.
It's on Thursday, but I'm now a complete wreck and have butterflies a lot and have started waking up in the night (yes I am a bit neurotic ;-) )
It's the only interview I have lined up, so I'm worried I'll mess it up as I get crippled with nerves over interviews.
Help?!

It's a shame there isn't more drinking and less of the seminars