My answer is it depends on the conferences.

Firstly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with submitting more or less the same thing to multiple conferences (I say more or less because you should tailor your abstracts to what the conference is for) - After all, there is no guarantee you'll get accepted for all of them.

Only once you're accepted do you need to start worrying about whether you can present or not. I typically look at a) have you been accepted for an oral or a poster, b) whether I can present some different results, c) who is the audience for the conference? - Are different people likely to attend. d) what do they say in their rules?

I had a case a few years ago where the same abstract got accepted as a poster at 2 different conferences - The audience was fairly similar although one was European and the other International. I just emailed them and asked and there was no problem. I also presented the same work at national conference - However this I put a focus on the novel methodology rather that the results of the study.

My PhD has moved me into a somewhat different area to what I was working in previously. My intention is to stay working in this new area, however I spoke to many people, including people in industry and academia about whether or not it would affect me returning to my old work area should I a) wish to or b) have to due to job availability. Pretty much everyone said that it wouldn't be an issue because the skills I'd learn would be transferable. I think if after the PhD you decide you want to move areas it wouldn't be a problem.

Echoing the above really. The last paper I got published, got rejected from about three journals including one in which one reviewer was quite complimentary while the other's feedback simply said "This adds nothing new to the literature". I'd question whether they read it at all.

The reviewer could be anyone - someone who simply is using an excuse because they don't have time to review it; an out of depth PhD student who was given it by their supervisor - What we do know is their opinion isn't worth your time or worry because they couldn't be bothered with constructive criticism.

Take a deep breath and resubmit elsewhere.

I'd question as to whether you'd actually bother to put something like that on your CV. I organised a two day internal training course a few years ago. I'm pretty sure it's not on mine because I don't have enough room to put it on, when I consider it to be a 'less relevant' in jobs I would typically apply for. That said, I have mentioned it in supporting information in job applications if it's useful to support something in the job description.

I think perhaps it's a little harsh to say these things aren't like real conferences - yes they can miss elements such as like the abstract submission process and inviting people to present, but in terms of organisation, they still involve arranging rooms and speakers etc. If there's workshops of any kind you need facilitators. You can also consider feedback from the previous year/provide recommendations for the future.

I think these things are useful to do in terms of understanding the level of organisation that goes into things, particularly if you'd like to maybe help organise 'proper' conferences in the future. I certainly wouldn't say it wouldn't give you any relevant experience - My experience was useful. But in reality, I'm not sure how much they help with your CV and I'm not sure how it helps with submitting to real conferences.

It sounds as though the OP is in a slightly different situation here if she's been working as a research assistant on top of doing a PhD.

I'd assume that asking for the money back is standard in the case of a PhD withdrawal and they have not taken other things into account (or may not even know about them). I wouldn't ignore it personally, BUT I wouldn't be paying them until I've taken expert advice about the policies in place around my specific circumstances. I'd probably be looking to pay some of it back after taking into consideration how much money I would have earnt working as a research assistant (presumably part-time if I was doing a PhD as well) over those two months and after that I would be negotiating an appropriate payment plan.

Certainly I know in previous jobs I have had, they have to take into consideration that you can't pay money back in a one lump sum and will usually agree to take payments over a period of months.

This question has been answered before :-) and I normally get defensive when someone suggests you can't get funded if you don't have really good academic qualifications - I'm living proof that you can. Although I do have quite a lot of experience working in industry.

I think you'd stand a pretty good chance with those qualifications, but as always with any job, it depends on who else is applying

While I can't answer your first two questions, I can help a bit with the others. When I applied for my PhD I had to provide two references with the application, so I think it's fairly standard to contact references ahead of the interview.

I try my best to prepare by running through potential questions and how I would answer them. I didn't have a proposal to discuss but did have to talk about much of what you have covered in your presentation. I did get asked general questions about PhDs, they asked what made a good phd student and also what training I thought I would need to complete the project.

In terms of Dos and Don'ts. I'd say, don't rush your answers. Take a few seconds before answering rather than rushing in and rambling. With a question such as what training would you need, don't be overly negative, I'd give them some positives too... So for mine I talked about how I probably wouldn't need much for the first part of the project where I had a strong background, but that the other part was new to me so I would potentially need more support on that part.

Do have a few questions to ask them at the end - You'll see people say many times that it should be a two-way interview and you need to make sure that it's also the right place for your to study.

My final tip is if at the "Any questions" stage there's anything you didn't mention and wanted to you can mention it here. So for me I asked about teaching opportunities as it was something that hadn't come up and talked about how I'd like to get more experience in that area and hoped I'd have the opportunity to supervise student projects.

I hope that helps a bit!

I'm not sure I would to be honest.

Is there a reason why you need to show them all? Do they all add something?

In the past, I've just shown the final or most relevant models and put extra slides at the end in case they were needed. But to be fair, I've never had that many. Can you think of it as in which figures/tables would you include in a paper since they're normally limited in the amount you can include?

I'm sure others will have much more helpful feedback than myself as I really don't know how these things work, but my first thought in answer to your question, was how much evidence has she got to support her argument?

Has she got anything in writing to show he was acting inappropriately?
I wonder if a letter form her doctor suggesting she was vulnerable may also help?

Is there anywhere she can go within the university to ask for advice and/or support?

I've not got to this stage yet (far, far away), but I know my university have used a transcription service in the past. I think ideally they're keen for you to do it at least some of it yourself in order to help get familiar with the data, but they appreciate that it's not always possible. I didn't have transcription put into my budget, although they seem flexible in what I use my money on so I'm not anticipating a problem.

I can't, but I did notice you could request a copy from the authors through Researchgate

We've already spoken, but I just wanted to say congratulations on the offer :-)

I have no idea I'm afraid, but I would imagine it would depend on your funding and where it's coming from.

As a more helpful comment - I was appointed an external supervisor in addition to my internal supervisors for my PhD. The university insisted on it because we don't have a recognised social/qualitative research department here. Maybe this is an option you could explore particularly as you're working well with your main supervisor.