My supervisors are very supportive and positive, give feedback quickly (and they seem to go through everything in detail and spot tiny things), plus they are approachable when I need to talk or can't do something. I don't feel worried about going to them with stuff because they are not authoritarian and will try to help me find a way round things. Hope things are ok with you, Hugh.

I am sorry you're still waiting, anz. It does seem quite incredible that it's taking so long, after all you've already been through. Keeping my fingers crossed that you get positive news soon.

I find clear days off so important (and I say that as someone at the end of my funding who needs to move on to paid work soon!). As Mattfabb says, it's not productive to keep pushing it when you're drained - I am trying to be better at knowing the difference between my productive days and my 'blood from a stone' ones.

Mine isn't online, but then I am not a very 'online' person as far as my personal information goes, and like you I have reservations about posting things at an early stage. It would be interesting to hear the experiences of people who have put theirs online, though!

I know what you mean, yirara! My supervisors are so positive about everything that I sometimes think my viva will be a nightmare if I get someone really critical! Still, I am glad not to be dealing with a lot of conflict along the way.

My supervisors are lovely and supportive and positive - I cannot fault them, especially as they took over when my original lead supervisor left, and it had not been on the cards for them to supervise me. Glad you've managed to get some info on yours upfront, yirara!

Hi Trilla, glad it's not just me! I always thought management was 'not for me' and that I could somehow work my way into a position in which I was seen as a 'professional'; however, that has never happened and now I am thinking that the only way is to go for the senior positions to prevent that feeling you have when you're being micro-managed or subjected to poor decisions. I too want to work in a collaborative way. It is refreshing to hear of someone who has gone into management and found a better way of doing it :-)

I think as long as you can acknowledge that your studies had limitations and justify the decisions you made, you'll be ok - I think it is more about showing your competence to do research rather than getting a perfect set of conditions.

To be honest, all my working life I've found myself subordinate to managers who had fewer qualifications for the job than I did, so it is a refreshing change to be supervised by experts, no matter their age! I guess it all depends on the individual and what previous experience they've had. I have also found, as Yve says, that I am much less nervous about broaching things with my supervisors than I would have been in my 20s.

I am in my 40s and doing a PhD. At the time of starting it, I had a job but it was not a huge loss giving it up, as it did not have good terms/salary and besides, I had always wanted to do a PhD. As you say, nothing is guaranteed at the end of the PhD, but I think if it's something you want to do and you can handle not knowing what will happen at the end of it, don't let your age hold you back.

Is there any way to get someone who does use your methods to cast an eye over even part of your work before the submission date? The reason I am suggesting this is that I am using methods my supervisors haven't used, and I've been able to link up with a group of people who do this type of research and have had some discussions/got some feedback this way. I'm just wondering if this would help reassure your supervisors. The other thing would be to try submitting a paper if time permits, and get comments.

I think the deal with teaching varies from uni to uni - e.g. you sometimes hear of it being a requirement of funded PhD students, but more often it's offered to PhD students as paid work/the opportunity to get experience.

Well done! I think pagination would just be counted as a minor error, if they pick up on it.