I think when you use words like 'complaining', 'poor choices' and 'what did you expect?', you introduce an unnecessary level of combat into something that was an interesting discussion about people's thoughts about their careers. It should be possible to discuss the pros/cons of trying to remain in academia without the conversation escalating like this.

Apologies to the OP - hope we can get back to sharing our thoughts and plans!

Dunham, you are attributing everything to personal choice, when in fact most people want to do things like have a family life, a decent place to live and a sense of community. It is not unreasonable to want those things as well as a job. If an entire employment sector dictates that you need to give up those things, then I say an unduly narrow field of applicants is the result. I don't think that is healthy for academia or the people who stay in it.

I'm not sure it was a series of complaints, Dunham - the OP asked about people's plans and people are answering with their reasons. For what it's worth, I don't think it's good for any type of employment to rely only on those who can move around and chase short-term contracts - seems to me that it's going to be completely skewed in favour of younger people and those with no dependents/commitments, regardless of actual ability.

I'm not up for re-locating and chasing short-term contracts either, so it's unlikely I will stay in academia, although I will have a look at what's available. It does seem that with the current trend of offering insecure, short-term work, academia is restricting its pool of applicants somewhat!

Another fear I have is that my supervisors' feedback is out of line with the examiners' opinions, and that what my supervisors think is a finished thesis is judged to be anything but! My supervisors are relentlessly positive and enthusiastic, which is lovely, but I keep thinking all it takes is a nitpicky examiner and I'll come unstuck!

£17-19k is not a lot of money for a family of four to survive on. To put it into perspective, a PhD studentship here is about £14k a year. That kind of salary would be workable if your husband also had a job sorted out, but if not then it's not a lot of money to re-locate for.

Not exactly the same situation, but I know someone whose PhD supervisor pipped her to the post and published her PhD research under his name only!

I'm leaving the final wordings of my research questions and title til near the end, so that they fit well with the overall feel of the thesis.

PS It doesn't sound good that she suggested paying you lower than the university rate at first. You deserve better than that!

I wouldn't put my plans on hold for this, Kim. I wouldn't completely rule it out either, but the communication you've had so far would make me have doubts about it ever coming to fruition. If you were planning to move from Canada to the UK, that's a massive commitment and I think you need something a lot more definite so you can plan for such a big move. The prof must live in a land where people can survive on fresh air and vague promises!

I wouldn't like someone re-writing my work. I once (at MSc level) had a supervisor who inserted errors into my writing by making 'corrections'! I would probably have to find a way of asking her to track any changes/suggestions she had.

I definitely have the employment concern too, Drmumphd - especially because you hear about some employers being put off by PhDs!

I agree Hugh - the choice of examiners is going to be really important. I know someone who did qualitative research and was asked if her PhD was 'a pilot study'!

My worst fear at the moment, Hugh, is that the examiners will conclude that my work is 'not enough for a PhD' and will recommend MPhil instead. I've been questioned on this several times (most recently yesterday) so it is a very real fear! I think it stems from the fact that I'm doing qualitative research in a very quants-heavy department, and my numbers look tiny compared to the numbers people are used to seeing.