I just signed into my university email, and I've got an email from a website called TARGETjobs, confirming that I signed up last night (I definitely didn't). The website itself looks like a jobs website with a postgrad section. I clicked the 'lost password' button so that it would email me a reset link so that I could take control of 'my' account, and I managed to get into the account, which has some of my personal details in it but some incorrect ones.

I just wondered if anyone has experience of this site - is it a legitimate site or is it known for picking up details of postgrads from other sites and using the information to send out spam? I'm wondering if some 'helpful' person from uni has been setting up accounts for all the PhD students, but surely they would ask us rather than just going ahead. Just wondering if anyone has come across this site before!

My supervisors both told me that they finished work on their PhDs within three years, but were out working by the time of the viva etc. I guess it's one of those things that's easier to explain verbally than it is to write on a CV.

I think it's a shame that postgrad funding for conferences is so patchy and often depending on your luck and how your department allocates its budget. Mine won't pay for conferences at all, so I'm also limited in terms of what I can afford and what external bits of funding I can get. Paying for an overseas conference would be like taking a foreign holiday, and I haven't even had a holiday at home for six years!

I've heard mixed opinions about how vital conference presentations are. My supervisors are encouraging me to go to at least one conference a year (despite the funding issues), but I've spoken to people who've finished their PhDs and attended only one conference throughout the PhD. I have heard a few people say that published papers are the biggest achievements in terms of academic progression, rather than conference presentations.

Have you looked into opportunities at your uni? We get offered things like invigilating and scribing for students with additional support needs - it's obviously seasonal work, but you might be able to get something like that.

Hi Satchi

I certainly have one paper that used email 'interviews' saved on my pc - if you'd like to pm me your email address I will send it.

Hi Satchi

It is possible, depending on what type of qualitative research you're doing, to gather data without a face to face interview. For example, I've seen published papers in which open-ended questions were sent to participants by email, and then follow-up questions asked. Is it possible that people would take part on this basis? If you can justify your data collection in terms of having to work with participants' availability or if there's some reason why interviews are not the best option, it's still possible to carry out and write up the research.

My advice would be to look for more information about the clinical psychology route. As wowzers said, the qualification for this career path is a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, and doing a PhD first would be a very roundabout way (as well as expensive!) to get into that. When I graduated in Psychology (which is a good few years ago now, so I would advise you to get up to date info), the best way into clinical psychology was to look for graduate level Assistant Psychologist jobs and get experience first. I would get some careers advice to make sure you go about this the right way.

One part of your life is receiving disproportionate amounts of your time and attention just now (because it needs to). You're working towards a huge goal and at the same time preparing to bring that work to an end. That's a lot to cope with psychologically! If these feelings are not overwhelming, it might help just to try to accept them as a reaction to the exhaustion, stress etc that is probably underpinning everything at the moment. Your life's out of balance right now, but this period will pass.

My round trip to uni takes 4-5 hours and I go there as infrequently as I can. My type of research means that's possible and I work from home most of the time, but it definitely means I don't take part in anything other than work-related stuff at uni, and I do feel less connected to the department as a result. I'm in my 40s and I think if I was any younger it would have bothered me a lot more.

I have the same kind of problem but from the opposite direction - my supervisor is suggesting something needs a chapter of its own, but it's going to be a silly little chapter compared to the others and I'm reluctant to do that. I have a sense, as Dr Jeckyll has described, that chapters should be roughly balanced, especially since I got criticised for that very issue at Masters level!

Another thing that occurred to me is that it'll be interesting to see whether PhDs funded by these loans will be seen as 'funded' or 'self-funded'. The way I see it, if you get a funded PhD just now, the topic is usually pre-determined to a certain extent (I have heard people comment that some funded PhDs are basically used as a cheap way of getting work done that should actually have been done by a research assistant, although my experience has been much better than this). With a self-funded PhD, there's more of an expectation that you can set your own topic, as long as someone is willing to supervise it. I would hope that anyone taking on one of these loans would at the very least get the freedom that goes along with being self-funded.

We need to know what (if anything) this means for existing research funding, eg whether any funding will be cut in favour of the loans. I'm not in favour of loan-based education and as TreeofLife says, the loan wouldn't be enough and would have to be supplemented by some other income anyway.

My supervisors give me guidelines about when certain things should happen for me to stay within my 3-year funded period, but other than that, it's up to me to set firmer deadlines and make sure it happens. I think it's quite common for deadlines to move during a PhD, because there is always uncertainty and factors you can't control or predict, but on the whole I'm glad my supervisors give me their thoughts about staying on track.

I'm with the negatives here :) I think a PhD has such specific requirements that it seems a bit odd to give out an honorary version - it's not like you can be made an honorary nurse, an honorary vet or an honorary accountant, so I'm not sure why you can get an honorary doctorate without going through the usual steps.

I was reading recently about a political figure (I can't remember his name) who was made an honorary professor despite having a non-academic background, and from that moment forward he used the Professor title at all times, which must be misleading to many people who'll assume he got the title via the academic route.

I think the PhD experience is notorious for making people feel lonely and isolated. One thing I realised early on was that I had to make the effort to keep up with family and friends and that they generally don't want to know much about my PhD stuff, so I tend to keep the PhD chat for people who've been there (including online forums like this one) and try to see as much of old friends as possible for just relaxing and not thinking about the PhD. If you do feel that you're getting depressed to the extent that it's affecting your day-to-day life and work, please try to talk to someone about it, whether that's student support at your uni or someone else you can talk to.