It's a bit of a story as to how the job came about awsoci, I'd been working in the care home for about 18 months, New manager started this time last year who openly told me she didn't like the fact I was more qualified than she was despite the fact I never mention my qualifications to anybody at work unless they ask me directly. it's not like I was walking the corridors telling everyone I'm a superstar or anything. Anyway we didn't get along, there were issues from the start, I ended up telling her and the company director where to stick there job back in May and put myself out of work. However, fast forward 4 months, the care inspectors are close to shutting the place down because she's run it into the ground and the directors are begging me to come back as acting manager until they get a new manager in place. Both the care inspector and the staff have recommended me to the directors to be the new manager and hence the position I'm now in.

I do really want to finish the PhD and I'm excited about my research but I am so worried about finishing it and been stuck in a job that I could have done without ever going to uni in the first place.

The job would be permanent and there is a hell of a lot of work to do to raise the standards of the company, however, once I had done the bulk of the work and done the management course I think I would be in a better position to do the job and the PhD. I've worked full time up to now but not in the same role and a few years of that job would be great on my cv for the job that I want.

I am a few waiver student and you can only get a fee waiver for a full time course. If I got this job I could afford to pay the fees myself but I would need to do an NVQ in management if I got the job so it would be easier to take a year off while I did that and get the place up to a higher standard than its at before returning to the PhD. I would still attempt to work on the PhD and publish some papers in that year "off" it would just ease some of the pressure. While the job isn't directly related to psychology, it would be a management position in the care sector so I think it would help towards a post-doc position.

That's my worry, that I've been trying to get a job in my area for years and that's the reason I went for the PhD in the first place but the job opportunity is as a care manager which I think could give me valuable experience to get a job after my PhD but I dont want to sacrifice the PhD to get that experience. It a such a hard choice to make. The money and the experience would be great and I am more than capable of doing the job but I feel that it's possibly a waste of my 8 years of studying psychology.

I have a decision to make very soon whether to continue on with the PhD and possibly turn down a very good job opportunity or take a year off from the PhD and accept the decent job which is good experience and good money but not in my area.

My dilemma is that I'm working so hard on the PhD to get a better job so I am reluctant to turn down a manager position to possibly not have any job opportunity at the end of my PhD, on the other hand, to accept the job I would be taking on a position managing a care home for the elderly which would need at least a year commitment and is not in the area I'm studying and I would need to postpone my full time study.

My university and supervisor won't allow me to do the PhD part time. Has anyone been in a similar situation??

Theres nothing worse than having a bad relationship with a supervisor. Like the PhD isn't hard enough withtout them adding to your problems.

My surpervisor is also the director of the grad school so I can sympathize with your situation. As crap as your situation is, all you can do is your best. You've got 32000 words done so your over half way there. Just keep plodding on and keep doing your best and try to keep an eye on the light at the end of the tunnel.

It sounds to me like you couldn't make it much worse, if you have had little to no supervision for the past few months and you are 8 weeks away from submitting I would use the meeting next week to tell your supervisor how you feel. Tell her you are not satisfied that you have been left in the lurch and you would really appreciate her stepping up and helping you out for the last few months.

I am in a similar position with my supervisor at the moment, not nearly as bad or as crucial time for me but I have only one supervisor who has been having a lot of time off sick recently and my research is quite a few months behind because of it. She is very reluctant to find me a second supervisor but I'm hopeful that I have raised the issue in plenty of time before I get to the stage you are at and have no supervision.

Well done for sticking at it and good luck.

Thanks for the advice Caro. That's what I went with but she's not buying it. She said they are working on getting me a second supervisor (been working on it since I started) but because she is an experienced supervisor they are not too bothered. I explained that while she is an experienced supervisor it's no use to me when she's off and I'm flying solo.

I also recently found out that she's got another PhD student who is doing something very similar to me and since her other student confronted her about us both practically doing the same thing, she has changed my research and mde it sound like that was always the plan. I'm starting to get really annoyed with the whole thing.

So my supervisor came back to work today and this afternoon has emailed to say after this week she is taking the rest of August off so anything I need to know I should ask this week. I've arranged to have a phone supervision with her on Wednesday and would like to broach the subject of getting me a second supervisor. Every time I've mentioned this in the past she keeps brushing it off but I am struggling with all her time off at the moment.

How do I say I need someone who I can rely on without rocking the boat. I generally get on with her quite well.

Hi BJS

It is definitely possible. I am in the process of revising my masters thesis for publication and cutting it down a lot to fit into an article. If you check the journal author guidelines it will tell you all you need to know, how many words they are looking for, how it should be formatted, etc etc.

Also, I had my undergrad thesis published a few years ago, I only had a very small sample size of 7 participants but it was an area that was hugely understudied at the time, I emailed the editor my abstract and asked if it was something the journal would be interested in and he asked me to submit my paper for review.

Don't be surprised if they ask you to make a lot of revisions though, this is very common. If you have a good relationship with your masters supervisor speak to them about it too, sometimes a supervisor will help edit your paper for publication and if they are better known in the field than you it doesn't hurt to have them down as a second author.

(I'm also in social science)

Thanks very much. It is reassuring to hear you both say I am possibly doing more than I think, it certainly doesn't feel that way. I have taken a week off and done other things and socialised with friends and thought that would be enough to bring my head back to the right place but that was the week my cat died so it didn't help much to be honest.

I don't have a second supervisor, she is my only one. Which hasn't been a problem until the past few months. The trouble is she happens to be the director of graduate education at my university so everyone I speak to has said they would usually advice me to speak to her which obviously is a tremendous help.

I'm trying to sort things out via email and the phone as I can't really afford to travel down at the moment and I'm not sure it would help much anyway. So far, everyone has advised me to wait for her to return to work and do what I can until then.

I think the fact that I'm off work at the moment has actually added to the pressure rather than relieved it because I keep thinking I've got all this time and I'm not using it as I should be whereas when I'm working full time I know my days off are set aside for PhD stuff and I have a set routine I stick to.

Hi all

I know there is many other posts on this site regarding the same issue but I've hit a wall and I am really struggling to get though it.

I am in my second year of study and for the past 6 weeks I have been unemployed so I have had plenty of time to work on my PhD but I just can't seem to find the motivation. Between the stress of being unemployed (waiting to start a new job which is taking ages), financial problems causing arguments between me and my partner, had to get my wee cat put down 2 weeks ago which was awful and also added to the financial issues and my only supervisor being off sick and not replying to any emails, I feel like I've got everything against me atm. I sit down at my desk and I know I've got plenty to be getting on with and I just seem to sit and stare at the screen until time disappears.

I've tried writing to-do lists, I've tried changing what I am working on so I don't get bored, I've tried contacting someone else at the University for advice on when my supervisor will be back. I've sent a few abstracts to conferences later in the year and I've finalised my survey which I can't disseminate until my supervisor signs off on it. I've started writing a paper which I've been meaning to start all year but can't seem to stay focussed on it long enough to get anywhere with it.

I know I should be using this time off constructively and I have all the best intentions in the world when I get up but then it all goes out the window when I sit down at my desk and feel totally deflated. It doesn't help that I am 5 hours away from my university so I can't go in and sort things out regarding my supervisor.

Is anyone else feeling the same?

I agree with the other posts. You definitely need a break but I would suggest when you come back to it, try not to overwhelm yourself with how much you haven't done or how much you need to do.

Organise your work space so you haven't got a 101 things piled up on your desk that need your attention. Prioritise what needs doing first and make a daily to-do list. Even adding things like contact supervisor, read 1 important paper, etc that way you can be ticking things off the list throughout the day and you will feel a sense of achievement which will make you keep going. Just be careful not to add too many things onto each day because that can lead to you not getting through the whole list and make you feel just as unmotivated as when you started.

Good luck

I second the above posts, I am also doing mixed methods research in Psychology and think that I have possibly made my project too big/difficult to get through in one PhD. I think no matter what any of us are doing we will always doubt ourselves at some point.

What is your research topic? Will it add a contribution to knowledge? Not all research is interesting and exciting but it can be very useful nonetheless.

I'm the same, I've still got A level, undergrad, masters assignments and reports. Don't know why I keep it all but I can't bring myself to throw it out.

Maybe it's a weird academic trait.