Well I ended up having a shot of Palinka and just submitting my CV without too much thought. What's the worst that can happen, eh?

Thanks guys and gals :) I am now off in the hunt for chocolate...

So for those of you remember earlier this year I decided to get a new job, move to a new city and had a new relationship start. All great.

Well... the relationship is still going very well indeed. The job is good. But...

... I've seen the perfect job for me advertised. It would be just exactly right for me, even more than my current job.

And it's the same city as my partner. Which I'm still undecided is a good or a bad reason to even think about it.

What would you do?

I gave mine each a nice bottle of red wine. They were actually genuinely surprised and very much appreciated it!

Hey Blue, well probably not a lot more I can say than what will have been racing through your head already.

How long is the postdoc for? Would your partner be able to get a job over there/study as well? Have you discussed it with your partner at all yet? When you say you will earn less, do you mean like for like current salary or comparably for the place it would be to study in? Could you get another job in industry here instead? Are there other ways you could get to know people? Are you hoping the postdoc would mean a move into academia or would it be doing it just because it's available?

Ha, can't believe I missed this earlier! I must admit I do sometimes feel a bit of a fraud posting on here, but sometimes I do have the odd nugget of wisdom - like you I work in private sector and have done for a few years now so I can comment on what it's like with a little bit of knowledge (just what is an IB app? Not heard that one yet!). And it's weird as I've come full circle through this forum from when I was doing my masters and looking for a PhD, all the way through doing it, and now out the other side... I'm older, wiser in some ways, but also a hell of a lot greyer. And let's not mention how much heavier...

... although people still get my age wrong if they guess (in a good way:-x)

Thanks again for all the replies - we did discuss about doing it part-time and I pointed out why I thought this wasn't a good idea in my opinion having seen people do it (and the experience of people on here) and also I remember writing up my PhD at the same time as working - not quite the same thing admittedly but that was 9 months of having motivation to go to work, then do writing, and that was bad enough let alone doing it for several years!

Have taken the comments and used them to help further the discussion, it's not something that is just going to be decided on overnight but all your comments are really, really appreciated!

In my course of employment I have only really used the technical knowledge and softer skills that I developed at my masters degree at most; nothing in my PhD itself has been of any benefit.

Having said that, it's a very weird situation regarding PhDs - in my first two jobs, the senior manager who interviewed had a PhD so maybe that made things easier for wanting to take on other PhDs as they "got it". In my current position, we have lots of PhDs working in the company (consultancy). But are they using their PhDs directly or even anything that they hadn't learned before it? Probably not.

The problem is then that realistically you're competing against other masters students for jobs, given the small chunk of jobs that actually really need a PhD - and they're already two a penny. Not that I have a solution either!

Thanks for your replies - Sneaks, your husband says exactly the same thing I do! Hence why I have a bit of a biased view when giving an opinion to others.

The job is kind of an open offer, so he could take it now or take it at the end of his PhD, it's just whether the delay is worth it when the PhD won't give him anything extra than he already has and he's not really enjoying the PhD as a whole or the topic in itself particularly. And he's scared that it would be "the easy way out", but actually I think stepping away after 2 years is actually far from an easy decision!

Firstly, I should point out I'm asking advice for a friend as I already have a PhD but the problem is I'm rather single minded in the advice I would give!

He is thinking of quitting his PhD, but we all know we all say that at one time or another (I certainly used to regularly and at one point I almost did it). But he has the fortunate position of going into a job that he would enjoy and would find interesting (he knows the people, did project/internship for the company etc).

What would be the things most important to consider when making this decision? For me I'd just say, take the job - my PhD has been of little value and use really, and the skills I do use I'd picked up way before the end of it (he's at the end of his second year). So all the "employable" skills he already has, the technical knowledge he would actually use, he already has.

Just want to make sure there isn't anything I have missed out in giving advice for!

Hey Spark, I work in (private sector) consultancy and we have many people with PhDs in physics - across the board from theoretical to very mathematical (and in fact two people I work closely with did "quantum stuff"). The skills you would pick up on a PhD will always be useful - you can soon find out what skills are useful in industry and try and tie them into your PhD. Don't forget you have to spend a lot of time working on a PhD so it's best to do something you really enjoy than something you feel that you should!

6 months, yes, it's possible especially if you have most of the work done already in rough drafts if that's what you are focusing on full time (I mean if you don't have a job or other life issues that will take up a big chunk of your time). However make sure that you submit something to your supervisors sooner rather than later, even if it's not the "final draft".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-14635576

Good on her, I say!

All a bit crazy, barely slept last night thanks to loads of sirens wailing and more already this evening since I've got home. Just hoping where I am doesn't get anything...

I don't think it's something of the moment - it's been depressing for years and year. But then good, positive news rarely makes headlines.

I always used to love the local news back home, the last story was always a nice little feelgood story, I remember a story once about a wolfwhistling pig (I think, might have been a sheep!).

I often used to work in the middle of the night if an idea hit me! I worked some really weird hours during my PhD. Some weeks I'd do 20 hours; others 100. Sometimes I'd work during the day, sometimes the whole night. I went with the flow... and it seemed to work for me!