Uh oh! I can't tell you how much reading this post has depressed me! You sound like you have very similar goals to me Zara. So would you say that a PhD is little use for a job in conservation? Im just at the looking for a PhD stage and am hoping it will be the answer to my prayers, but then on the other hand... i could spend three years in some boggy field at the back end of no where.. hating it! Who'd be a biologist?

Well Zara atleast you won't be feeling smug and better than factory workers because of a PhD.

Hi everybody specially Zara,
I'm very curious to know what Zara is doing or anybody else who answered to this thread and was not feeling good about her/his PhD. I was feeling almost exactly like Zara some months ago and I gave up my PhD in computer science in July 2011 after one and half year. I thought I want more practical work to do. I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Now I have decided to work in humanitarian organizations like Engineers Without Borders. I feel I would be fine but sometimes I think I could learn a lot of life skills during PhD studies which I am not sure if I can get them all unless otherwise.
Best of luck for everybody out there,
Azadeh