I hate the fact that after 6754.5 years of hardwork, I am still posting to 'current PhDs' section of this forum , instead of Postdocs :-(

I love a good rant thread. Another forum I post on has a general rant thread where people rant about everything and anything and I read it nearly everyday. The best rants are from people working in offices who seem to grow a hatred for their colleagues and bosses, makes me glad I'm doing a PhD sometimes.
Anyway i can't belive I never saw this thread last year, I could have had some proper ranting about how much I hated my PhD. I still do hate it a bit, but actually seeing some good while I write it up. I just wish I'd got on and done it sooner as I'm getting panicky about finishing on time.

I like my PhD, but I don't like one of my flatmates. I'm getting out of here the soonest possible.
She keep complaining about things, cleaning, emptying BINs, following roster etc..but in the end, am I the only one who follow the rules.
but yet, she still accusing me of things I didn't do. Forget it, I am just human..and simply couldn't just take it all.

I'd better move on, doing something productive rather than moaning about others attitude...sigh..

_gosh...i love this thread_;-)

*blinks in shock* I'm actually allowed to say it????

I HATE my PhD.

There.

18 months in and looking forward to getting out.

I hate the experiments that take forever, the hours I spend mindlessly browsing the internet because I have to press a stupid button every couple of minutes and my supervisor refuses to let us install any useful programs on the computer.

I hate that at the end of that all I get is spectra. No graphs. No equations. Just another sheet of A4 paper with yet another spectrum on it.

I hate that half the reason I wanted to do a PhD is because I wanted to have a go at academia, but if that means I have to stick with this topic then when I graduate I'm getting a normal job.

I hate that there is no space in the building for me to have a seat in an office so I have to wander back and forth between campus and home.

I hate that most of the other PhD students are very cliquey and have their groups so don't ever talk to me.

I hate that my housemate doing a PhD in another department seems to be having the best time ever.

Most of all I hate that I went to a departmental talk on the topic that several people hinted that I should look at *years* ago and it was the most fascinatingly beautiful thing I have seen in ages and I could feel all of the old love for my subject coming back, but I'm so far away from that topic I can't see how it'll ever be possible to get back there.

Oops... sorry for that crazy rant. Feeling a lot better about everything now though so maybe it did help. :-)

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It's better out than in and that's what this forum is for!  Glad you feel better and it's the weekend now so go and enjoy it and don't feel guilty!!! You deserve a break and need to unwind so you can be productive!!! 8-)

I so agree with 404 - where are those postdocs???????   So here's my rant ...

I don't like the fact that despite getting a PhD you are not closer to getting an academic job unless you've loads of experience and done a postdoc already to get your 1st postdoc. The same seems to go for teaching even a temp teaching post they want you to have teaching and assessment of students experience which is a bit hard to get if there wasn't any available for you to do during your PhD! 

It just seems that the goal posts have moved so now after spending all this time on your research for your PhD you can't get a job unless you have X no of years of experience in either research or teaching and 50 million publications!!!!

:-s  When it all end and we can get a break? All I want to do is just some more research but that seems impossible with the odds of getting funding!!!  There might be more chance of winning the lottery!!!

Anyway now that's over have a great weekend everyone! Maybe if I write an early letter to Santa he might grant my wish early!!!! (tree) ;-) :p (snowman) (robin)

Hey Doodles. The right job is just around the corner. You'll see...
You have a great weekend too.

Thanks 404 I hope so. I'll keep my fingers crossed for us and everybody job hunting here (up)

At times I thoroughly hated my PhD. Especially at the end, I loathed it. I was glad to see it go. (Perhaps this is how parents feel about their teenagers leaving home?! :P) I loathed having shared living accomodation. It was hard for me to believe adults still believed in the Rubbish Fairy that would show up and take out their rubbish for them, rather than them doing it themselves. Yet for all that most of the time, flatmates respected each other's property--there was no stealing until one person moved in and began swiping food, having friends over who swiped her food...but one day the person's family caught her with a boy in her room and packed her out and home as this was against her culture....

I wonder how much relevance academic research has for anyone outside of academia ( at least science is making some kind of relevant contribution to the world but I have to wonder at the vaue of my own research--aside from some "value" it has to advance an academic career, is it worth anything to anyone? And yet this research is given more importance in academia than the real work of universities which is teaching....*shakes head* *sighs*)

Good initiative Ev. I agree, let's contain our moaning here so we don't pollute the good posts. They're doing good by the way, and I'm happy for them.

Now for the moan....more than moan actually....i feel angry looking at the online profiles of some my ex-colleagues in the corporate world. They were slackers on the job (literally watching ball games at work all day), and I see them now with fancy titles. I just feel sad, angry, confused, I don't know really, just a surge of negative emotions. I know I should be happy for them....I also know 100% that I am not entitled to a fancy job just because I have a PhD. That's life, I guess. It's just hard...if you know what I mean.

I just feel so negative about the situation....jobs in academia are hard to get by, and even jobs outside academia are hard to get by. I can't point at it exactly, but something seems amiss. It's like...what have I done with my life? I regret that I did not research what it really means to be a phd, I overestimated my chances of going back to the "real world" (as if the challenges of the phd are not "real"). And overestimated the chances of getting an academic job, because my sup said doors will open for you at Ivy league 1, ivy league 2. And I, the sucker, bit the dust.

I enjoyed some parts of my phd genuinely, by the way. But you give way too much and get too little for it. Too much energy, too little satisfaction (I'm speaking for myself here).

People say I should be grateful for the things I have now. I try to do it and it helps. There are just days that I can't see anything else than the downside of this phd thing.

Thanks for listening/reading people...

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I've something to add to this thread! I'm applying for a temporary academic job and they want a high quality undergraduate degree with a PhD amongst other things. I didn't get a great undergrad degree (2:2) but then I did a Masters and a PhD. For my Masters degree I would have got the equivalent of a 2:1 but they only graded it Pass (50-69) and Distinction (70+) so it still appears a Pass. I'm terrible at exams so don't have great grades but I enjoy what I do and want to continue doing more research. My PhD was a disaster so to speak as I had so many problems but I survived which is no mean feat. But at the end of the day I seem to be held back by my mediocre grades which I do not like to mention. What really annoys me is that some places want your school grades as if they matter! Surely you are not the same person as you as you were when you were at school or even undergrad so why should they take them into account? Is it not enough I survived my PhD almost intact and not running away screaming as many have told me have quit if they were in my position? But as I don't have a spectacular academic record is this going to be held against me?

Does anyone else have a similar experience and what did they do to overcome it?

P.S. I don't mean to offend anyone with a 2:2 by saying it's awful but in the academic pecking order it's average. This is not helped by the fact that I have average school grades better at some things than others so when a uni wants them as well I start to worry as it just makes me look worse! I just thought having a PhD would override your previous results and make you more credible but I guess you can't hide average marks. I guess it's a confidence thing which I don't have so I feel unmasked when they have my marks in front of them! They might even wonder how I got PhD! I know I'm probably worrying too much over these details but I can't help it especially as competition is so tough out there so I don't have anything that makes me stand out and go PICK ME!