Hi Inhalt.

Give it time - people don't always check the forums every day!

To be honest, though, I don't know if you'll get an answer here. It's a bit of a specific question given that most of the questions here are more about courses and research than Graduate training schemes.

Have you contacted the companies to ask for more details, to get a better feel for what the roles involve?

Journal articles will usually be finished work; conference proceedings may be work in progress. If the work is complete it may be better to send straight to a journal.

Every journal and conference will state their specific guidelines for preparing a manuscript (length, format etc). I suggest you consult those in the first instance.

Regarding meetings with your supervisor, have you considered making a plan of what you want to say beforehand? A bullet pointed list somewhere in eyesight may keep you focused.

Many unis run key skills courses for postgrads, including oral communication skills. Take advantage of whatever training options are available to you.

Don't think that people who are good at presenting just have some natural talent. A lot comes from practice. So take as many opportunities as you can. Start with friendly ones (e.g. informal postgrad journal clubs) and work up. Find a fellow student you can trust to give you constructive criticism who can highlight specific things you can work on.

Your accent is probably nowhere near as big a deal as you think it is, so don't get hung up on that.

Be gentle with yourself. The first few months of a PhD can be intense with regard to new ideas and experiences, so acknowledge that if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed!

Well you should highlight the skills (including the skills you developed in your PhD) anyway.

As you haven't yet completed your PhD this is a slightly different query to usual when people ask about omitting such things from their CV. One thing you could consider is describing yourself as a 'Postgraduate Researcher'. That's what I do for the period on my CV which relates to a PhD I left halfway through. I am reluctant to use the term 'Research Assistant' as that is a salaried position which I did not have, so I think that would be misleading.

Have you already applied for this conference?

If not, you shouldn't apply unless you know at least one of the coauthors can make it to do the presentation. Otherwise you take up a slot that someone else could have had, and it messes the organisers around. They might not look favourably on future applications from you or the coauthors to the conference.

Conference proceedings are a nice boost to the CV but if you're going to pursue that outlet you need to do it properly. Getting an abstract into proceedings is only half the benefit - the main purpose of conferences is to bring researchers face to face to interact about their work.

Ask other members of your research group which conferences they have been to in the past and would recommend. They are likely to be more reliable conferences which will attract university approval.

In theory the idea of doing a PhD part time while having a lab manager job doesn’t sound like a bad arrangement. However, this:

What are your long term goals? As Smoobles says, a PhD in a topic not totally focussed on your main interest can still be a means to an ends. You might want to consider, however, that if there is a lack of funding at the PhD level in Forensic Biology might not bode well for further up the career ladder, and you might just have to accept this is a poorly funded field with finite job opportunities. So a highly relevant PhD might increase your chances of getting a post doc in that field, but only if post docs are available.

On one hand, consider that the actual topic may not really matter for most of your day to day work. Forensic biology or medical genetics - either way you might spend the bulk of your time running PCRs. On the other hand, some interest in your topic may be beneficial as far as motivation goes, particularly if/when the project hits difficulties.

At the end of the day you want to make the application reviewer's job easy. So in your cover letter don't simply duplicate stuff they can see elsewhere on your CV. Do, however, use it to highlight stuff that might get missed, is particularly relevant to the post, or enhances what is on your CV by giving additional details that you can't find a home for elsewhere.

e.g. "My degree in [X] makes me a suitable candidate for this post" strikes me as a bit redundant, while "Researching topic [Y] for my degree in [X] gave me an insight into [Z] which would enhance my ability to carry out this role." may be more useful

Is there a personal statement type section in the job application? If so, then I'd reckon no more than one page for a covering letter. If not, two tops, but make sure anything mega important is in the first couple of paragraphs.

It *is* hard work making new friends. I moved to a city where I knew no-one for my PhD. Two things helped - one was that I ended up with a nice flatmate, and the other was that I started at the same time as another PhD student who was also new to the city, so we kind of clung on to each other. But it was a good 18 months before I felt I had a cohesive social circle. Another friend who uprooted herself to the other end of the country for a relationship said it took a similar amount of time.

All I would say is keep trying with the activities. I tried a few before I found ones that became sources of friends rather than simply ways to pass time. Not all activities are conducive to fostering friendships e.g. a dance class or a walking club is more likely to yield friendships than going to the gym. Also, be brave and do the inviting rather than waiting to be invited (if indeed you're not doing it already). If someone says no to coffee, then don't take it personally - they might genuinely be busy. Just keep plugging away with a variety of activities and people. Things can change quite quickly when you click with the right friend(s).

Also, try to find healthy ways of enjoying alone time. Even with good friends, there will be times when you have to be by yourself, and the PhD process is kind of isolating, so you have to be at peace with your own company. Try to actively use and enjoy the times when you are by yourself, rather than hiding in a pile of work. Personally I actually prefer going to the cinema and galleries etc by myself, and saving other activities for social interaction!

A lot of unis have training sessions or workshops on academic writing - perhaps yours does too. It's a shame the essay writing person wasn't more helpful, but as you say perhaps they were more used to dealing with undergrads. What about your peers in your department? Are there any you trust to give you constructive feedback?

There are a lot of resources that might help give you pointers in the right direction. Try Academic Phrasebank (URL at the end of this message) for some suggested sentence snippets. Also check out the Thesis Whisperer blog for general posts about PhD issues. And if you use Twitter, the #AcWri hashtag is used by people to discuss academic writing issues.

An interruption in studies sounds like a good idea. It's not in anyone's interests for you to quit the PhD at this stage, so taking a break from it and returning refreshed sounds like a good way to go.

One other thing to consider - this might just be down to the personal preferences of your supervisors. It may be that your writing is fine, but just not to their tastes. I think you need to seek a variety of sources of constructive feedback.

I've not go to this stage yet, but I'd say that it's the student's responsibility to make sure their work is edited to a standard that the supervisor can focus on the content. The supervisor may then make editing suggestions, but shouldn't have to carry out basic level stuff.

It does depend slightly on the dynamics of the individual student-supervisor relationship, so I'm a little perplexed that the training person seemed to suggest there was a single approach.