My Masters supervisor always signs his emails as "Professor [Name]", but I always call him by his first name :s

It's a tough call - I always go by your supervisor first uses an exclamation mark in their emails, THEN I can use their first name! Other than that, if you know them well, and they're not stuck up, go for it. Even the most stuck up academics I've known (well, maybe except for one, but I didn't know him all that well, and he was detested by ALL) don't mind being called by their first name by someone they know reasonably well, student or not.

lol!! What a great thread XD

Noo - there's plenty of scope to change. It's the skills you're obtaining which are more important than the study area.

What field are you in for your PhD, and what are you thinking of moving into? Obviously, going from neuroscience to tourism would be a huge change, and might be difficult. Neuroscience to another medical discipline, or microbiology for instance may be perfectly within your scope.

OK - that does provide some comfort. I've seen some of my friends almost easily obtain jobs within their fields after finishing the masters, and it's depressing not only very rarely finding anything, but also not getting anywhere when you do. I guess going for anything and keeping in mind those key skills such as time management etc. is the way forward 8)
Cheers!

Ok guys, I know there's another topic about taking a year out before doing a PhD, but I thought here I could be more focussed on this particular problem. I finished my MSc in Oct, and haven't had a job since. I'm applying for PhDs, so I'm not even guaranteed one of those come sept/oct (far from it!).

I'm just wondering what kind of work you guys did (if you did) in the interim between a previous course and a PhD. I've applied for a few things in my field (marine biology/fisheries), but haven't really had any success whatsoever. I don't even know where to look for jobs - jobs.co.uk, reed etc never have anything that seems suitable. I'm feeling that without getting experience in my field, I'm just going to be working -against- a goal of a PhD...

OK over the years I've heard a lot about people getting chucked out of their accomodation because the landlord is selling up. Now I'm probably wrong, but surely there must be some kind of protection for tenants in these cases. Particularly if you have a formal contract for a certain period of time. Maybe you don't have that, but still, as everyone [should] know, tenants have rights too!

Sorry to hear about your situation though. I sincerely hope you get a wave of good fortune, or you can pull yourself out of this rut - look at it this way, though - by tomorrow you'll have sorted out at least one of those problems.

Is this the first presentation you've ever done, or something? O_o

Maybe I've just been very lucky, but I've been doing presentations since high school. I still hate them >_>

I don't think I have any of my old presentations still around, so I can't tell you a decent amount of words to put in. But it's really not about the number of words - you might be able to do a very good presentation with few words, or it might need a lot.

Best thing to do is to write down your speech, and then talk throught it. DONT rush the talk at all - in fact try and speak more slowly than usual. Once you know how long your speech takes, you'll know whether to cut it down or fill it up some more.

Well, exactly, Matthew. This is just a ridiculously puerile attitude! If you have an idea of something else to do, or a different way of doing it, the supervisor should discuss it with you, and explain to you why it's not such a good idea. If you're still convinced it'll work, they should let you do it - if it doesn't work out, they should be there to get you back on track.

There's obviously limits, and they should tell you (nicely!) if you're just being an idiot, but you're still learning, you may be passionate and thoughtful about your subject, and may just be over-imaginatvie. Nothing wrong with that at this stage.

Adem, true - but a lot of people here are quick to say that the academic community is pretty well-knit, and I'd be worried doing something like that will instantly give you a bad name :s Is that not a problem?

Ann - There is that, but I'm also concerned it looks as though I can't be bothered to go and get them myself :s

Wow, Tricky, I certainly never even considered that. Thanks a lot, I'll get on that right away ^_^

Ok, whenever I see a decent PhD advertised, I always try and get in touch with the supervisor - as we all know, that way the supervisor knows who you are, and it can only stand you in good stead when they're browsing through all those applications. Most of the time, there is some question that I can ask.

However, I've just found a PhD which I'd be so interested in doing (it's pretty much my topic of interest at the moment, and I based my Masters thesis on the same subject), but the advert has pretty much every thing I could want on it - the different aspects of the PhD, the reasons for doing it, suggested reading... everything! So how can I get in touch with this guy - wouldn't an email saying how much I'm interested in the topic etc just be a bit lame?

Wow, Huntie, they really do that? From the way you worded that, I'm guessing you got that PhD, too. If all else fails, I'll give that a go.

Problem is, you're still not guaranteed to get that one, however much effort you put into the application/interview.
Best bet is certainly to apply for many, even at the same institution! At the very least, it shows that you're committed to doing a PhD (although if you apply for two at the same institution, it's best that they are pretty similar subjects).
Apply to everything you think is interesting, and will give you good skills - the more you apply to, the greater the chance of getting one.

JA: Hmm, I didn't realise that was possible. I'll look into doing that, because that seems the best way of staying in touch with the scientific world without getting my mates to do it all for me!

Tricky: That too is a good idea. I suppose when lists of papers are given it's easy to get someone to get them for you. If they haven't, though, it'll be a case of researching myself, for which I'll have to try JA's idea.

BurgerKing: Both uni's ive been to have had automated access to Athens, so I didn't really think along those lines. That's a possibility, too.

Well, I guess I'd better go hassle some friends into giving me their account info! Thanks a lot, guys ^_^