I guess you've probably tried jobs.ac.uk but as it wasn't mentioned in your post and the replies I just thought I would mention it just in case. A couple of my friends found their post-docs using the site.

Best of luck with your viva and with finding a job in research!

Hi I was just wondering if some of you have published or plan to publish before you submit the thesis? If so how did/do you go about it? Do you write your chapters first and then write another shorter version for a paper based on the chapter or do you write the papers first and then extend them into chapters? Or do most people publish after they've submitted the thesis?

At the start of my PhD my supervisor talked about how it'd be good to publish before I finish the PhD, but I'm in my 4th year now and there's still no plan of it actually happening. I am not sure if I should try to publish or just focus on getting the thesis done and submit it. I guess it depends on how much time I'd need to produce the papers?

Can you print and give out handouts with your pretty graphs in?

Oh dear my last post was so long that i think it must have exceeded the word limit as the last bit got cut off when published. ANyway here's the list of reasons why i'm doing a PhD:

1) I'm interested in my research topic - i would say this is probably the most important thing?
2) flexible working hours, and i can take whatever days off for holiday if i want (within reason of cos)
3) autonomy - essentially I'm my own boss (tho admittedly i'm not so great at that...)
4) I like the idea of research - people talking about ideas, trying to find answer to questions or coming up with new views/perspectives that other people haven't considered before
5) I enjoy making sense out of things, as in finding out "what does it all mean?" when doing lit review and analysing my data etc

I don't mind the title Dr but it's not why I'm doing a PhD. For all I know there could be another me in a parallel universe happily being a freelance investigative journalist (a job that also comes with the pros listed above?), without the title Dr (or prospect of getting it).

Also no i never wished I was a medical doctor, if I did I'd have studied medicine instead...

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Lostinoz I agree with Nadia may be you need a break. Or at least some time to yourself to reflect on things and look at the big picture? I'm also sure you parents won't commit suicide if you quit. There are a million other things much much worse than quitting a PhD! Also if you do make up your mind that you don't want a PhD and quit now it doesn't make you a "failed" PhD student, just one that quit because you found that it's not for you. Everyday there are people who switch to another career path, you can't say a lawyer that decided to retrain as a plumber is a failed lawyer? Just a former lawyer that decided he/she would rather do something else with their life? Really even if you feel like a "failed" student when you leave, you'll soon get over it. In 5 or 10 years time you will look back and wonder why it was ever such a massive massive deal to you. This comes from my own experience. Before I started the PhD (and the MRes that I had to do as a condition of the funding) I once embarked on another MSc course in a fairly different subject (within the same board discipline I"m in now but the area was vastly different from my current research area. And it was a taught course, not a research course). I started that with the wrong reasons and ended up really, really hating it after a few months. It made me more depressed than I'd ever been and in the end I decided to quit and did something else with my life. But the decision wasn't easy. I felt like I should finish it for the sake of it, and feared I'd feel like a failed person for the rest of my life. But in the end I decided that I really didn't want to do that MSc so I did quit. And then life came back to me. Within a year I found that what I wanted to do was research, and with my now supervisor's help I found a topic that I found really interesting. And the rest is history. Now that I'm (reasonably) content with my life (or as content as you can be as a PhD student!), I looked back to that MSc-quitting episode as just an incident where I discovered more about myself, and learned that in the future I shall never make decision based only on the basis that it looks right on paper/objectively, but instead should follow my own interests. Before I made the decision to quit that MSc course I feared I'd be seen as a failed person by myself and others, but once I quit I just felt liberated. You can't control how others see you, but in my experience no one single person has said anything about failing when I told them about this "incident" in my life. May be some were just polite to say it, but honestly I can't care less. Because I'm happy (enough) now. I guess in a way it's probably like people getting a divorce. Getting a divorce is a lot better than sticking to someone that's not right for you, and it frees you to have a different life and meet someone else.

Sorry for the lengthy paragraph. But i feel that you probably really need to think about/write down the pros and cons and decide if you really want the PhD or not. Like when you read papers (or at least title and abstract) in your area do you get excited and want to find out more? etc And then see if you think the pros are good/plenty enough to worth the cons? If you do decide to do the PhD good luck with it but if not I'm sure your life won't be ruined just because you started but did not finish a PhD!

Thanks for everyone's help! Most helpful!

PS A116: glad you found this useful too!

I don't think I have any experience of people thinking I'm freakishly clever when I tell them I'm doing a PhD. I have had people commenting "OMG you're till at uni?" though... I feel like I'm missing out! My ego could do with some massaging ;-)

I have to agree that it doesn't necessarily take amazing intelligence to do a PhD (although it won't hurt!). There are lots of really clever people in say journalism, businesses, politics, medicine etc. Lots of other professions also require intelligence, perseverance, good writing/communication skills, problem-solving skills etc. I think the motivation behind academic/research work is one of the major things that make it very different to other professions. Some people are interested in making money, some in winning cases at the court, some in entertaining other people etc whereas academics are about contributing to the world of knowledge. Oh that sounds so grand doesn't it? ;-)

Sorry to hear about your experience. I agree with Walminskipeas that ultimately you'll have to decide if you want this or not. There are lots and lots of downsides to life as a PhD student and it really depends on if you like the upsides enough to stick it out. The upsides may be that you have a genuine and deep interest in your research area, enjoy the intellectual challenge of finding answers to questions that no one have found before, meeting other like-minded people, working independently etc etc, as well as having the title of PhD and a possible career path opened for you at the end of it. For me these are the things that kept me going and I suspect others who are doing/have finished their PhD as well.

Now I don't know it for sure but I won't be surprised if most supervisors haven't had any training on how to supervisor people. The quality of supervision varies a lot and it also depends on your personalities etc. Now I may not be the best person to give advice on this seeing as my supervision could be a lot better but over time I have come to learn that you as the student have the responsibility to manage your supervisors (not that I've mastered this myself - far from it...) in a way that works for you - it's YOUR PhD and your supervisors are essentially there to give you professional advice (like comments on drafts) to help you get it.

If you do decide that a PhD is what you want I wouldn't be too worried about having mentioned quitting to them. I'm sure you weren't the first and you won't be the last to have considered/mentioned quitting to their supervisors. At the end of the day it's the quality of your work, not whether you considered/mentioned quitting that will be judged when it comes to your viva/submitting papers/getting a research job after the PhD. So try not to lose sight of the big picture.

Good luck!

Thank you! Does it also mean if I get x.xxE2 I should report it as x.xx X 10^2?

Thank you! Does it also mean if I get x.xxE2 I should report it as x.xx X 10^2?

Sorry have to ask this technical question as it's been bugging me for a bit and the supervisor is no help and couldn't find anything on the internet and friends i asked couldn't help either...

So, some of my F and Chi-square values are something like "3.400E1" in the SPSS output. What is this and how do I report it? Surely it's different to just 3.40, but i don't remember ever seeing "E1" numbers in papers? Confused.

Anyone got a clue?

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======= Date Modified 17 Nov 2009 17:42:15 =======
Glad to know you're feeling better!

Sorry to hear about this! Like the others have said already this whole PhD thing can be difficult to explain to people outside academia. I"m sure she didn't mean to sound unsupportive. I guess she's just taken aback by it because she'd like to see you becoming a Dr soon and get your life back etc. If you put yourself in her shoes she could probably see where she's coming from.

And the thing about suspecting your parents regret having you is DEFINITELY extreme but I'd confess that I've had that thought too sometimes! :$ I certainly can be a bit oversensitive to people's comments sometimes, which I very well know myself and try my best not to let it get the better of me. Like for example when my boyfriend's mom asks me when I'm finishing (which happens every time I see her...), on a bad day I'd interpret it as her saying "how come you're still not finished" and be upset by it when she (probably) doesn't mean it that way at all and just tries to show some interest in my life/work. Then again I've also had some people commenting "what! you're still studying?" in a somewhat derogatory way when they found out I'm doing a PhD, as if the only reason I'm doing it is because I don't want to face the real world and would rather hide in university... Just have to ignore these people.

I can also relate to the thing about relying on them financially. At the moment I'm still financially independent (only just!) but the other day my dad asked if I need money to live on and that made me feel sad and a little guilty that they have to worry about me having no money. But then again if you look at the positive side that just goes to show how much they love us and are prepared to help us financially so we can do what we want to do (the PhD).

It's good to get it off your chest! Hope we managed to lift you up!
;-)

Wow thanks for the link!

I think it's good for her that she had a good experience and never regretted it. I won't ever consider prostitution myself though so will jsut have to stay being skint haha.