I respectfully disagree.

Yes we can regret spending the money, spend the 3 years (or longer), and the stress. That's fine to regret that.

I still maintain, however, that personal and professional skills will never be taken away from you post-PhD. It's not a case of polishing a turd, if you'll excuse the expression. I just can't envisage ever seeing my PhD skills/experience as a negative thing.

Sure, if I end up working in retail where not even a Bachelors is required, I'd think "why on earth did I bother?", but I'd still be subconsciously using the skills I'd picked up along the way.

Intellectually, the PhD might never be useful again, but a PhD is so much more than that.

Thanks for the replies all.

My plan in the next year is publish, publish, publish.

I have one book chapter already out, two journal articles under review, and some minor publications in press.

However, the only thing missing from my CV now is the Dr (soon!) and publications.

I'm thinking PT, relevant teaching + publications during the next academic year = fighting chance for an academic post next time round.

Hi all,

Finishing PhD imminently, and I may be in the situation whereby I need to chose between HE teaching as an AT (£500 a month), or a full time admin job at a university (£1500 a month). One interview done (went VERY well), and other interview coming up.

I'm lucky that finances aren't a huge issue due to my partner's salary, so I can afford to live on either.

I want to go into academia eventually, and have a PGCTHE/FHEA status with 4 years worth of teaching experience behind me. If offered either of the jobs above, which would you go for in terms of adding to the CV?

Head tells me teaching to get even more experience and publish in my spare time, but heart tells me an extra £1,000 a month would be nice to feel more worthy in the post-PhD year.

I would simply scan a blank map of Europe from a book, reference it properly, and then add arrows in MS Word or other software.

In my experience, you would be very unlikely to be accepted straight on to a PhD with a 2:1.

At my university, which currently has around 60 PhD students (including me) on 3 year scholarships, the recipients of aforementioned scholarships are either exceptional first class undergrad students, or have Masters degrees.

I got a 2:1, but then went on to do a funded MA and received a distinction in that.

Please do consider doing an MA in between. Not only are MA scholarships easier to come by (comparatively), but the experience of being a research student is invaluable when it comes to doing a PhD. I've never been comfortable with the direct undergraduate to PhD system.

In teaching (schools), jobs usually come up to coincide with the start of a new term. In other words, to start in September, January or April.

What is the situation in academia? There's around 10 jobs in my field being advertised at the moment, with a view (presumably) to commencing in time for the 2015/16 academic year.

My query is - do posts come up year round? Do the same restrictions apply to universities as to teaching in schools, whereby you can only leave at the end of a term/half-term?

With me completing my PhD hopefully by September/October, is there hope that posts may come up in December/January, and I won't have to wait til July 2016 before I apply for some?

I'm in Humanities if it helps!

I'm in an incredibly lucky situation whereby my partner's income is enough to run our bought house, so while employment is still highly sought, it would not be financially disastrous if it didn't happen immediately.

Doesn't stop the guilt though of not earning!

Thanks for all of your helpful replies!

Ian (Mackem_Beefy), I find your post really intriguing because it resonates strongly with me.

The PhD has nearly broken me. I posted on here a while back that I was in a constant state of worry, anxiety and am generally burnt out. Yes my CV looks great, but it's come at a cost.

The notion of a quiet two years or so is very interesting. I *do* feel like I need to find myself again. I'm still me, but with some scratches and bruises which weren't there 3 years ago.

It's a constant battle in my mind. On side 1 is the voice saying "you've got a PhD and a teaching qualification, so you should be working in academia now. If you aren't, you've failed". On side 2, and we'll call this guy Mr. Rational(!), the voice is saying "take some time out! You're not even 30 yet, and you've been in education for over a decade on and off. Get a job you enjoy which pays enough to keep you happy, keep researching in the background and building your profile up, and each time a job comes up, go for it. One day, you'll get one".

The key question is - how do you make Side 2 triumph over Side 1?!

Just about to complete my PhD (viva within the next 2 months), and it strikes me that for the first time in my life, I won't be doing anything during the next academic year that is education related.

Academia is where I want to be, but I've missed the boat for 2015/16 positions, given that I was still PhD pending when I submitted job applications. I will keep looking for jobs throughout the 2015/16 academic year, and am hopeful that something will come up for 2016/17, but in the meantime, there is this strange year where I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.

The first thing I will definitely do is continue to build up my research profile. I already have a HE teaching qualification (and Fellow of HEA status), and one publication, along with a dozen or more international conference appearances and two significant fellowships, but this still wasn't enough to get me anything this time round due to the Mr before my name instead of Dr.

So - what would you suggest in terms of jobs? Would you be tempted to get ANYTHING, just to get earning some money?

I'm in the Humanities so post-docs are incredibly competitive and rare. Any Humanities folks, or anyone else for that matter, have any idea what their immediate post-doctoral plans are?

I was told all along that it might take 3-5 years to get my first post, but now that 3-5 years is arriving, it feels a bit weird. I want to make sure I'm still moving forward, and not going sideways or backwards.

Printed. Binding tomorrow, and submitting tomorrow.

Yes there's bits which are slightly weaker than others, but I hope there are some strong parts too.

I had to draw a line under it eventually, and tomorrow is when this happens.

Nervous, anxious, excited, climactic, anti-climactic... not sure how to feel. Life goes on as usual until the viva I guess.

I teach in my department, and I've got some conference/journal papers to sort out, so it won't be a drastic change of lifestyle. Onwards and upwards.