Thank you Sassy, I'm honoured and flattered.

Yes, good luck BadHaircut.

And in my opinion it's a shame that PhD graduates even have to enter a temp agency after so many years of study and after being ususally the best of class (first class, distinctions) in previous degrees.

~Something's wrong with the system

Apart from that, I'm not that snobbish to think that low-paid jobs are all crap. As I mentioned above I have been working in McDonalds for a substantial period myself.

However, there is a time in everybody's life where you got to fight for your rights and get what you deserve instead of selling yourself short or aiming for the minimum, if you get what I mean.

P.S.: Otto is a very rude person, so please don't be offended and take it as an excuse to ignore what I'm actually trying to say.

who cares?

Maybe my response was a bit harsh, but it's true that he should be proud of his achievement and not care what other people in a bloody temp agency think about a PhD. It's the highest academic degree in the UK and it is definitely somehting to be VERY proud of, in particular given the obstacles we are all facing in obtaining this degree.

Concerning the 'note-taking', maybe I wasn't clear on this, it's not a crap job per se, but it's a crap job if you have a PhD and want to be a lecturer, isn't it. Short-term, maybe, but not longer than for a month, otherwise your future employers won't be very happy if you put it on your CV.

To summarise, what I'm saying is that he should be self-confident and not care about some recruiters who might not even know how to spell PhD!

Add-on: you usually don't "wait for a job". You go out, pro-actively, apply to 50 universities if necessary and if it doesn't work you apply to another 50. That's the way I got all my jobs in the past and it was always worth the efforts and more effective than waiting for miracles or for a phonecall from Sir Alan Sugar who offers you 100k

Okay, I admit my response was a bit

Nevertheless, there are better jobs than note-taking, for example McDonalds (where I have worked myself). Plus, they ususally give you the option to work behind the till straight away if you have a degree, so you don't have to start assembling the burgers in the background.

Still, it might be a bad idea to take administrative jobs in the university, when the real thing you want to do (and are trained to do) is to be a lecturer. Think about it.

wrong attitude - big time, Sassy.

"Don't list all academic qualifications", that's crap. He should be proud of his achievements and not hide it.

And what is all this stuff about 'note-taking' all about? That's a crap job. He should rather try to get a lecturership or Postdoc instead of going for the small fish. It's not easy to get a good job, but with patience and strong will everything is possible!

Congratulations! That's excellent news.

these moments make it all worth the efforts

If they don't give you the respect you got to claim it!

Be self-confident, you got a doctorate, so don't let some arrogant, bloody secretary with a certificate in type-writing look down on you.

There are jobs outside of London en masse and we know that there are teaching universities out there en masse. So maybe you could consider applying to one of those (for a lecturer job) instead of complaining about the failure to be successful in post doc positions.

You did a PhD so maybe you just deserve a break from it all to get a clear view on what you want in life. Blind actionism wont help you but if you think carefully you can now make a major career move.

It all depends on committments such as relationsships, and factors such as general flexibility but there are loads of opportunities inside of academia (if you look a bit around and are flexible).

Don't let that affect you. You did it, you are successful, intelligent and motivated. You can call yourself Dr Badhaircut.

Other people are just jealous as they would never get that far!

hmm, that sounds even more confusing. So you would have only one list in total, but the majority of items listed are not part of your actual references but things you have read sometime? Quite frankly, I've never heard of something like this. Usually people have either one reference list or one reference list and an additional bibliography.

On the other hand, on the wider scale of things, these issues are rather minor and will probably not affect the outcome of the viva (I would hope).

I really know this sort of crap out the top of my head as I "enjoyed" a humanistic school education including latin and greek lessons (the old greek, though).

However, Troy is as Greek as Joe or Brad Pitt is a Greek name. Hellen is actually Helena, again this is just the English translation. I better shut up now.

For more superficial information, please consult wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy

My university is crap in this, too. Often the courses are run by people who have no clue (and no PhD) but a lot of free time, have no value as they are to general and generic and sometimes (like in your case, apparently) they even give out wrong information.

I found courses run by my own faculty much more relevant and useful.

I assume the "how to write a thesis" course was actually conducted by someone who did not have a PhD? Or was it a generic course for BSc, MA and PhD level?

Usually people only have references and Bibliography if they write an essay at Masters level. At PhD level, this is unlikely to be required as the purpose of this would be close to zero. You would have 300 references in your references and maybe another 1000 in your bibliography, accumulated over three years. That wouldn't make much sense.