======= Date Modified 04 Jan 2009 13:59:27 =======
I agree with misspacey to an extent...I am a UK student, did a Masters to bolster a very succesful BA so I could go into research e.g working for a think tank or some such in an area that required more specialist knowledge than at BA...I did manage to get a research job in that particular area of studies, and without my MA i don't think it would have been possible...

it turned out, that research job led me to my current PhD which I am enjoying very much and I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else

So yes, "what type of person" i'd say an unemployed one indeed (although i also worked during my MA but not in a job i enjoyed), who either has designs to start a PhD or research in a particular area. Essentially, an MA is by no means a bad thing, but depending on what you wish to get out of it in terms of area you want to work in etc, it adds varying amounts of value to your professional credentials for employment

How can one get evicted from a PhD?

hm...it crossed my mind fleetingly too actually...but am trying to ignore it as it could make things rather :$

======= Date Modified 30 Dec 2008 17:05:25 =======
I don't have experience of the Nano extension, but i thought i'd just mention transcription software....

I don't know if you plan to transcribe interviews or something, but if you do, don't be tempted to spend extra on voice recorders that come with transcription software... steer well clear because it doesn't work! (though if you have money to burn, the gibberish it comes out with can be quite entertaining....):p

Wj_gibson, did you network and make a lot of contacts during your PhD/Research project?

I've just started an IR PhD, this doesn't sound good at all....

thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

I will (continue) to act professional and keep all conversations work-related, my behaviour so far I really don't think could be interpreted as flirting by even the most paranoid/hopeful of people- but yes, she probably does need time to work all this out for herself. If not i'll put plan B into action and conjur up the phantom gf:D

The weird thing is, she seems pretty liberal and has more gay friends/colleagues than me! and after reading a report by her (can't say for whom for fear of being recognised ) -seems rather pro-gay rights!:p:p

Hi all, hope everyone had a lovely festive break....

My question is basically about a sensitive issue which im not really sure how to explain without sounding as if I am in secondary school, but here goes:

I (female in early 20s) started my PhD back in late Sept, and I had instant intellectual connection with my supervisor (also female, senior lecturer early 40s i.e old enough to be my mum). Now I want to stress the "intellectual" part of that, as I DO NOT fancy her. However, since we have such a good chemistry for conversation, we have ended up talking for hours etc, and she has said that she has never done that with a student of hers before. I also know from others that she is very curt with them.

All of this is great, except for one thing - there seems to an underlying awkwardness/tension ever since she found out I was gay. This happened about a month ago, and since then, she seems to feel the need to mention her boyfriend and stress that its a guy, and in group meetings (research group) she has slipped in things like "oh my boyfriend doesn't have that computer programme so couldn't open the file" or "I dont drive but my boyfriend does" at times when it hadn't been relevant to the discussion, whilst looking directly at me when saying the word "boyfriend'. She has also started i feel, distancing herself, as we don't really have the long conversations we did before, and when we actually did talk for an extended period (in the evening, till about 9pm) her boyfriend called a couple of times towards the end and she made sure to say "its important its my boyfriend".

This all may sound innocuous to others, but yes, there is an akwardness that i feel is kind of becoming detrimental to our ability to communicate well like before.

I was thinking of just bringing it up and saying something like i respect you as an academic and enjoy our conversations, but that I don't feel anything romantic for her. Would this be a terrible idea? Or would it be best to just ignore it and continue with the awkwardness?

Hi all,

New to the forum, and a few months into my PhD so relatively new to that as well.

I'm just wondering about an abstract for a conference I submitted - I didn't get a confirmation of receipt and it had been a couple of weeks, so I emailed to confirm they had got the email and the attachment. So i got response from one of the selectors, saying sorry etc for forgetting to confirm, and that it looked very interesting and they will let me know in a couple of weeks.

Since this is my first submission, i'm just wondering if the whole "it looks very interesting' is basically a standard response for all submissions, or if this is actually a positive thing?