Well done Lemonjuice! Fantastic result and always so good to hear of people getting through and achieving success despite difficulties. Hope some party type celebrating is on the horizon for you. Best of luck also with new stage of life :)

Hi, I thought I would attach a link I discovered (while looking for something else) that might be of interest. It is pretty neutral about completing a doctorate, and has been written by someone who has and is working in academia. It isn't for or against but it does present a different perspective. I am glad that both ToL and Fled put up alternative perspectives as well. I like to think I am both practical and passionate, but I think in the end for me practicality outweighs the passion, so while I don't think I would leave a job right now for a doctorate, it doesn't mean it isn't right for others to do so. Anyway here is the link:

I'd write a cover note or clause regarding the lack of transcript and the reasons why, when you put all your documents together. You would be including a copy of the actual award, and have masses of other documents and achievements to include. I think a majority of the people assessing will look at your application holistically, as you yourself would do. Good luck with it all btw as well.

And my current peeve-my library (or at least the educational section in my library)-it never seems to have the books I want. I can always get journal articles from a range of online sites but whenever I see a seminal book, either in methods, topic or a related strand of thought, that explores the topic fully andI really just want to look at it, even if it is just to check that I really don't need to worry about having missed something, do you think the library will have it-no?

Yes I can order it from a mainland academic library that does have it but it usually takes a while as I live in a regional area on a large island and everything takes 'a while'. Sometimes when I have nothing better to do, or actually when I almost always have things better to do, but I am choosing not to do them, I rant about this to others but nothing much changes. And TreeofLife and Huntanthem-very amusing.

Hi there, firstly my PhD and employment is in education and not science, so my support will only be of a very general kind. I am mainly a qualitative researcher, with some mixed methods, of a very basic kind involving descriptive statistics and simple quantitative data gathering. (Saying this so it doesn't raise any high expectations about the kind of support or advice I might offer-which is mainly of a feeling and process type).

Having said this...

1 innate beliefs we hold about our ability can be very powerful and they can work in both ways-to motivate us and as significant demotivaters. Don't buy into the 'deserve or not deserve' phd myth that bugs many of us. It is just a vague and unhelpful sort of shadowland thought. Go on the evidence. You are in your 3rd year of a PhD and 'deserve or not deserve' is irrelevant. You are doing it. So when these shadowy negative thoughts come up, say to yourself 'that is just one of those shadowy negative thoughts $55! off thought!)' and ignore it or put it to one side while you focus on the 'facts' that you are doing a PhD and have survived almost three years of one-so clearly you must be doing something right and you have a right to be where you are.

2 Can you take your long list of vague tasks to your supervisor or someone else (who you trust and are not in direct competition with) and get some support about which ones will be helpful to you? If not, do what PhD students do best and research...look for books and materials (online) written to support people such as yourself in science phds. There will be masses of stuff out there.

3 There seems to be at least one point towards the middle or beginning of the last stage of the PhD where it becomes once again really confusing. You are fighting your way through this forest of data and have no idea what the hell is relevant and what isn't. Don't lose heart, this stage passes after a bit and somehow, some of those trees and some of that foliage becomes recognisable and before you know you are naming and collecting bits of it for your final thesis basket. Perhaps the chaos is where some of the fertile thinking is born-not sure but keep moving as you will start to make sense of things again.

I think that there will be many people on this forum who can give some very specific advice about how to make good lists for chemistry phds, etc and hope that they give you some great advice. In the meantime, this is just to give you some 'heart' while you wait and keep moving through that forest.

Hi Ananda, I agree with the majority of the posters on this thread. I would stay with the job. The vague sort of regret you might have not doing the PhD now, will not match the misery of doing one and finding you are unemployed, looking for post doctorates in many obscure corners of the world, competing with ambitious young PhD candidates for any form of part-time or adjunct work and possibly having to live somewhere you really don't want to live-to support the PhD pathway-a scholar's pathway that really only offers a scholar's reward.

In your current work, you have a wonderful opportunity to make a real and tangible difference and to be paid for it...wow, what an opportunity.

My own position, I only started my part-time PhD, after children had grown and left home, I had a mortgage for a house and I had left a long term partner. I still have a great job but it is tough trying to balance both career and doctorate and I am not sure that when I finish this PhD in around 6 to 8 months and (hopefully) submit, that it will make much of a difference to my life at all. It certainly won't have made the difference I thought it would so many years ago, when I first hatched a plan for a PhD.

I know many candidates, young, very very bright and very hardworking, who are enrolled in doctoral programs in far more competitive universities and programs than I am, who are struggling to find work in academia and need to make some difficult choices. I also know a fair few academics, including my own supervisor, who are becoming tired of the never ending march on the publish or perish pathway.

Very kind regards

P.

Wonderful news Emmaki! Congratulations on a great result and best wishes for this next stage of your life-post PhD!

Well done Emmaki! Great news and best wishes for the next few hours. Remember anxiety is only that 'anxiety'. It doesn't mean anything-just our anxious monkey minds on overdrive. You will be fantastic.

Hi Chococake. I don't think you can use this to generalise to a larger sample or population in a straightforward sort of manner. However, you can suggest that the themes emerging from your data or case study raise questions regarding x, y or z and would indicate a fruitful area for further research or study. Or (if this is a case study-or collective case study) that the findings in this case clearly point to such and such trends arising within this context-and in this specific case and are worth considering in term's of the broader picture and understanding of the issue or research problem.

I think if you were doing grounded theory (but not as sure here as I am not doing this myself), your findings would be generating theory that (again) could be tested on broader populations or assist with generating models or approaches that might be useful with the broader populations or groups. So the findings are really useful and interesting in that they present an in-deoth look at a specific problem or professional concern and this highlighting and deep exploration of the topic has provided further insight or an enlightening perspective on a topic that suggests that further research in this area that took more of a quantitative approach would be warranted.
Sorry very wordy sentence above (probably needs a warning statement before you read it).

Thank you Satchi for your kind words. I know what you say is right, and probably believe that I am worried over something minor. But one of the things I worry about is in taking a suspension-well it brings up all sorts of concerns such as breaking a commitment, or if I stop the momentum of what is quite hard to do-complete a PhD and work full time, then it might be hard to start again.

But the reality is that I would still keep in the 'study hours' even if it is on a sort of professional and quite bland and boring PG Cert. (Not that they all are-but this one will be-it is not one I would choose to do otherwise). And I can still think about my data-even if I don't really do much more than that and look at it from time to time. Luckily I have taken this to a point where it is okay to take a break-the data has all been collected,transcribed, summarised and given a preliminary analysis.

Thank you also for your response. Sometimes one writes these things for a couple of purposes: as a form of accountability by making something public and definite, and to show the different ways in which this sort of study can be done and for the different purposes.However, having a response from someone who has worked their way through the journey of the doctorate is very reassuring and I appreciate what you have said.

Just as an aside-after coffee with a friend yesterday, she mentioned she had recently contacted an old friend of hers, a former and retired academic of 90 who had recently started a second PhD to keep herself thinking and researching at her later life stage. What a great story.

Hi I'm writing this post because due to some life issues and professional work requirements, I'm going to have to suspend for around 10 and a half months. Given that I am part-time, this will only amount to just over five months of a full time PhD but it is really hard to have to do.

I've just completed the form for my supervisor, faculty chair and the Grad Research Co-ordinator and will make a couple of appointments next week (in between my day job) to get this sorted.

The main reason for suspending is that my life circumstances are such that I really need to relocate interstate within the next 18 months. I live on a large island (Tasmania actually) and though beautiful, all of my family are back on the mainland (Australia proper) and my children are at that stage where they are married, about to marry, and all of that There are some other difficulties facing other members of my family as well that have made me rethink things a little of late. I sound old but I am only just 51 so I don't feel that old but if you are in your twenties or thirties I probably seem it!.

However, to maximise my chance of getting the same sort of professional leadership roles in Education interstate within my education sector (Catholic) as I have here in Tasmania, I have to have a specific qualification, which I don't need now-but only if I move. So given that requirement, in order to give myself the best chance for a similar job interstate, I am going to just do this certificate in the next 8 months part time, then resume my candidacy Jan 2016.

I was hoping to try to do both and putting this decision off, to slowly progress the PhD, do the Certificate and keep working through the next year but this is probably a bit ambitious and given that I have made good progress completed data collection and a preliminary analysis, lit reviews and draft methods, it is probably a good time to suspend,

It is okay, I know I will resume, and until I have approval from Grad Research that my suspension is okay (will take a few weeks to confirm), I will continue with member checking my data and just tidying up a few loose ends.

I guess I am writing this because sometimes it is helpful for others to realise that things happen in life and so you have to do things a little differently at times, but that is okay and what is important that you get there in the end. I think that if I get a reasonable job, and this certificate, then move, and see my family more often and live in a bigger city and one not so remote, and my Phd has only taken 10 months to a year longer to gain-then it is most likely the right thing to do.

The best advice I was given by both Masters superviser and current one was to do transcriptions as soon as you could after the event. I ignored this advice during my Masters and decided to act on it as much as I could this time round. It made things a lot easier. At one point though, when my work got in the way I had to save up three long interviews to do all at once just before the Christmas break and it was pretty tough. If you can just start bits and pieces of transcription as soon as you can. Break when things get rough and then slip in an hour here and there, it does seem more manageable.

First time round I used an old fashioned sort of tape recorder designed for transcription and it was okay. For my doctorate, I bought a small Olympus 4gb recorder and found that recording on this and then transcribing back was really smooth. I also found listening to the tape without ear phones was preferable to using ear phones (which could give an ear ache after a while). Didn't use a foot pedal-although I've heard they are good, but the Olympus was pretty easy to reverse, store all of the data files, and to retrieve things when you wanted them.

For your analysis-you probably need to make a decision based on the nature of your research. However a good book to look at-and one that will provide excellent summaries of the main different qualitative approaches is:Creswell's Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches (3rd Ed), Sage: 2013. This is a seminal sort of text, so most libraries should be able to source it for you.

I've got Nvivo and did a crash course on it about 18 months ago but have done-am doing most of my analysis the old fashioned way just because I have gaps between doing research and my day job and forget things in-between. I loved it when doing the crash course but just don't have time to relearn computer things, especially as I have to learn computer things for work all the time, so have found that transcribing and preliminary analysis, then reading each transcript and noting themes, key statements, signature statements and anything interesting on the actual transcript, then typing all of this up into separate tables or summaries (which I will go through again for themes, has actually been quicker. I use Microsoft word to do quick theme searches (terms, etc) and have managed to pick up a host of themes-around 8-9 major themes and many minor sub themes from this process.

Finally I think, resorting back to the advice my supervising panel gave me just before Christmas-do what works for you and don't be afraid to try something, but also to dump it and go back to what works for you. Very experienced professor said 'there is nothing wrong with post it notes and coloured highlighters!'.

Great advice from Satchi, which will be incredibly helpful to you throughout the PhD.

Mine will take a different tack based on my own experiences going from Undergrad, to Masters to PhD.. The research aspect is going to be challenging for most people no matter how well you have done in undergrad studies. Many of us have achieved high results in undergrad subjects and post grad course work subjects, only to be stymied by the different nature of research and writing for a thesis or dissertation.

This then leads to doubt and sometimes a lowered sense of self esteem or identity-should I really be doing this? Maybe only the smart people who don't seem to struggle should be the ones doing this. It is all just our own self doubt and defence mechanisms kicking in. (I'm not a psychologist by the way-so I'm talking from experience and the 'layman' angle here-my terminology may be a little inaccurate but hopefully you will get what I mean by this).

Impostor syndrome seems to strike most people in this game. But really the PhD is a matter of hard work, organisation, attention to detail (about your topic that is), more hard work and endless graft when it comes to writing and thinking and learning how to express your thoughts about what it is you have observed, critiqued or are hypothesising.

If you were accepted to do a PhD, then your interviewers and the people who looked at your application clearly thought you were up to it. Who are you to doubt them :) ? No really, it will have challenges, but you take them one step at a time and just keep on believing that you can do it. And you obviously can. And to go back to Satchi's advice-remember to work on the 'self-care' aspect. Doing a PhD is hard work and you need to be gentle on yourself at times as well. Good luck and congratulations! :)

I found that there was a difference in the amount of words per unit (hence you wrote slightly longer assignments for any course work units).

There was also a greater expectation regarding research literature (number of references and the quality of your references used within assignments and with research tasks). You were expected to take a more rigorous critical stance with what you read and had to complete obligatory research methods units as well.

There were also more expectations with regard to the level of critical engagement with your arguments and approaches. However,
while the expectations were higher, most people doing well in their final year of undergrad studies are well able to step it up and it doesn't always feel like a huge leap-more just what feels appropriate at the time (if this makes sense).

When it came to the minor thesis (or dissertation or whatever your university and system call this aspect of the MA), however, I did find that there was a noticeable difference. My minor thesis was around 25 000 words and it was a good preparation for the PhD. I found aspects of this pretty challenging at times-as noted-good preparation for further research. (Sorry I should qualify also-I've just realised that you mentioned doing an MA- I did an MEd with the minor thesis as the specialty so info may differ for MAs. If so pls just ignore).

It's a really good point you raise Derose, and I can tell that while my own topic is one I find interesting and can be passionate about, it is not a terribly creative one. I'm thinking about this in relation to my initial degree and initial academic sorts of aims which would have focused perhaps on literary-historical forms of narratives and story in specific cultures or using a more psychological approach to literary perspectives. Compared to my workaday topic at the moment, they both seem so much more interesting.

I've often wondered that if I had done my PhD on a personal choice of topic that I was more passionate about, whether I would have different thoughts about it now at this stage.

However, that being said, many people have to make a choice with a topic and cannot always choose to do exactly what they want or find that they have to connect their PhD with work, and given these parameters, then I guess one needs to make it as interesting as possible but also to be realistic. I certainly tried and when I am writing become fully engaged with my own rather ordinary thesis- but it is rather prosaic and I would have to say I am a bit over it at times. I don't know whether I would feel the same way about a topic in my original field-but those options were not really available at this stage in my life.

So I think this is great advice-be as passionate about your topic as you can-because this is going to help you ride through the dull bits but if you do have to compromise, be aware that sometimes you may just need to plod through things until you get to a more interesting place and that is okay too.

If I had a chance to do it all over again knowing what I know now, I am not sure that I would have started mine at the time I did or even started one at all. I have got about 2 years to go of my Part-time PhD and so hope to have finished in 5years 3 months from start to finish. i am beginning to map out every step now so that I can meet finished draft and submission goals I am that keen to complete!

Things I have learned: supervisors and topics are important but after 3 years on the same topic (even part-time years) you get over your topic no matter how good it seemed at the start.

A lot can happen in the world in the time it takes to do a PhD and sometimes missed opportunities (arising from staying committed to the PhD) that would have had a real impact on your life, place of residence or workplace do cause regrets.

You can take your thesis to bed at night (in your head that is) but who wants to!

In my professional world, specific Masters are often valued far more than theoretical PhD's, no matter how work related the topic and they don't take as long.

Once upon a time, I thought being an academic was an amazing thing to be…I don't even remotely believe this now or believe that for me this door is still open other than as a part time adjunct (though this is mainly due to my age and the fact that I would earn more in my current work).

On the up side:

It changes how you think about things and also how you write and assess data and other research related matters. It makes you more confident in what you do say (when you say it), and less inclined to pretend to anything or any knowledge you are unsure of.

You realise you can commit to a major project and even when it is only you cheering yourself on…you can do it.

Completing the thesis and then publishing it and papers from it will provide an intrinsic satisfaction and the PhD gives you some credibility here, whether as a professional or an academic.

It might do a teeny tiny bit of good in the world and the world needs as much good as it can get.