cc. this sounds like not an uncommon problem for people who graduate with PhDs and dont stay in academia. Have you tried discussing this with the careers service at your university? If they are any good they should have lots of information on the job opportunities available to you in your feild and at your degree level as well as how to sell your self through your CV. also try searching the internet for recruitment agencies, its their job to find positions for people, so it cant do any harm contacting as many as possible.

chin up :)

i know lots of people of have gotten PhD studetnships with 2.1 in different feilds. it sounds to be that an interview can be as important as a good undergraduate degree. best thing to do is be proactive. email as many prospective supervisors as you can find


emphasise your passion for your subject and your suitability for the position. you might find as a lot of poeple do that you will have to email a number people and go for a number of interviews before you get the position you want.

i would feel soemthing is lacking on your CV, do something about it. do a masters relevent to the feild you are interested in, get some relevant experience in industry

ive always needed a place with piece and quite. i found working in an office too distractive to read. cant go wrong with the library.

this is the first time ive ever heard of having a summer off whilst doing a PhD and im sure it never happens, you are after all paid by someone ( research council, department.... ) to produce reseach output and i dont see how departments would allow students to have summer off unless its for feild trips/ medical reason.

forgive me for being a smart ass but i think the person who wrote this thread is telling porkie pies or else doing a PhD at an online university

how about in the Lab? its my understanding that Phds are treated much the same as jobs and that most people would be lucky if they can find the time to take two weeks off during the summer months? correct if im wrong. if you want cheap you cant go wrong with package holiday to spain/portugal/greece....

I prefer UK because it has lots of well respected universites and because graduate study here is a fraction of the price of the US.
although there is no such thing as an absolute measure of world rankings for univeristies, look at the times and shanghai rankings which generally fills the top 10 spots with either UK or US universities
personally i dont want to spend 6-7 years doing a PhD in the states after which id be left without a penny to my name when i could do one in half the time in the UK without putting my self into student debt.

your unfortunate to be in a field were it sounds very necessary to have a PhD to teach at third level and where funding for PhDs is likely to be a lot more sparse. i think this is true of most academic subjects. but for example, engineering is proabably one field where people can lecture with a masters+ ( lots of industrial experience ) ive come across such people but they would be rare enough. best of look with your studies!!

the things you should consider in any personal statement are: why exactly are you applying to that masters? you can give a number of reasons: first and foremost you enjoy the topic, but you will also need to explain how undertaking this course is somehow going to enhance your career prospects in the field you are interested in

secondly you need to consider, why should they take you onto the course? certian masters courses can be competative so you may need to make your application stand out. emphasise your academic achievments relevent to this masters: high grades in particular subjects or coursework assignments, relevant industrial experience and so forth

thirdly why pick that particular univeristy? you could probably do the same course at hundreds of other institutions. best thing to say here is that you have picked Warick in partulcar becauce of its outstanding reputation as a leading educational institution.... anything that appeals to the vanity of the univeristy.

you may be right in saying its unethical to publish without their approval, having said that, if it is accepted for publication in a respected peer reviewed journal then it could be argued that it is unethical for your supervisor not to approve your paper for publication. if it is up to standard, there should be no reason why it shouldnt be published and the only way to find out is to submitt for publication. think about it

i dont see what you have to lose by submitting for publication with out their name on it. if you ask your old supervisor to approve it for publication and he/she isnt interested, it is never going to be published. the worst that can happen is if you go ahead with submitting for publication without approval and the paper is rejected but this could happen with or without your supervisors name on the paper.

i know a person who has done the exact same thing you are considering. she was a postdoc who had left the group to pursue a career outside academia. she had written up a paper, but the supervisor wouldnt approve the publication so she submitted the paper without the supervisors name on it.

from my experience of talking with teaching assistants, its generally quite common for graduate students to end up teaching subjects they may not know much about. Have confidence in yourself and enjoy your teaching experience. As a graduate student you are of level of maturity and academic standing, such that you ahould be able to teach your self fairly advanced subject material and subsequently be able to exlain that material at an approapriate level to undergraduates. enjoy

i have dropped out of a Phd and have since then been offered another one. what i did was, i looked at what positions were advertised around the UK. i emailed the prospective supervisors, expressing an interest in their project, attach a CV, which said i spent a year of postgraduate study in feild x at University y,. they will be curious to know what has happended. you can say it was in many respct a great learning experience but the project wasnt for you and that you are committed to research. Find someone in the department willing to give you a reference to the effect that things havent worked out but you are an able student and they support your application for another PhD. if your department supports you the way they say they do then you should have any problems

QTPIE. I take inspiration from your story and i think i could avail from your advice. you sound like you are exactly in the same position as me. i started a PhD last october but i had no backround in the topic and was still selected because i had the credentials. my ex supervisor is nothing short of a Pig and yours sounds worse. i was only five months in when i was told i probably wouldnt last one year and i could be easily replacable. he offered no support, rest of my research group were in another building half an hour across the city. i got destroyed in my first year review by him and was accused of faking results and ive never had such a good cry in years.

my department and college have taken my side. i have found a supervisor willing to take me on, but my confidence is shot and im debating about whether so accept or move on.i do agree how important it is to research the backround of the project, visitng labs and talking to the supervisor before accepting.

thats great advice. I quit my PhD recently and it was the best desicion i ever made, worse things happen at sea. I really should have done it six months ago, but it was the fear of never getting another chance to do reseach and how prospective employers would look upon it. in effect i felt i had no way out.

the best advice i can give is dont listen to what people say, if they are only making negative comments. Saying to a student they would have no job prospects, is despicible and manipulative if anything else.


i think if a person has been accepted on to a PhD program, they are likely to have an excellent academic backround.so with regard to job prospects, i dont think its going to make much of a difference.
ive already had an offer of a PhD from another univeristy and i might actually be able to still do a PhD at my current univeristy.

i never thought rejection would hurt sooo much. ive recently pulled the plug on my PhD at one of the oxbridge universities. i was told by my advisor that is was possible to change PhD. i enquired about a particular project, but was told after a few emails that he didnt want to take the risk of a transfer Phd. He said this without ever meeting me or examining the circumstances of my departure. does anyone else think this is unfair. this is my career and i just get the impression that nobody cares