======= Date Modified 03 50 2009 08:50:12 =======
Hi all!
Just a bit of a rant / scout for opinion... I live with a very very good friend in a 2-bed flat. We met 2 1/2 years ago when I started my PhD, she had the same supervisor and was the year ahead of me. We made friends quickly and have now shared a flat for nearly 2 years.


Anyway, she dropped out of her PhD last summer when her funding ran out and she had too much left to do in order to have any chance to submit on time. She landed on her feet and got a really good office job in marketing, but she knows how much pressure I am under. I am finishing off one chapter (due in June) and then properly revising and reviewing everything before I submit, hopefully in December.


Her dad died recently after a six-month illness, and she has gone off the rails since. Whenever we go out (once/twice a week) she will effectively leave me standing there as she goes off with some guy. On Weds we went to watch football in the pub, at the end of the match she rang up some guy she met a few days before to come to the pub. I headed home, and then at 1am she banged on my bedroom window to say she had forgot her key. I let her in, then a couple of minutes later she sneaked the guy into the flat. Last night we stayed home, and I was doing work, but at nearly 1am (again) a taxi pulled up outside my bedroom (ground floor flat), and she went out to the taxi to invite the guy in (a different guy - her ex from last summer).


I guess the whole point of this is that do you think its too much? She knows that I am working almost 24/7 at the moment and she also knows how much the PhD means to me and precisely how much work is involved, but she invites random men (I'm her best friend and have never met any of them) back to our flat at 1am, even on weekdays? She knows that she's doing something 'wrong' or she wouldn't have sneaked the guy in on Weds, she would have been open about it.


Given she's one of my best friends, should I put it down to her needed to be cathartic due to what has happened with her dad, or should I expect that as friends she would know that my PhD is important too???

YOu can change supervisor as much as you like (as long as you can find someone to be your supervisor). Its your PhD - you seem overly concerned about everyone else.

As others have already recommended, a number of times, contact the Head of Dept/Head of Graduate Studies for assistance.

When referring to departmental politics, I wasn't necessarily noting internal candidates, there are other matters.
Not to go into too much detail, as it is confidential, but an incident occurred a couple of years ago where half the room preferred one candidate (who actually turned out to be a friend of the people who were supporting her), and the other half another candidate. In the end, they chose a third person as a compromise!

We used to get invited to these presentations, but haven't really been over the past year - I don't think its standard practice to invite PhD students, but some staff realise that it is beneficial.

I agree with 'bug; the best presentations focus roughly half on your research and half on what you can bring to a dept. My dept is a bit weird and have appointed people that weren't who I thought best; although of course I wasn't in the interview section of the process. The people who have been appointed are very confident (almost laidback), and show real enthusiasm for both research and teaching. (One guy read out his research from a bit of paper and looked sooooo bored!). Show that you have done some research on the dept you are applying to by showing how your work can complement other areas, but be careful not to say "I can teach on this module that you currently offer" as you will step on people's toes.
Finally, be precise with terminology that you use - one girl who interviewed kept referring to a particular theory that she uses but it was only relevant to the discipline she was in - in other disciplines it means something totally different, and she caused major confusion.

Remember, when people advertise jobs, they have specifics in mind which may not be in the ad. I've noticed time and again that departmental politics are more influential than the presentations people give!

Hi!
I've sat in on presentations at interviews from teaching fellows right up to professors and chairs, and no-one has ever gone over half an hour - an hour is way way too long. I'd keep it 20-30 mins

Hi
Yes he would have to pay council tax for the whole place on his own, but he would get a 25% reduction. You would be better off getting a smaller place in a lower tax band than sharing with other students.
Secondly when you arrive at your new home the local council will send a council tax bill for the rest of the financial year (to beginning April). Unless you can prove you are a student (which you can't as you won't be yet) there won't be a reduction in the bill. Once you register at your new Uni you can get a COuncil Tax exemption certificate from the Uni, and if you send this off asap to the council they will send you a new bill with lower payments for your boyfriend (25% reduction), however this will only apply for the time you are a registered student not before of after.

It is not an issue of who is to blame, it is the fact that your supervisor works for you. If you cannot work with that person (for whatever reason), then you have cause to change.

Town planners etc are normally employed by Local Authorities only - given that there are major public spending cutbacks planned, significantly in the provision of local services where Council Tax is not going up then they are cutting back on this kind of thing. There may be some courses that give you work experience and you could use that as a way in, but in the short term future there will be few jobs (but lets face it, thats pretty much across the board!)

Aussiechick is right, it can be common to do 'inductive' rather than 'deductive' research where 'theory' is led by findings. Saying that, in this case you can say that current literature lacks X data which is what you will do and you expect that your work will thus be posited Y here.

I would be very reluctant to try to change your supervisor's behaviour, it may lead to more profound problems, as they may see it as a 'personal' attack on their professionalism. When things got bad with my old supervisor (no meetings, or meetings arranged then cancelled due to her poor time management), I tried to contact her and say that if possible I would prefer a more structured timetable. Her reaction was not pleasant. I then suggested that we bring a new co-supervisor in to assist when she was busy; and this was effectively the final straw and she tried to blame me for causing the problems, saying that she was doing all she could but that I had issues taking criticism therefore she was reluctant to have meetings with me. (My current Sup has no such problems).

To be honest, this is just their style of supervision, and that is partly a reflection of their personality. If you are struggling as much as you seem to be, its time to swap supervisor, and as recommended you need to speak to someone senior from your dept or research college.

Some chapters just take longer than others. I spent half (at least 7 months) of my first year on what was then one chapter. It was very theoretical and complex but I knew it was the hardest chapter so wanted to get my ideas down. Two years later that one chapter is now three chapters and all the time I spent was worth it.
Just don't try to make what you are doing now perfect. Expect that it is meant to be a bit confused and bitty at this stage; but if there are lots of ideas in there that aren't taking proper shape, it may be like me that you need to split them into separate chapters and make them a bigger part of your overall work...

Just a thought anyway!

Hi again

How long it your Masters diss then, more than the usual 15-20k? That's really interesting if its the case, sounds like a great course. One thing though; I know you said that your Uni suggests 'continuing' your current topic to PhD level, but you are aware that you cannot use portions of your Masters diss as part of your PhD? If you are covering the same/similar topic you have to rewrite, in that sense you can 'build' on your work but not cover the same ground.

Although if you're publishing, I can completely understand that you'd want to check originality!!!;-)

Hey Sally

I don't think that it is significant whether or not you are duplicating their work. Not to be rude, but yours is only a Masters diss it does not necessarily have to be an original text (in fact some unis positively discourage this); and yours will be 20% of the length of theirs. It may be better to ask if they have any conference papers that you might access, although you cannot cite unpublished manuscripts without their express permission

Not to be unsympathetic, but I think its really sweet (although I have a cat that I love to bits!). Cats usually hate strong citrus and pepper smells, so try to get some kind of lemon spray and use it on the window through which the cat normally enters and that might convince him not to use it... water pistols are the usual trick though!

Hello again

To be honest it depends exactly what you are looking for. As far as I can tell (from friends) the University plans to simply move many of the staff to other departments in the Uni. Of course, this does not prevent those staff from looking for other jobs elsewhere, but that's the case with any supervisor! Can I ask what you are planning to do your research on, more precisely?