bleugh - have been having my birthday and doing non-PhD work trying to put evil PhD work off and not think about it at all but my sup keeps on emailing "I can't wait to read XYZ - how exciting!" and I just want to hide under my duvet! She has now involved this bloke in my publication who is not superior to me in any way, has no knowledge about the project - I don't really understand why he's involved and its just diluting my publication. I'm doing all the work, she is re-organising some of it, but this bloke gets tagged on the end anyway. Hmph.

Anyways. The plan is to get a report for this non-PhD thing done tonight and then start afresh tomorrow with a proper sense of what the hell I am doing! I really need to get things back on track.

I am putting it under job I think. When are you hoping to start a job? My funding runs out in October, but not sure if its too early to start applying now, or if I should wait. I don't want to start a job before August really because I want to get a chunk of my thesis complete before having only weekends to work on it.

I hate transcribing - When I first started interviewing I did a lot of nervous laughing - very irritating to listen to when transcribing. But there have been several instances such as..

Interviewee: "and then all my family died in a horrific car crash"

Sneaks: hehehehehe (nervous laugh)


I didn't notice me doing it at the time - but I actually did, its awful!

I also had a few interviews where they wouldn't SHUT UP, so I deliberately cut opportunities for detail short because I just wanted to get out of the room.

yep you usually get an extra £2k on top of the normal stipend because London is so miserable.

its the phenemological stance behind all the techniques I'm having trouble with. Is analysis X positivist or contructavist? and what happens if its neither or both? and how do I know? and why should I care??

thanks sue Civil service is first on my list of potential employers. I was very keen on the local government graduate schemes (travelling to london based gov't departments will cost me £6k per year) but they announced those 10% job cuts today in local authorities D'oh!

My sup is generally very supportive, and will happily put in a good word and provide refs etc. Its just that she has her own strategic set of bids going in to funding councils and I don't think she will want her name on one that doesn't fit her overall plan - she has got a very 'political' strategy with funding bids and think, although she would be supportive, would not want to put in a joint bid or anything with me. She is super busy, and she has loads of other projects running at the same time as my PhD. All her other supervisees have had rich partners, so I think she assumes I do to, but I don't - he's rich enough for me but not enough for the mortgage :-)

my sup is very strategic, so will apply for things that will help her strategy, rather than just to get me a job if that makes sense. So I doubt she would want to be on a bid with me :-(

My field does have consultancy in, but this has been hit very badly by the credit crunch, many of them have gone under and many of my friends from my last degree - in my specialty have been made redundent. I live in a small town, so my field is a little too specialist for this area - no one really knows what it is and wouldn't value it.

I tried to look at fellowships but got stumped by the whole thing. Can I apply for them without a supervisors backing?

My funding finishes in October. My ideal job would be more research. I love working by myself in my own little reclusive world. However, my sup has told me there will be nothing at uni. The popular jobs site for these things has nothing on week after week, or if it does they are in places I can't travel to. i can't move because my hubby provides the stable good income (although not enough for me not to work). There are no jobs in my field in research or not in research.

So I was wondering if anyone is in the same boat? I probably won't have finished in October, so will be writing up, any ideas on the kinds of jobs I can get to support myself?

Biggest problem is I have a bad back, although not bad enough to claim beneftis, but I can't work most min wage jobs e.g. waitressing, checkouts etc. because of the strain it puts my back under.

I would try and have a topic that you bring up with your hubby that he knows more about e.g. football. If you make sure you ask him about football 2-3 times a week and then sound 'astounded' at his 'massive knowledge' (yes this can be interpreted as a euphemism). Then you tell all your friends, in front of your hubby, that he knows everything about it. Basically massage his ego (and his massive knowledge) hehe. :$

good luck jinkim! I spent all this morning cleaning because the house was really disgusting - like if you bought it, you would get industrial cleaners in and redecorate- kind of disgusting. Don't think its been cleaned for about 8 months! So now I have a back ache from the scrubbing and hoovering frenzynow doing non-phd work.

my sup decided I need to change the whole theory my phd is based on - so need to re-write all the writing i did last week - grrr. So need to that soon, also need to do some qualitative analysis AND I need to add some stuff for the report I wrote for the organsiation last week. But my parents are coming down tonight, so I will get nothing done. getting a bit stressed now!

as long as my supervisor doesn't realise I'm away! I don't tend to have block time away though, I tend to just take a day off when I feel like it, although I do work through the weekends and into the evening so, if I were on a flexitime arrangement I would probably deserve 6 months off!

forgot my most important embarrassing tv fix - Glee! It is amaaaaazing!

I like to watch supernanny so I can be patronising and seem like a know it all when talking to other people who actually have kids. I'm into anything with vampires e.g. true blood, the vampire diaries (cringe!) and being human. I also like US stuff like the mentalist, house, lie to me. I am avid come dine with me fan and love any good comedy e.g. mock the week, 8 out of 10 cats.