OK, here's a thread to all those comments supervisors make, good and bad...

I gave my sup a chapter to read, was the second draft, was pretty happy with it, and hoping it was close to the final version. She came back with a 'it's good, just the structure and content need work'. Oh - is that all? Anything else?

Emailed back to thank her, completely professional-like, envisioning a groundhog day of endless rewrites. And she comes back with a comment that the argument needs work too! Bloody hell!! I assume the title and font were ok? Nothing like a nice Times New Roman 12 to make me get the doctorate! :p

Hi Bilbo

I'm here working too, afternoon where I am. Dunleavy advice sounds v. good - I should have a look at that book too. Can't you just update an abstract you've already done with some findings? Will it really be that hard? But how fabulous you're almost there - Dr Bilbo is on the way!

All the best.

Yes, thank you! Am not at that stage yet but hope to be in the next year, and am sure this will come in handy.

Yeh, I've given presentations from a thesis chapter, and so about 8000 words seems to do it for me, too. Can I jsut say - PLEASE don't read out your work for an hour - the audience will be bored witless. There is nothing worse than being subjected to listening to someone read a lecture. Very few people read aloud well, and I've been subject to so many dull, monotonal lectures - just sucks the life right out of a subject. And I always get resentful and think that the lecturer should just give me the lecture notes, I'll read it quicker in my own time. It's much more interesting to watch and listen to a speaker who walks around, modulates their voice, engages with the audience, rather than someone standing there reading. Sorry for the rant, but this is a pet hate of mine!

I'd use a couple dozen slides for an hour talk - I average about 2 minutes a slide. And try and break it up with graphs, photos, diagrams, so it's not all bullet points. Good luck!

Hi Poppy

Yes, can relate exactly. A few months ago, all I was doing was studying and I'd go out occasionally, but not often. The isolation of writing up was really getting to me, and I was depressed and then felt really socially inadequate when I did go out. Like you, I'm not hugely extroverted, but have always managed to do OK with people and have fun. But I found I was just sitting with people, being quiet and then started to also feel bad as I felt socially inept. I started a thread on this. But guess what - IT PASSES!! I got out of my depression due to engaging in an online chat room for PhD students, and now I've been in the workgforce for a month, I've found my social skills have come back! I can relate to people once again!

So, don't worry about this at the moment - it's just the PhD taking over ;-). You'll be fine once you're done. We'll go back to being our usual cheery selves, but with a doctorate (!).

Hi there

Yes, this is a toughy, and something I think about a lot too. You're right, fear holds us back, and can make people settle for something lesser when they possibly could've had a better job, relationship etc. I often also think I should be happy with what I've got, but there's always other paths and dreams to pursue...Hard to give advice about this, but what I've found works for me is to go with gut instinct. When I haven't, things have turned out badly, and when I've followed my instincts, things normally turn out OK, more or less. I think small compromises are part of life, but if you're really torn, and are thinking for settling for something you think isn't best for you, don't do it, I reckon. Go with what you know deep down you should do.

All very vague, but hope you manage to sort your issues out...

Hi Bilbo and CG

Nice to hear you're in the same boat as me CG - am looking forward to going back to the thesis. I've had the most horrible day in the civil service, awful, just want to crawl back into my cave and write about stuff I know. Promise I'll never complain about my thesis again! (yeh, right!).

You're both getting so close!! March is not far off, and Bilbo - only a month - wow!! How exciting!!! But sorry to hear you haven't been so well lately Bilbo.

Keep plugging on. Productive and healthy vibes to you both.

Hiya

Also haven't had a viva, but have had plenty of job interviews, some in the afternoon. I've tended to work all day - concentrating on something took my mind off the upcoming interview. Would it helped if you did a piece of work - are you writing articles from your thesis now or anything? Then a little while before the interview I always go and sit somewhere quiet, do breathing exercises, and repeat an affirmation to myself over and over and over. Seems to help.

Don't be so hard on yourself, and try and start to think positively. You won't help yourself by thinking that you're going to fail. You want to pass right? Well tell yourself that you're going to! Start believing it! You're not going to convince examiners if you don't believe in your work. C'mon, pick yourself up, stick affirmations all around your study, start telling yourself that your thesis is good and you're going to pass!!

Another update. Am on the second last day in my old office job, and it's been good - has reminded me that I don't want to go back to this. Also reminded me that I like the money and it pays so much better than if I were to get an academic job! And I work so much harder as a student than office workers do! All the chats, the morning teas, the Fri afternoon drinks...sheesh!

Have been looking at ads for overseas jobs, and even where there are ones in my highly specialised field, there's always at least one criteria I don't have, so that's a bit depressing. Doing only qualitative research in a really specialised area that not many people in the world care about is not the best career move, I've found...

Almost finished 2nd draft of another chapter. Have to give a conference presentation next week. Have done the powerpoint presentation, but not my speaking notes yet. And to think, when I started doing presentations I'd practice and practice for a month beforehand - now I'm quite blase!

How's everyone else going? OK, a quick burst of studying before the office...

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Hi Elleee

I don't have much time, and also am in a different field to yours, so can't offer much I'm afraid. But I can give you one piece of advice, born of hard experience - while ANU is a fabulous uni, Canberra is the most awful place. As you've probably found out, ANU is ranked as Australia's best uni, and the law school is really good. But if you're a big city person, don't, for whatever reason, come to Canberra. It's tiny - population of only 300,000. It's a really, really, white monoculture, except for all the horrible rednecks who also live in Canberra, and because the city is so small, there's no escaping them. There is virtually no culture in Canberra, apart from museums etc, which are fine for a visit, but that's it.

People come here to work or study, because of the ANU and the good government jobs, but most leave as soon as they can because the quality of life is so low. It's a very transient population. It also gets really cold - down to minus degrees for months on end. Not for someone who needs a big city with a decent climate - try Sydney or Melbourne instead. OK, rant over. Good luck!

Yes, I echo what Helen says - your sup is there to support and push you, and sometimes they do need to be harsh. I'd completely avoid having either a spouse or a friend as a supervisor - you need boundaries around the relationship with a supervisor, it has to be completely professional. It would be too easy to end up resenting a spouse or friend. Besides that, you're going to need them for emotional support, to take you out, to listen to your complaints, and to make you cups of tea - a different role from a supervisor. Keep them separate.

My supervisor checks my progress by how often I give her a piece of work to comment on. I only meet with her every month or so, and I'll have done a chapter/journal article/conference paper to give her beforehand. She looks for output, not how much I've read etc. Sounds like your sup is micro-managing you a bit...

Your sup may need to give approval - I can't remember exactly, but I know that when I changed to full-time, I had to get a form signed by a couple of people, including the post-gtrad research co-ordinator, and maybe my sup. This affects uni enrolments and in my country, funding that goes to unis, so there is some paperwork and approvals needed. You need to check with your admin people. Good for you tho - it is lovely (kinda!!) doing the PhD full-time!

Glad to see mytomatoes has taken off - glad it's helping you!

I did my PhD part-time for 2 1/2 years, and have been full-time for the last year and a half and have achieved much, much more, studying full-time than I did part-time. You're right - doing it part-time doesn't allow you to get much momentum going, it really does help to immerse yourself in it. If there's any way you can do it full-time, then do it. I've sacrificed a lot to do study full-time - a well paying job, a promotion, so I can live in student poverty and get this thing done. It's worth it tho. Is there any way you could get a scholarship to help you out?

You're right, immersing yourself and getting the thesis done as quickly as possible is, in my experience, much more preferable to working and having it drag on. The quality and rate of my work picked up enormously once I became full-time.