Is anyone working in this area that could help?

I said it was common to experience the issues described, not common to suffer anxiety and depression because of it. I only know two students that have seen a counsellor - one as a direct result of the PhD and the other due to a personal issue.

Of course everyone can find fault with some things, but most students I know are happy with their PhD, supervisors and university overall.

I know what you mean, sometimes it is just a case of letting stuff go, because it can just be personal preference. For example, I wouldn't particularly care if my supervisors were late for meetings but it would really bug me if they came to see me whilst I was eating lunch, or when I have just arrived at the office. I could also produce a list about all the things my supervisors do that I find odd (shout across rooms, emails all hours of day/night and weekends, expects stuff done immediately...) but these aren't really things anyone is going to tackle - it's just this person's style.

I think if you felt like you were making progress with your work you would feel better - this what you need to address with your supervisors really. I would try again with them with this, speaking to someone else to try to frame your research first if you need to, and see what difference it makes. You need a plan to work towards - for your research and for your thesis chapters and papers.

Ok, first of all, what you are describing is pretty normal, not acceptable, but just a common experience.

It's common to have issues with supervisors like you mentioned and it's common not to have many results yet. Rationale can always be found from the literature later...

I don't think you need to think about quitting just yet - first of all, you need to rectify the situation, and you have two options:

1. Arrange a formal meeting with your supervisors, tell them what support you need and state how you want them to give it. Make sure everything is written down and mutually agreed. Give them a chance to follow through with their agreed actions. Tell them you are considering quitting if you want - the honesty may help.

2. Speak to your head of year/pastoral carer and see what they advise.

Personally I recommend you take the supervisor route first, because they may not take kindly to 'interference' from other academics.

And today, a PhD student in their 4th year has decided not to continue with the experiments to finish the work needed for another paper, so my supervisor said if I finish this last bit off, I can be first author. Pretty unfair if you ask me, but then the student has had the opportunity to do it so...

Different labs have different protocols for this. As a postdoc, I have submitted abstracts to conferences as first author even though none of the work was mine at all, but my supervisor told me to do this as I would be carrying on with some of the work.

There is some valid argument about the person that will be writing the paper and submitting to the journal should be first author, since this takes a lot of time (as I'm sure you know).

Sorry to hear this.

To try to find a job you could try adding your PhD time on your CV as 'research assistant' or something similar. You will need your supervisor to agree to this though if they are providing a reference.

This might be easier than explaining that you started a PhD but didn't finish it.

Bear in mind that your supervisor might not have your best interests at heart if they are recommending you publish - they want the publications for their career as well. If you want the publications though then obviously write them.

Possibly if you get a first. Apply anyway. Plus, if you're paying, masters are fairly easy to get on to.

For me personally I just wanted to be left alone to get on with it and I asked people not to contact me or invite me anywhere, and I booked time ahead to see people on my one day off a fortnight... This was easy for me as I didn't have a partner though.

I'm not sure anyone but him will know what he wants.

Next time, pick her up on those points - don't rely on email. Ask her face to face what she thought of it and whether she can answer those questions. Don't say you suspect she hasn't looked at things, but say you would like some specific feedback.

I think you generally need a PhD to progress in academia because you may need to supervise PhD students and this might be difficult if you don't have that research background.

I think as long as you miss it only slightly you will still get in.

I'm sure they will work out the questioning, so don't worry. When do you find out whether you have passed?

I would just try at this stage to use your university lecturer position as the exemption - they might just be asking to cover themselves anyway and it might be fine.