...he never came back.

Rumours say the Chinese government thought he was a spy from Georgia and put him on death row.

I accept your last point.

Still I think it's not possible to compare a Phd with a job in industry or most other jobs.

A PhD is entirely different. It's much more difficult on a mental level. The pressure of the unknown (novel research)and many other factors make it very easy to think that quitting is necessary. I know that because I encounter such a situation almost every week.

However, in my opinion, it is no good to quit. You say that a PHD IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. I agree. But our friend here says: I quit and I apply for a new one. So your point is not applicable in this specific case.

Nevertheless, if someone decides a PhD is no good for them, then I don't think it's bad to quit.

but I hate it if people quit and say:" I'll just try again"

oh, my mistake. You asked for advice on the actual procedure of how to tell your supervisor to quit.

Let me ask you a question: what advice would you have expected on that question. Something like: "Sing him a song which indirectly implies that your up for new endeavour?"

or

"Call his wife and leave a message"

???

Just to summarise the thread: you came on the forum although you already made your decision you asked for advice whether or not to quit (which means you were just attention seeking) and then you tried to justify your decision in a lame way. It's just a useless discussion.


...and thanks for wasting my time.

In that case you should have told the people on this forum more about your circumstances. If you come on here and ask for advice but give us almost no information, what do you expect?

not my problem

You still don't get my point. What I'm trying to tell you is: even if things look nasty at a certain point in time, this is part of the process. It's not easy to make the distinction between negative factors which cannot be solved and those that will disappear after a certain period of time almost automatically. You cannot avoid certain problems, otherwise everybody and not just 15,000 would get a PhD per year in the UK.

Anyway, good luck and don't give up after 4 months in your new PhD..

4 months?

After four months I was ready to quit and after 12 months even more so. But I didn't. And all of sudden, after 14 months things suddenly went really well and almost all problems disappeared.

If I would have given up earlier I would have never noticed this!

I'm just being honest and telling you how it is instead of saying: "Well done for quitting, that was the best decision of your life, bla bla bla".

If you want to patch each other's shoulder's for talking crap, then have fun...I will not stop expressing my honest opinion.

it takes no skill whatsoever to quit a PhD. And the argument concerning the new setting is very weak. How do you know conditions will be better with a new supervisor (btw I'm repeating myself).

It's too easy to blame the department for everything.

not very convincing at all.

You might start a new one, but you won't complete it, that's for sure. You appear to lack perseverance and dedication.

and by the way: you say "it must take courage to make a decision and following it through"--> exactly. Our friend here took the decision to start a PhD but did not follow it through so you are contradicting yourself, Rah..

You must be joking, Rah.

"Well done" you say.

Well done for what? for not completing a PhD like so many other's. No matter how unsatisfying the situation was (and it is for thousands of other PhD students who nevertheless complete), quitting is not a successful action!

What did you do? Take the sound advice of the forum users on board and re-think or quit?

If you chose to take the latter option-don't expect any sympathy as it's only depressing other PhD students on here who are dedicated to complete the task!

Interesting story...

I got a question: what's your favourite food?

sorry, what I meant was MSc