Gosh I am loosing it. I have a similar thread under PhD life as well... Must stop late night writings that involve anything other than my thesis!!!

Lucky Dan.

3) A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)

2) LOTR: Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)

1) Roots (Alex Haley)

You can get it on Amazon: UK (used) Canada (brand new). Got mine from Canada when a friend went over. In any case, you will need a multi-region player/laptop (Not that anyone I know doesn't have one these days)

Work, family, friends and after that watch my goldfish get drunk and go bob!

I am getting near to the end now and am faced with all these questions... What to do after a PhD?

Pirates of the Caribbean! Mmmm Johnny Depp... Also "The Gods Must be Crazy"

But what do you do next? Obviously Academia is an option.. do a postdoc, then become a lecturer or a world famous researcher! What other options are there?

I have spent the last four years getting a PhD in computer science (VR, graphics and animation) at a top university while working as a research fellow (RF) there but I have come to realise that my options are narrower than when I was a graduate!!! How did that happen?!?

I am thinking of going into investment banking (IB) next! Or maybe management consultancy?

What are the other options out there?

What are the rest of you doing?

Do any of you out there feel as confused as I am?

I know two people who did it in 3 years. One was a compulsively timed guy who even had his bath time scheduled in an excel file... the other did something which was an extension of his MSc so he had his first year sorted. I thought the world would stop if I did not finish mine in 3 years. I have been doing mine part-time for 4 years and the end is very close. Mind you when I say part-time, I am employed by the university as a research fellow so my work is somewhat related to my thesis.

Final year in Computer Science, UCL.

We have toilets, windows and lifts with personality! We moved to a new purpose-built building a year ago but almost everything in the building has a mind of it's own!!! But I am attached to a really good project as a research fellow and a part-time PhD student so I get really good funding, flexible timing, great supervisors, good admin staff, travel money, good photocopying/library/printing facilites, a good laptop and desktop!!! And we are in London so can't complain about the social life either. However I have heard of nightmare stories elsewhere so I think I just hit the jackpot for my PhD :)