I will be starting a PhD in October, having recently secured ERC funding.

What is everyone's advice on preparing for it, and what I should do when I start? I want to ensure that I do not waste any time, and give myself the best opportunity at securing a job in 3 years time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

The lacklustre CV is certainly a worry of mine, and I appreciate what you say about the amount of time spent in another job putting me at a significant disadvantage to other candidates. That said, I am not scared of hard work if this is all that is required - my worry is that even my best may not be enough.

I am good friends with my undergraduate professor, so will certainly take your advice and ask him to be honest about academia - he certainly won't have a problem saying it as it is.

As for funding, I certainly aim to reapply, and it is not that I did not secure funding having tried (unfortunately due to an issue with my application being accepted before the deadline, I was never put forward for it). That said I am doubtful of acquiring funding from the AHRC anyway - not to be pessimistic.

Thanks for the advice.

I have been offered a place at a good uni to start a PhD but have been unable to secure funding. I am able to pay the tuition fees and my job would cover any other expenses with me working approx. 20-24 hours a week, but there is an obvious issue with time constraints.

The process would not be too unfamiliar for me, as this is what I did during my MA at the same Uni, the only difference is that I chose to do my MA part-time. I would not be willing to do the same for the PhD as I think 6 years is too long.

My wife is supportive of the idea (to some extent), and I am committed to the idea as I would like to take up a career in academia. However, I appreciate that doing a full-time PhD requires a lot of work, and I would like to get some advice on what others would think about the additional part-time work? Has anyone done this themselves?