This is really for those of you who have done and finished a PhD. I'm just about to submit my corrections and, with any luck, it'll be all okay and can get it printed and handed in and forgotten about.

How did you feel at this point? I am just at the stage I couldn't care less. I work in private sector now and my colleagues seem far more impressed it with than I am - they call me Doc at work and I just can't get used to it, as if I just don't want to be reminded of it. They ask questions about it and I just never say anything much (even to the others who have PhDs).

I had an interview last week for a new job (which I've got, yay!) and one interviewer asked what I was most proud of - I said my PhD, but I felt like I was lying, as if I was expected to say that not because I genuinely feel proud of it. I really don't. I really don't have any love for it or any interest in it and just want it to go away.

Is it normal? Or is it some psychological issue that Freud would be frothing at the mouth over?

hi DanB
yes its normal; don't worry
satchi

I am sick and tired of it too. I am close to submission, and just don't want to think about it anymore. I won't go to graduation or use the title when (if i get it, still got to do viva) - it seems kind of pointless too in the private sector, which I will inevitably be in because they're aren't any jobs in my academic field anyway.

So yes, totally know how you feel.

I am also close to submission and am sick to death of it. I want to get it in and then forget about it - well, after the viva anyway. But I am sure that I will feel a sense of loss when it is over. Maybe in a strange way, that's what you're feeling as well?

======= Date Modified 07 Feb 2010 19:48:14 =======
I am close to re-submission and quite frankly couldn't give a flying f**k about the thing. It seems utterly dull, irrelevant and pointless. I begrudge every second I spend on it and loathe the document from the cover to cover.

I also feel that my life has changed and moved on so much since I started that the potential 'achievement' is null and pointless. I have worked in HEIs in research for over a decade and have been shafted so many times by incompetent, money-grabbing management. I have published and worked on research at an international level. In my most recent job I was unceremoniously made redundant (again HE cost-cutting and the researchers get a kicking) and have vowed not to be seek employment in the sector for a long time, if ever.

So now I am looking in the private sector and really whether or not I have a phd is irrelevant!

Hey ho.

Thank you all. I'm still 4 months away from submitting, and also hate my thesis at the moment. I too will undoubtedly not end up in academia as there aren't any jobs, and am also wondering why I'm doing this. So no direct advice DanB, just another person totally fed up.

======= Date Modified 08 Feb 2010 13:58:08 =======
I find it quite reassuring that there are others that are just as fed up!

I just want the damn thing finished so I can go back to the life I used to have before this malignant burden eroded it. I used to have fun and friends and time for family games of monopoly and could go to the gym. I even used to go on holiday.

;-)

Thankyou all for the replies! I do feel a bit better knowing I'm not the only one fed up with it all.

On a positive note for you all, however, you'd be surprised actually how much a PhD is valued in the private sector - not necessarily the content itself but the skills you pick up. The latter have been invaluable to me if not so much the former, especially presentation skills.

Your comments so totally resonate with me Chrisrolinksi. I'm faced with deciding at the moment whether I should apply for my old job back in the civil service, which is in the area of my studies. A PhD for the civil service is also pointless - expertise is not valued, not wanted and not used. The idea of going back to the civil service turns my stomach, yet I can't see any other option. So, pushing on with finishing this thing, even tho it's not going to do me any good. Makes me wonder why I bothered.

Sorry for the negative rant - am not normally like this. Writing up is getting to me and the thought of such a bleak future is also depressing.

Hey Sue

I don't know what your area of expertise is, but couldn't you rejoin the civil service for a bit and then think about consultancy or working for a campaigning organisation or something? Surely going back to square one permanently won't be necessary?

I empathise as my long-term day job is also uninspiring and (in my view) the sector where I work is going about things in totally the wrong way!

======= Date Modified 09 Feb 2010 09:50:29 =======
Thanks Ogriv, yes, I need to make sure that I don't get stuck in the civil service and do my best to find a research job somewhere. I've worked with too many people who've been there for 20 years or so, and they're still saying they're going to do something else with their life...must get over my negativity and try and be positive...

Sorry for hijacking the thread DanB, back to you.

Well, I don't know how everyone else is feeling but I am still really, really fed up.

But I am trying really hard to focus on how good it will feel when it is over.

I'm with you Angel, having an utterly apalling spell here and just can't seem to get anywhere. Feel as though I'm swimming through treacle.

Yup, thick, gooey, viscous and brown. Up to my neck in it. Bloody hell this is hard, I'm even dreaming about the thesis now.

I've only got a few weeks left until I resubmit.

We. Must. Keep. Going.