I would appreciate any advice that you could give me. I am in a dilemma. I am coming towards the end of my first year as a PhD student and I left a job I enjoyed (very people orientated) and I find the research itself a bit boring and I cant get excitied about it. I have may financial commitments (mortgage etc) and have the opportunity of starting a new job soon which sounds attractive.
- I have made the decision that I do not want to leave my home city and proposects are limited.

In some ways I think I like the idea of a PhD but it does not tie in with my career aspirations.

What would you advise? Has ayone else been in a similar position? Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I think you need to decide if the career is most important or the PhD? If the career is priority, could you do the PhD on a part-time basis whilst working. This is not an easy option but may be one that allows both areas to be realised. In my case, once majority of data was collected I could work from home, a distance from the uni. Unless a PhD is needed for furthering your career, i do think you need to have an interest in/passion of the subject to be able to get through the tough times, particularly writing up. If you do give up on this one, another may come along later in life as in my case.

It's difficult to advise as only you know why you're doing the PhD. Having said that if you have the possibility of a job which obviously doesn't require a PhD and the job appeals to you and you seem not too enamoured with your PhD perhaps the decision is looking at you???

All I can say is that I am nearly finished my write up (hope to submit this summer) but have found this write up period incredibly stressful and am literally (well nearly!) itching to get back to work. I know which I would chose if I were you but it's up to you. PhDs are tough, all the tougher if your heart is not totally in it.

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Hey, Its very true that the research work is a bit hectic and boring . But in your case I could suggest you that if you want to earn a good salary try for a job that is going to be interesting as well as higher salaried. Now a days medical sector jobs are in great demand and also pay a good amount. One of my friend is doing Sonography Technician course and he was saying that after completion of the course he will be getting a good job ,so why don't you do a course in Sonography Technology, that deals with imaging and diagnosis of the internal body parts. There are many schools and online universities those who are providing such courses and scholarships to lessen the financial burden of students. You can search for those on the internet and can enroll into one . While searching for some universities for you I found the following sites: http://www.sonographytechnician.org/salary-information-for-sonography-technicians/
and http://www.sonographytechnician.org/financial-aid-and-scholarships-for-sonography-technicians/ , hope you could get some help .

Listen to your heart. find the peace. List down all the advantage and disadvantage of each option then you'll get the answer. ^_^

Keep on keeping on...;-)
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