Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone else has submitted or is about to submit? Feel like I've lost track of where people are at since Lara's recent viva triumph!

I submitted on 1st september and still don't have a viva date. It's REALLY doing my head in. I have to say after 3 years of looking forward to submission it's been quite an anti-climax - just feel a bit lost and aimless now!

Hi Heifer

I envy you for having the job finished, thus leaving you to pursue other aspects of life for now

My situation: Writing up, have done 3 chapters which are on my boss's desk, 4th chapter printed out on my desk to give to her when I see her, 5th chapter, 90% written, needs an afternoon more of experiments, and maybe a day to tidy up, paste in the graphs etc, 6th chapter 90% written, needs maybe 3 days experimental work to finish.

Am currently writing final (7th chapter) expect to finish sometime next week.

How much has my boss read.......................... absolutely none of it.

She has had two of the chapters for over 3 months now, it would be nice if she would just give me some kind of idea regarding when she's planning to do it, or even some initial feedback. I know most academics are busy, but things are getting a bit beyond the joke here.

My best advice is try to get job applications fired off in the meantime, that's what i'm doing with half of my time these days

I apreciate it's just as hard, if not harder for you, but i'm tearing my hair out here trying to figure out when I might get even a first draft back from my boss.

At least this way I'll be prepared not to recieve a viva date for 2 months!

Good luck

Hi Cakeman,

Sorry to hear about your situation. I had two supervisors, one of whom never read a single thing I wrote and would even admit that he had only started looking at my work on the tube on the way to our supervision meeting... the other one was great though. Is there anyone else you can pass it to, for reassurance?

Congratulations for getting to this stage though, you should feel proud of how much you've achieved without the support that most of us take for granted!

Heifer, congratulations on submitting, it is a big achievement even if it doesn't feel like it right now! I got used to feeling aimless after a while and started to enjoy it. It seemed to take me ages just to slow down after so much pressure to submit on time. I'm sure when your viva date comes through you'll regain your direction again!:-)

Hello all,
am in the same situation, submitted in September and I don't even know when the viva date is, it is so frustrating, as am not from UK and decided not to go home, cause I was told "I will have the viva soon". My visa will expire and I want to apply for postdoc jobs, but I feel there are so much to learn, as in my home country we don't write CVs, cover letters etc.

Does any one have any sample postdoctoral cover letters?

I read some interesting articles in Science and Nature about how to choose a best postdoc...etc, I think there are so much to do and to learn. I think the only cure for this situation is to seriously look for jobs.

it is so difficult, the pressure is so much, instead of enjoying the submission I found my self worrying again.
:-(:-(:-s