Hi everyone,

I know there are a lot of threads like this one floating around, but still I will try to describe my situation in hope of some feedback from you...

I'm in the third year of my PhD (technical field, engineering), more precisely 2y10m in. It's been already 3 months that I'm feeling really down: have no motivation to work on it and completely lost interest in the topic. During that period I worked and developed some stuff (extremely slowly though) but I'm not very happy with it: my supervisors put no importance on the things I find most interesting and they only focus on what is written in the project description. This has been a source of real annoyance for me. What is worse, my main supervisor is on sabbatical and the assistant supervisor on parental leave. This leaves me with little and only occasional feedback from them. My main supervisor A doesn't reply my mails and I get some feedback from the assistant supervisor, which is like: "...I talked to A and we think your idea is good, but you should do this as well while you are doing that...". As you can imagine this is really not helping and it just kills my motivation even more.

Long story short, what is really happening now is that I', seriously considering leaving my PhD and get a job in industry. I know I spent a lot of time on my PhD, but at least during that time I got my licenciate degree (an intermediate degree in Scandinavia). After reading a bit online and speaking to some persons who got their PhD, I'm only getting closer to leaving. What I can read between the lines is that you do not gain much in industry by having a PhD, there is not even a strong financial advantage. I also have a feeling that I'm forgetting what I learned during my bachelor and master studies like working with tools that are used in practice.

Do you have any advice for me?
Thanks

You say they are asking you to concentrate on the project description and not the material you find most interesting?

At 2 years, 10 months, I would say you should be looking to write up. At this stage focussing on what is required by the project description (i.e. what the project was originally aiming to determine) is probably the shortest path to completing your PhD. I would not be looking at going off on a tangent at this stage - taking the project in a new direction is normally for an earlier stage if you have, say, a dramatic, ground breaking new finding. I personally would just be wanting to get the thesis written up, submitted and putting the PhD behind you.

This may seem a little contradictory, however, your supervisors' absences are not helping and I wonder if suspending until at least one of them is fully available might be an idea, as clearly you need to discuss the differences you have with them face-to-face rather than by intermittent e-mails. This will at least give you a break and a chance to fully think through what path you want to take. Whilst I would want to push for the finish at 2 years and 10 months, not having either present and you having different ideas from them could be the difference between minor corrections and a revise and resubmit decision come viva time. As a last resort, you may want to ask about a change in supervision, however, given they know your project this is not something you should do unless you have to.

Ian

Me too, and only six months in.

wena dont quit, push through. A PhD is meant to be hard otherwise everyone would do it. Take a deep breathe and take some time off to think things through.

Hi all and thanks for you replies.

@Mackem_Beefy: The PhD at my university is planned in a time of 5 yrs. As I just did my Lic this means that now I have to make some significant contributions in order to be able to finish my PhD. In the last few month I lost a lot of time and most importantly momentum. Change in supervision is out of the question for me, the project was devised by my supervisors and there may be only a few other persons who could supervise me, but they are again very close to my current supervisors.

@derose: I know that, but I think the PhD is not meant to be such that you start feeling physical consequences or deterioration in mental health. If it is then what's the point in having a PhD and not being able to work after that?

At the moment I'm still considering what to do but am leaning towards leaving and am looking after industry positions. Even if I finish the PhD I do not intend to stay in academia so I don't see the PhD as that crucial. I'm even thinking that it would be better to start working on my career in industry sooner than later.

Hey zenzo! I am sorry that you are passing though such a nervous breakdown. But believe me each and everyone and I mean literally each and every PhD holder has passed through this phase during their journey of PhD. This degree is all about patience. Are you able to get help of other lab members or a post doc? It is very rude that your supervisors are not there for you and even discouraging you :( After spending this much time on the PhD do you really want to quit? I have no idea about industrial employment scenario but I know that PhD is not just a degree but it also holds so many things imp in our lives with it. You should definitely see the Postgrad tutor or even a psychiatrist, you may find one on campus. Believe me PhD students see them often. Think about the positive and negative sides of quitting PhD and if you really feel so, you may quit it, but I wish you stay back and fight for just an another year for the degree in which you have invested a lot. Wait a bit longer. This too shall pass.

Good luck

Hi zenzo, I'm curious to know what you eventually did? did you finish your phd? did you publish? I feel stuck at the same place right now. I'm in my second year of a 5-yr phd program and I literally have no motivation to work on my research.

PHD is a long journey folk, so try to be patient and work smartly rather than hardly. We all faced the same situation, but at the end, you will become DR. 3 years means you almost done with regard to data collection, methodology, and enough pieces of literature reviwed, and you should start with the final phase which is writing up. Finally, you should push your sups to review your work bc most of them do not care what you have done or should be doing as they are busy with their routine tasks in the unv.

all the best