Hi,

I'm finishing my PhD in history (scary 4th year) and don't know what I want to do with it. Is this normal???

In my defense, I must add I wanted to go into Academia, but now I'm quite sick of it. Any sympathetic soul out there?

Hi Jay! I'm coming to the end of a PhD in English and haven't the faintest idea what I'm going to do. Originally thought I'd like to be a lecturer, but seminar teaching has made it clear that lecturing/teaching isn't the career for me.

First of all, congrats on getting so far. I started my PhD in English etc. in February of this year, and can hardly imagine how far I've yet to go. My personal dream is to win the lotto and become an independent researcher, and we should all have a dream, despite the harsh reality of academics.
Just wondering if you'd tell me a little bit about how drastically your research changed from the beginning up to submission. I'm starting to see my work go in a different direction and it's a bit scary.

Thanks for your comments. The difficult part of a PhD in a "less scientific" discipline is not really knowing how to move forward, I think.

I'm finishing and still (still) struggling with the structure.

As long as there is an introduction and a conclusion, the rest is all up to you, and that can be stressing.

Scientists tend to know their structure from the outset: Intro, review, methods, problem, discussion..., or something along those lines. However, they rely on experiments. If these don't work as expected, they have to start all over again. And that is hard too.

Jay2007 - I know exactly what you mean. Everytime I write a new paragraph it seems to change my structure. I know what I want to say in general, but keeping it moving is difficult because I always feel I'm going to back to change things or I am having to deal with arguments that don't seem to fit. Each argument can take you off onto other points that need to be addressed - keeping focused is so hard.

Thanks again for your response. It's helpful to know that there are people who actually understand what you're going through.

A further comment: People who decide to do a PhD in humanities are usually interested in (or rather obsessed with) words rather than numbers, if this makes any sense.

English is my second language and I find it extremely frustrating (and often embarrassing) not being able to master the language I'm writing in. Anyone in a similar situation? Maybe I should write this in a new post.

hey, jay. although english is my "first" language chronologically, it is not my first language from point of view of versatility, capability etc., because i went through school and uni in german, and just have soooo much more practice writing in german than in english.

so i find that although people usually tell me my english is fine, i am constantly frustrated and annoyed at how haaaard it is to find the right words, the right expressions, to get my ideas across in the same precision i aim to in german. like you i have high standards for my language, but found that experience in writing (in german) helped me develop as a quite good writer. now it feels like i'm back at square one. sometimes it really gets me down!