Hi,

Just putting this out there for a bit of advice - I'm hoping to emigrate after I finish my PhD, hopefully to Australia (although I realise academics aren't on the list of wanted occupations but that's another story!) and am planning a holiday out there in a few months to look around and maybe try and contact a few labs out there etc. My funding runs out in just over a year so I'm thinking about what my plans would be for when I finish.

So here's the thing... I'm really nervous about asking my supervisor for time off for this. We had a frank discussion recently where he said I'll be in the lab right up until my funding ends because I'm a bit behind with data collection because of lots of technical problems. So I feel like asking for 2 weeks off might be a bad idea. However, I would like to ask for his advice because I'd like to try to contact a couple of labs to see if it's possible to speak to anyone about what it's like to work in my field out in Australia. Maybe I would be better off explaining about my hopes of emigrating and emphasise that this is the reason for the holiday as opposed to just taking time off to enjoy the sun!

Sorry this has been a long and waffly post, I'm a bit stressed out by my partner and family going on and on about the holiday and wanting me to ask for the time off ASAP - basically I'm wondering is asking for a holiday for this reason a terrible idea, and is it very naive of me to think that contacting labs would be a good idea? I'm due to finish in about a year to 18months, so to me it makes sense to start planning for after the PhD.

Any thoughts would be very welcome :) Thanks!

I think you're very sensible to be thinking ahead.

If you've still got a year's worth of funding to do, taking a couple of weeks off is not going to jeopardise your project. It might even do you good to have a break, and help you stop worrying about your next move. You're entitled to take time off anyway.

If you think your supervisor might raise an objection or some concerns, how about presenting him with a plan of how you will make sure the work stays on track (PIs seem to like seeing Gantt charts for example) and say that you'll work harder to catch up when you return, or something like that.