Hi everyone, was just looking for some advice as to whether changing my course to teaching is a good idea.

I am currently about half way through my PhD. Everything is on track so far, I have a couple of papers in preparation for publication, and my supervisors and thesis monitoring committee are happy about my progress. I have some concerns as I am following very different lines of investigation with my two supervisors, and I think it will take a lot of hard work to get a coherent thesis out of my work. We have also just found a major problem with one of the pieces of field equipment I have been using which significantly reduces the absolute accuracy of a lot of my work.

I feel lucky to have an interesting and challenging job, but at the same time I find that I feel anxious and stressed whenever I think about my PhD, and as time goes on, I have become more and more certain that this is not the kind of work I want to do for the rest of my life. I have done a lot of teaching (demonstrating, field trips, lecturing, marking, practicals, exam writing, pretty much everything!), and this is something that I find very rewarding and really enjoy. I look forward to my teaching work, where as I always try to put off my own research.

I am pretty certain I want to go into teaching rather than research as a long time career option. I just don't know whether it is better to try to get myself onto a teaching course now, or to wait until I have finished my PhD. I feel like it might be morally not very fair to my supervisors and funding body to just drop out because I've had a change of heart. At the same time, I feel like I am making myself stressed an wasting time for no reason as I'm fairly sure this isn't what I want to do long term.

Hi there, personally I would suggest that you stick it out , as many lecturing jobs do require a Ph.D. Even if you don't continue the research you are doing now, it will definately still help you to have finished the programme of research that has been funded, and having a PhD would enable to you to do research in other fields that interest you more (perhaps teaching and learning?) - nb. most academics do some research.. even if it is just evaluating a new style of teaching or surveying student perceptions.. and indeed you would need to be able to teach research methods/skills too as a lecturer. Unless you are considering retraininig as a primary or secondary school teacher I would definately try and stick it out! It is very hard going and takes a long time (I eventually finished mine last year) butit does open a lot more doors to you employment and funding wise if you complete and pass it. Good luck!