I had this feeling as well. I had a similar experience to you, although some parts were tough, overall I enjoyed the PhD and finished ahead of schedule. I think part of it is being so motivated to finish and then when suddenly it is, your left wondering "why did I spend so much time to get here". I had dreams and aspirations of where getting a PhD would take me but of course they were not going to all come true as soon as I recieved my PhD. You just have to identify what your goals are and keep on working towards them. I also had these feelings after completing my first postdoc. Currently enjoying my second postdoc though and trying to set things up for the next step to try and avoid this "feeling" when it ends!

Hello Chris,
Conservation positions are very competitive as many people will carry out volunteer work, making jobs were you actually get paid highly sought after. Therefore a post graduate degree is a huge advantage. If you plan on doing a PhD after your masters anyway going straight into a PhD makes more sense. It might be difficult to do this given your background is not in ecology. However disease ecology is currently very popular in ecology and a growing conservation issue. Your degree might give you an advantage over other PhD candidates in some projects in this area, if that interests you. I'd keep applying for PhD's while staying enrolled for the Masters in case none come up. Many more people are presently applying for PhDs to ride out the downturn in the economy, so it can be difficult, just be persistent. It also might be an idea to see if any of members of staff at the university you are carrying your Masters out in work in areas that you may be interested in doing a PhD in. It will be easier to get a PhD off somebody who knows you after your Masters. Volunteer work as said is great. Don't be afraid to approach people offering volunteer work who are not advertising positions. Very few people will say no to a qualified skilled person carrying out work for free. It is a good idea to look at jobs you would be interested in doing in the future and seeing their requirements. If some skill or experience keeps coming up that you don't have then that's the best place to volunteer in.
Hope this helps.

No it does not have to be on one species. I am looking at the role carnivores have in the spread of a disease so am looking at all mammal carnivores in my country. Your PhD should be answering a question so how many animals you need to focus on depends on how many animals would need to be looked at to answer that question. Zoology is becoming so interlinked with ecology it is rare to just focus on one animal anyway due to factors such as prey availability, predator avoidance, competition ect. I would just choose a question first rather than choose which animals you want tostudy and try to make them fit

Its the way that it is edited also. Those who are brought into the board room are the ones whose clips will be majorly used in the programme making them appear more prominent in the task. It can make it a bit annoyingly predictable. It was clear when they showed the clip of Simon saying how he had an IQ of 170 earlier on in the show sounding all cocky that he would be the one fired.

I always found it good to ask to talk to one of your potential supervisors current PhD students. When I got offered the PhD I am doing now I asked for a phone numbers of one of their students and did not accept it until after I spoke to them.
You could also ask what kind of journals would your PhD work be targeted at

I submited my abstract on time, thanks for all your advice

I want to present at a conference in Easter as I am going into my second year and feel it is time I started to present my work. Unfortunately I have to have the abstract submitted by Friday and I as yet have no real results.
My problem is that being a zoology student I have spent the first year gathering my samples from across the country and storing them. I have finally gathered all my samples and am ready to start testing them. I have already learnt and tested the lab techniques I will be using so by the time the conference comes about I will have lots of results.
Does anyone know the proper way of saying "I dont have results now but will have when I present the paper"? I have heard the correct term for this type of abstract before but have forgotten it.
Thanks

Always find friends that are fiends for something far more interesting!

Thanks for the replies. A witty book that is useful sounds good. I talk to my supervisor and fiends doing PhDs daily but thought one of these books can't do any harm. Can only be an extra help if anything. I should have said I am an Ecology student looking at parasites in Carnivores

I was wondering if anyone has read any of the books on "how to do a PhD" advertised on the findaphd.com website. The discriptions seem to all say the same thing so I was wondering if anyone has read any of them and could reccomend one and why. I would much prefer one written from a European presepetive rather than a 7 year American one.
Cheers