Hello, I'm not sure why i'm writing this post. I guess when I was thinking of quitting, I wanted to see if a anyone had gone through it. Therefore I thought I would post my story. Also its kind of closure/venting for me. Lastly, do you believe (lab) PhD's should have a unified structure and possibly a regulatory body? (see end of post)

I came into a lab based PhD straight after my undergraduate. I almost instantly took a dislike to research. The politics, the snail pace of everything, unregulated hours, unproductiveness, ect ect.

During my PhD I had my own lab and office, no post docs or other students, I know this would be heaven for some of you but for me it was lonely and I had not one to help me. I felt really let down as students in other departments had training courses and generally more support.

Me and my supervisor were very different minded and also from different cultures which meant we had different expectations of PhD students and people in general. I things I disliked the most was one minute my supervisor was telling me I had to do more work, the next to relax. He was not consistent. He was also slow, took him 2 months to send back my first draft of my proposal.

Anyway I decided I had had enough, and started job searching. I managed to find a job. The hard part was telling my sup that I was going to leave, as I still felt he had invested time in me. He tried to change my mind, but didn't seem too mad. I had a month to "finish up", me and my sup had decided what I needed to finish, however he seemed to disappear during this time. I guess he had given up.

I have been working in the industry job for a few weeks now and feel much happier. I wish I had made a decision and quit sooner. I feel PhD's not a regulatory body to bring in standards and structure, so many people suffer through them. Anything that that causes this incidence of depression and stress seen on this board is not a good thing in my opinion.

I feel similar and i'm only 3 months in! Its the real lack of routine that gets to me. I also want to work in the industry and feel like I am putting my life on hold for 3 years, where I could be starting now. Not much advise i'm afraid, just wanted you to know you are not alone :). Hold in there, it may seem like 4 years is a long time, but in comparison to the rest of your life, it is quite short :). Plus if you start an industry job later, you have less time to get bored of it, thats what I tell myself anyways! Good luck

Hi! I started my PhD in October and have found this forum really encouraging.

My PhD involves lab work, which I am yet to start due to snow/supervisor being ill. I feel like I should have started by now. When you first started your PhD, was it a slow start?

I have been doing lots of reading and written a basic literature search, I am hoping this can be included in my upgrade and possibly my thesis.

I just feel like I am in limbo, not sure where I should be putting my efforts. What should I be doing? I feel like I should be doing more..

Thanks