======= Date Modified 19 Jul 2012 15:59:20 =======
Hiii....this is yashwanth frm IIT Bombay...i am done with masters from manufacturing engg. specialization with good academic credentials...i have 3 conference papers and 2 journals in progress...i have secured a job in tata motors, pune in r and d center which will be starting in September...but i want to do phd..i want to do in europe or in uk as it takes about 3 years to complete...can anyone please tell me how is the lifestyle of the phd in those universities...i mean the way they work...and the life after phd of the people there...????

Hi Yash,

I can only speak for my departments. My PhD is split between a research centre and a university. At the research centre everything is very professional and well run. People are very friendly, but it is definitely a 9-5 working office atmosphere.

At the university I work in a small office with 15 postgrads (although normally there are only 3-5 of us in). I am fortunate to be in a pretty small department and everyone is really friendly and gets on well. People work whatever hours they fancy, although most still do a 40 hour week, with much longer weeks if you are coming to the end or have a busy period of lab work. While we do work hard in the office there are a few occasions where we all get chatting for an hour or two, and we also meet for coffee once a week.

With regards to life after the PhD is completed, most people either move into industry or if they plan to stay in academia apply for either a teaching assistant or post-doc position.

thanks a lot for your generous reply...:-) can you please let me know whether this culture is same in all universities...i mean 5 day week from 9 to 5...and weekends free...??? because in my post graduation i had to work till 12 pm for 5 days and on Saturdays till 5 because my professor insisted me to sit in lab all though i dint have much work...!!!

Hi Yash,

I think the number of hours that you work depends on the department and your supervisor. For me, during my masters I was working about 10 hours a day in the lab and then at least one day of the weekend (if not the whole weekend!) because my supervisor gave me such a massive workload! Now in my PhD it's very different because it's a different lab - for the first 6 months I was working 9-5 during the week and maybe doing some reading at weekends, whereas now my research is really picking up so I work 9-6/7 and then maybe a day and a half at the weekends to make sure I get everything done. But the busy periods come and go so there are always less busy times when you can take weekends off and go on holiday, etc.

I think the best thing would be to talk to students in the departments that you're interested in working in to get a feel for what the atmosphere and typical workload is like. Hope this helps, and good luck!

Anxious :)

Hi Yash, I'm just starting to learn about PhDs myself so please don't take what I say too seriously.

I've just came out a MEng Master's course, which was much more coursework based than your's I think. I've never been published or anything. During my master's I worked pretty much 12hrs/day 7 days a week. the PhD students in the department had a situation that was somewhere in the middle ground between hours a student works and hours an employee would work (9 to 5 with weekends). Sometimes PhD students would stay late but 95% of them are out of the building by 7-7:30 ish. sometimes they'd come in on saturdays but generally had the weekends to themselves I think. Writing your disertation may be a hard towards the end. It depends on effective time management. If you can pace yourself and spread the workload so that your are not skiving at the start and working flat out towards the deadline you'll be able to work socible hours - A good supervisor will help in this area.

James

I've got to fly (pub quiz night), however, the new people here might want to have a look at my blog on this (UK-based perspective).

http://www.wearthesis.talktalk.net

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

thnx a lot fr ur generous replies...can u please tell me for getting admission and funding in uk and eu nations is GRE also required apart from IELTS...??? nowadays it is seen that getting funding in uk is very difficult...can you please throw light on this...!!!!