Hey guys. I have been on this forum a few months before I started and I’m glad that i have finally begun after almost a year's wait. My main reason for posting this is to gather your experiences when you first started (no matter how long that may be :) ) It will be interesting indeed.

I am barely into my third month and i must say that sometime I feel useless and marvel at my lack of knowledge in my field. It also amazing to see how everything one has studied comes into use in a PhD. Some days I am really pleased by how much I am beginning to learn bits and pieces. My PhD is in industry and it is completely different from the academic environment. My hope is that at least when this year ends I will be able to say "I know where I am heading exactly" because at the moment I can't say I do to an extent.

Apologies for the long post :) Please do share your experiences when you first started and even where you are now. I believe it will be an immense encouragement not just for me but for everyone.

I'm one and a half months in. I have no clue where this is going and nor do my supervisors! That being said, its amazing how much fun you can have with useless pracs justified as "getting used to equipment"

At the start of my first year- I read....then I read some more...then I read a bit more...all the while not really understanding what I was doing or reading and feeling like someone was going to tap me on the shoulder and ask me to leave.
Three years on...not so much reading time, but still not entirely sure whats going on most of the time, and still not convinced the university got it wrong and it wasnt me that got position after all!
I think what I found most frustrating about that first year is that I didnt really seem to have a whole lot to do- but I 've realised now thats fine, it gives you time to get your head around your research, try out new techniques ( a number opf techniques and ideas my supervisor had about my project fell at the first hurdle) and settle in. So I'm not sure if its good advice, but i'd say don't feel too worried about not having a whole load of direction or a list of things to do- it'll come.

I know how you feel, 9 months on it's a little better. I'm just about to do my fieldwork (I'm doing an ethnographic study) and have been 'busy', with lovely practical stuff - ethics, information leaflets, and generally getting out and about. The reading and espically trying to figure out what to do with the reading has been the hardest thing. In hindsight getting into the field earlier would have been the ideal.

I would guess that a lot of people don't realise where they are going until the end of the 2nd year at least - I don't know about you guys, but my work has changed so much and so many times!

When i started i was really worried that i had no clue of what i was doing ( still do :) ) and a bit more worried where my originality content was going to come from. I am beginning to do a bit more practical work now and gaining some knowledge, at least while looking at what has been done in my field.

Wow, it is really interesting reading your experiences. Please keep 'em coming.

i really enjoyed my first few months. mostly because it was the first time i was studying full time since schooldays, and i really enjoyed being able to focus completely on my studies. i also had lots of fun with my research centre - finally i felt that i was where i wanted to be.
on the other hand - maybe that's not the whole story. i also spent most of the first term just getting used to being in a different city, different country, away from my partner. learning how (simple) things work, such as buses etc.
i'm well into my second year now and a bit nostalgic for that time when it was all excitment and the work seemed fun, not hard.
(then i started getting negative funding results, one after the other, which were real tough blows to confidence - so my outlook changed...)

Hi all, I'm now 4 months into a PhD in social science and I find it so reassuring to read all your posts! I feel like I'm working non-stop but not achieving a great deal, then my supervisor sits me down and points out all the things I know now that I was completely oblivious to 4 months ago and I start to feel that maybe I am making some progress after all. I've spent the majority of my time so far reading though and so I'd be interested to know at what point others amongst you started writing, presenting at seminars, conferences etc.

When I first started, my supervisor farmed me out to a government organisation for 4 months and got me to do work for him.... so he got cash and I got.. erm, well.... This meant that the first 6 months or so when you 'flounder' around, not knowing what to do or what to read was condensed into about 2 months.... My supervisor wanted the work to continue but I told him at the end of Jan that I wouldn't be returning to the organisation and was going to concentrate on reading papers.

I think my research started off about ' web standards' and ended up as ' project management in virtual organisations' so a total shift.. if I ever read my research grant application again it would be so amusing as my thesis was nothing like my research proposal and that's very normal. I would say.. don't be afraid to ask 'stupid' questions.. and don't fudge things.. if something isn't working, find out why, learn from it and move ahead confidently.. then put that in your thesis and show how your research has evolved and contributes novelly to the research domain.

Oh goodness.... I'm three months into a part time PhD and haven't got a specific question/thing yet. I'm finding it really frustrating, cos I feel like I should know what I'm doing, and I feel like my supervisors think I should know what I'm doing.... and I don't. Is this usual?

Join the club wanderer! If I don't get some idea of where this is going soon, I'm going to scream!!!!

Hummm, I still get butterflies thinking that what I'm doing is all wrong, even though told I'm on the right track. I have been doing interviews and sending questionnaires out, huge survey and all the info is coming back and I'm freaking out as to what to do with it! Keep saying it will be fine....right?

Me too...my nightmare is that I have missed something really silly in my calculations, and that in 2 years' time I will realise that all my data is wrong

You seem to have done loads Buzby! How far in are you?