Hi All,
I will be try to be brief in explaining my situation and hopefully you'll beable to give me some advice.
I am towards the end of my PhD and I am struggling with depression, for which Iam receiving drug and speechtherapy.
My PhD has been going on for far too long,it was even transferred from one unito another. Unfortunately my current supervisory team does not have muchexpertise in social science and I feel to be weak in research methods skills. Icompleted my data collection but despite asking my supervisors to check over atthe time of my second study, a postal survey, I now realize that I didn't do agreat job with the questionnaire. I haven't done the full analysis yet but I amdreading to find out that the study is too flawed to return any meaningfulresult.
At the same time I really need to move on,funding has now expired and I will need a job soon. I have got about 43000words written but I still have to complete the work with the analysis andwriting up of this postal survey.
I worked in a couple of contracts as universityresearcher and I initially thought of making of academia my profession, but Ihave struggled all the way during my PhD and my research posts plus now I feel verylow and I don’t have any more motivation.
So the only reasonable thing, it seems tome to abandon my academic ambition for good and to apply for a full or parttime job outside of academia while finishing my PhD for the sake of it.
Unfortunately I haven’t the slightest clueof what I could do in the real world as most of my life was spent at Uni and Ihad otherwise insignificant job experiences (sales/admin), plus my researchfield is social science particularly environmental sociology, which doesn’treally get much application outside academia.

Sorry I copied and pasted the text from word and it seems that some words ended up being attached.

Hi Tusco,

It appears that you are taking too much and breaking down. You are trying to work and make money and do your PhD. To worsen matters, you have broken down with depression. The drugs for depression could also affect your concentration.

It is not clear if you took a break to get back from your illness. If you haven't you need to do that. You may need to take 6 months off the PhD in order to recuperate. If you apply for an extension on health grounds, I think that will help.

You also have financial concerns. You may need to resign from your job if you are not coping well. You may need to take a loan from the bank to see you through the PhD process. It is not clear if you are married. If you are, then your spouse or other family members can help shoulder some of the financial responsibilities till you finish the PhD and get a job.

I think the line of action should be:


Get an extension and get back to health
Get some social support from community, family,
Get some financial support (may require taking a loan)
Finish the PhD
Get a job.

In the book 'how not to get a PhD', the author argues against starting a job towards the end of your PhD. It will be more difficult getting a job if you have not finished your PhD. The disadvantage of doing a PhD is that it is often a lonely experience with unneccessary competition. If you are not in a management field, your options tend to be restricted in terms of career options. You need to chart your own part and create your own future.

All the best

K

Can I recommend www.vitae.ac.uk for some ideas on jobs outside academia for PhDs? If it's research that you don't really enjoy, do you like teaching for example? That could lead you down a number of different tracks. Or is it the university life that appeals - what about the administrative side in that case? Perhaps think about things that you enjoy and get a friend to help you brainstorm ideas. Or even go and do one of those tests in your careers service that suggest careers. When I did it, they were mad things that came out, but even just seeing a list of jobs that I was supposedly suited for, helped me to start thinking outside the box a bit.

You've got the majority of that thesis written so don't give up now. Even a flawed survey will have some usable results, I'm sure and perhaps you could spin what you know see as the weaknesses as the 'directions for future research' bit of the conclusion. Are you trying to analyse it statistically? If so, could you get another member of staff who is strong on that type of analysis to help a bit. Or at least OK what you are trying to do methodologically, so that you felt a bit more confident about it? I think everyone's thesis has a bit of a cover up of what didn't exactly go to plan, and puts a positive spin on things that knowing what you do now, you'd never have done it that way... Perhaps your depression is leading you to be overly pessimistic about the quality of your work.

Hi Tusco,

43,000 words is a fantastic effort! I wish I'd written as much...

Sounds like you've really broken the back of it and just need that final push to get over the line. Take a couple of months break, regain your energies then blitz it - you're so close! Best of luck!!

Hi,
Thank you all for the advice.

I have taken some initiative and I met today my supervisor to whom I exposed my concerns and we agreed for him to look for some member of staff with a good expertise of social research questionnaire surveys. At least we'll know where I stand with regards of my survey work. I told him that in the worst case i.e. the survey is rubbish, I will submit for a MPhil as my data from my first study, 11 semi-structured interviews plus few open ended questionnaires, isn't enough for a PhD submission I believe, and I don't have nor the energy neither the career interest in going through another year of full time research to achieve a PhD which I would very likely not spend on the job market.
I will take a week or so off and I will think if I want to switch to a part-time status which would allow me more time for submission and it would give me space for some part time job. I will get out of this but it won't be easy nor quick....
I'll let you know what will happen: at least my story could be of some use for PhD students at an earlier stage....
Cheers

About your quantity of interviews: I recently talked to one of my supers who finished being an external for a viva. He said that the person only conducted 6 or 7 interviews, but he recommended a pass. It is about the quality of the data and not the quantity if you are using qual. based methods. Don't give up hope just because you don't have the numbers, see if you can get it to work for you anyway.