Hi everyone,

A (probably quite stupid) question. How interesting do you find your subject? At the moment I really don't think I'm interested enough in mine. On the face of it it's a fascinating subject but when you get down to the detail and the nitty gritty as it were I'm just not that gripped. I'm trying to finish my upgrade at the moment and I keep getting distracted and not doing it, I just don't seem to be bothered even though I desperately want the stupid thing finished. I'm starting to hate my PhD, for a number of reasons but the most worrying is that I can't really get excited about my topic. Whenever I talk to my supervisor about the subject area he rattles off all these papers he assumes I've read (which I then write down and try and find) and speaks to me on a level far above my level of knowledge. I avoid talking to him now as he always throws out about 3 or 4 different directions in which I could take the research and I'm never sure which one he wants to go in (I feel it will be his decision in the end) and I don't have enough knowledge to discuss them with him. I feel like I'm totally floundering and my subject knowledge is pitiful, however whenever I try and read papers I could be reading a foreign language and I just stare at them. Most of the time I just live in a state of blissful denial as there is so much lab work to do in our lab (mine and everyone else's - we all have to muck in with everything that's going on) that I can go for weeks without even thinking about reading a paper, but recently I've been very conscious that I've actually got to get a PhD out of this. Sorry to rant on, I think it's been building up for some time and this weekend it seems to have hit home!

I find my subject really interesting, but like you, I also find that there's so much day-to-day, repetitive lab work to do that I can also go weeks (and months) without really thinking about anything other than ordering new vials and looking after students and routine assays. It can be really draining and it makes you forget your original aims.

It has its moments. I joined a completely different field to all my previous expertise so don't worry overly about it. You'll get more interested as you get more into it. Else you're doing the wrong job.

Overall I find my subject really interesting, and it keeps me motivated to have the interest. Yes, there are the inevitable boring boring bits of reading and writing, but I try to keep plugged into the parts that energize me--that make me think the research is worthwhile. Some of it is, what is it that is original that I am trying to say!?!? Can you take on a particular dimension or aspect of the research and develop it into an interesting argument? What drew you to the topic in the first place? My research has leaped the boundaries over several disciplines, making it very interdisciplinary, and this has made it also interesting ( though at times hair pulling-ly challenging). Think back to what made you interested to begin with, and see if there is some thread of that you can salvage in what you are doing.

I started out being interested. My Phd is economic modelling, whilst my undergraduate degree was mathematics. To earn some money whilst I was waiting to hear about funding for a PhD in mathematics, I took a research assistant post in the economics department. My boss suggested I think about a PhD in economic modelling because he had just employed another economist to build a regional economic model and, given my background, I could help and get a PhD out of it. Eventually I decided that this would make sense and subsequently registered. To cut a long story short, the model never got built (they were too busy with consultancy), I had to do it on my own and given that I'm not an economist it's been a nightmare. I've had to learn a completely new subject and a new programming language, both of which I'd normally enjoy but the pressure made me so stressed that all the interest was wrung out of it years ago. But I'm stubborn and refused to give up with the result that I'm nearly there. I've been through one viva and was given a re-submit with viva, but it's nearly done and it's ok. I'm not saying it's ideal, but it's possible to complete without being enthralled by your subject. It's also made me realise exactly what I want to research when I'm done, so it's not all bad!

I am bored out of my head. The subject I find very boring, struggling to write and just cant be bothered no matter how much I think I would like to do it. I am also coming to the end of my first year and doubt wither it is worth continuing. I am not sure I really want a PhD?

Maybe you need to change your topic ? You could either go for a radical change, or go for a related topic that is interesting.