Hi all,

I'm about to start a PhD in American Literature and will be self-funding my first year. Does anyone have any ideas about how many hours per week of paid (non-PhD) work it's possible to squeeze in without compromising your project?

Let me know of your experiences.

Cheers.

If you have teaching duties at university, they generally state that about six hours or so is acceptable and won't jeopardise your PhD.

In my first year I was lucky enough for my department to pay full time fees for me. But I didn't get the AHRC so had to work for 20 hours a week in the university library.

It was hard work and by the time my AHRC acceptance letter came in August last year I was exhausted. My project probably has been damaged - my records for my reading in my first year are scant. But at least I managed to do some kick-ass research,

Good luck.

I've worked between 15 and 20 hours a week in my part-time job for most of my PhD, and I've done teaching and exam marking and stuff on top of that (teaching and preparation took maybe an afternoon a week averaged over the year). I've given up work over the summer now while I finish writing up, and I'm hoping to be finished by Christmas (so that'll be three years and a term). It's do-able, but don't expect to have a spectacular social life! I don't think my thesis has suffered, but there's extra things in the dept which I haven't been able to do that would have looked good on my cv, but I just don't have time for.

I was also lucky that I had a relatively stress-free, often quiet, and well-paid job, so I sometimes got £8 an hour for a ten hour shift, of which six hours were spent reading. Sadly, my job has changed now, which is one reason I've quit for a few months!

I think my work load would allow me to have a weekend job, generally I am busy during the week then free at weekends.. I chose not to have one mainly because of my relationship situation.. my partner is doing a PhD at a uni 250 miles away from me so most weekends either I go to him or he comes to me so it makes the reality of a part time job a bit of a no go. Also I enjoy having some free time to myself, I would hate to work all week then have to work all weekend too, I think it would do my head in lol!