Well, you could certainly be a Research Assistant, although I don't think you will have as much as autonomy over the project as you may have now (your own PhD). I was an RA before I started my PhD and even whilst I was doing it too. I also know of people who are Research Associates and Research Fellows who don't have a PhD but most are working towards one.

I think it is possible to have a career in research without a PhD but obviously it will be much harder to progress etc. Good luck Angie, no matter what you decide.

Hi Angie, i started my Phd 18 months ago, so pretty far in i suppose. HOWEVER, a collegue who was in their final year (i.e. over two years in) decided to leave in december so you would not be alone.
Foxy, i spoke to the careers counsellors attached to my uni - they were really really helpful (it was definitly counselling) they made sure i was doing what i really wanted to and for the right reasons. As to the timing - as you can see from the date of my first post, i strung out the actual leaving for financial reasons. I would receommend going to your careers people, having a chat with them, deciding what sort of work you would like to go into and then sorting out your c.v to fit that sort of job.

As i said in my post yesterday - in the job interviews i have been to so far have, the people have not for a second taken it as a bad thing that i decided to leave - i told them that i had been unhappy for a few months and had decided to proactivly look at the reasons for my unhappiness, and that by doing this i reaslised that the sort of career that would make me happy and use my skills well, did not necessarily depend on my having a phd. So with this in mind i thought it was only fair to leave the phd for someone who could pursue it to the end and hopefully further as it was a very interesting and relevent and worthy topic. I also stated that after realising that i did not need a phd to get where i was going, i wondered whether i would have the motivation in a years time to do the topic justice.

You have to sell yourself as someone who has realised that the phd wasn't for you and has taken some very proactive, thoughtful and couragous steps to sort it out - interviewers love that approach as it shows a lot about you.
As to leaving and then job hunting or not - it depends on if you can manage financially and if not, if you can fake some more interest and motivation while you job hunt. It is against the law to give a bad reference and you are not obliged to put your supervisor down as one - an old employer would probably be more relevent. If your at all worried about how they might react - take someone with you to the meeting - one thing i have leaqrnt is that academics dont follow the normal codes of conduct for working manners, i could have dragged my supervisors to court for harassment if i so chose to and i would be within my rights. Take someone for support and to witness anything and i am sure they will play ball.

Coastalchick, I think you are right in everything you say.

I've just made the decision to drop out of my PhD, 6 months into the project. I job-hunted while still on my PhD, for the simple reason that I otherwise would have had no money to live on, and nowhere to go - also, I fugired that if unsuccessful in my quest for employment, at least I would have the option to continue with the doctorate, which is better for a cv than being unemployed, even if I was miserable.

I got references from my old job, so my supervisors were not involved - it feels horrid to be doing things underhand in this way, but then it was a matter of survival - I couldn't drop out and apply for work whilst living in a box on the streets.

I've known from the start that I don't need a PhD for the sort of work I want to be doing, but applied for the project because it is a really interesting and worthwhile piece of work to do in itself. What I wasn't really prepared for, after a good few years in professional employment, was dealing with being a student again - not just the lack of salary (the studentship is liveable), but the lack of security (e.g. what happens if you get sick? or pregnant?), lack of status (meaning there is no support on anything from obtaining money for work-related travel, to being allowed to use the car park - staff only), dealing with student accommodation, unregulated working hours (I spend my life in the labs), ...

Furthermore, after half a year, I've come to really dislike academia, the pressure and politics and back-stabbing and unspeakable admin procedures are not something I want to have to put up with for another 2 1/2 or 3 years.

However, the ultimate clincher to me was the fact that I utterly hate the city I'm living in - if I had been doing the same project somewhere nice, I may well have seen it through and ended up as Dr Vagabond (after all, I still find the project interesting and my supervisors are ok). Still, seen as I don't want an academic job and don't need the title for what I ultimately want to do, I decided there is no reason to be miserable and in a financially precarious situation for three years of my life. The second part of the clincher was, of course, that I saw my perfect job advertised, and I've been offered it!! Yay :)

At the job interview, they were far more interested in my relevant skills and experience than in the fact that I was about to drop out of a PhD. They did ask about it, but only at the end of the interview, and the fact I had a coherent answer meant they were satisified - as coastalchick says, the important thing is to turn your decision into a positive one.

Now all that remains is the minor matter of telling my supervisors, which I'm not looking forward to. I've only just been told I've got the job, so I'm waiting for the contract to be sent to me (I'm not burning any bridges here before I have everything on paper). I'm really not looking forward to it, especially as I really like one of my supervisors. Still, I'm polishing off my literature review, and will hand that in as a "finished" piece of work, together with my Reference Manager database of 400 references, and the corresponding electronic library and boxfiles of papers - at least, that way I'm leaving behind a resource that someone else can pick up and use, should they re-advertise the project.

Remember, people: there is life outside academia. If you're putting yourself through a PhD you have to be sure it really is what you want to do. Admitting to yourself, and others, that it isn't - that takes a lot of guts. Ultimately, only you can know what is right for you - don't be miserable unless you can't change whatever it is that's making you miserable.

Congratulations on the dream job Vagabond, that is great news.

I hope you receive the contract soon and that your supervisors don't give you a hard time.

Hi guys,
thanks a lot for your ideas and support. Vagabond, congratulations to your new job, good luck with it. I think that this forum is great and it`s good to know that I`m not alone with this problem.

Congratulations vagabond, on getting the job- and thanks to everyone on this forum who have replied back to my posts to give their opinion on my situation. Looking back at my phd experience (and reading through the posts on this forum) its amazing how when we start our phds we just think about study- but then the study area, places where we study, difficult supervisors/colleaugues etc- get in the way of the goal. Makes you think,if it weren't for these distractions, then everything would be ok- but, like everything else in life, you don't get everything handed to you on a plate. Oh well...

My PhD "stalled" 18 months ago, after several months of going nowhere. My end date came and the University contacted me to see what I was doing! I've not quit, even though I've thought about it. I was surprised that the department now want to help

I do know once I had passion, and maybe if that can be rekindled, I'll complete. I used to love research, and when I talk to someone about their (related) subject get all enthused with suggestions, its just when I retreat to the darkened room it evaporates!

As has been said, a PhD isn't the be all and end all, and really means little outside of academia. The opinions of many PhD recipients is by the end they had lost most of their initial enthusiasm.

I'm hoping to continue part time and get to my PhD transfer stage. I know if I do, then I'll finish. The lucky people have a good supervisor or a good department, and are supported/guided over hurdles - the rest of us need forums like these!

Some of you remember me being desperate to get accepted and then being the happiest person in the world starting my PhD. It was a dream thing, the project, the place, people...
Then I started, excited and determinate to suceed. But then everything went wrong. I am a hard working person but my supervisor wanted more, which meant giving up the little rest of private life I had left. On my arrival I was supposed to be trained by a research assistant who was just like me switching from a different background and who wasn's trained either. This caused a terrible frustration and misunderstandings between me and him. I was stressed, lonley, feeling guilty.