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. Why do I really want a PhD anyway? / Why does anyone want a PhD? What is it like looking for a job after being a quitter?

I am in the same situation as you, just at the end of my 1st year and motivation plummeted recently. However, I am in such a small subject area, if I quit, I would never get a job in that area, or if I did everyone would know about my quitting and would be very embarrassed, the field is so cliquey. So I have not much option, just keep plugging away, but trying to turn it round so I am motivated to finish ASAP. Starting to think about doing something completely different afterwards like a year out or something makes me picture myself with a fat thesis under my arm in my graduation robes and telling people 'actually I'm a dr'.

To answer the OPs question, a lot of people do leave PhDs for a number of reasons. They find the skills and experiences are helpful in finding other jobs outside academia. To be honest if I wasnt dead set on an academic career I would have left around the end of my second year.

With regard to the whole "I am a doctor" thing, I appreciate it may be helping you through things but it does smack of insecurity. It also sets you up for the whole "What are you a doctor of?"-> "Oh then you are not a real doctor then?" which makes you look worse in the long run. I stopped doing that a long time ago when I kept getting sick of the same reaction again and again.

What is a greater achievement is the fact that you have stuck with the thing, learned what you have and made a contribution to your field.

I think its a difficult question - it depends on your field. I know that I would be unlikely to go into an academic job and would prefer to work as a scientist in the public sector. Therefore the 'quitter' status probably wouldn't be an issue because noone would really know what was involved. But for an academic job I am not so sure, in some ways it may look bad, but in another way, if you quit now and go and do something your more interested in doing maybe it will serve you better in the long run

I think the problem is that I don't really have the drive to see me through.  It's a challenge when you don't know why you are doing it. I have lost sight of my original ambitions through being given an opportunity that I felt I should take.  The topic should take you through, not the goal of a PhD. You are right though, I have learnt a lot and I think people lose sight of personal development and personal ambition for a title - for which many do not care for, and at the end of it all, that kind of gratification is short lived and ego driven.  I learnt - I am not particularly interested in academia.

Its interesting, I am not that interested in my subject area and although the title will be funny when i have finished - I have not signed up 3 + years of my life to get it. I started my PhD just to network with the right people in my field - without staying on to do a phd I would have lost a lot of important contacts for future jobs. Therefore, I do not treat my PhD as a 'journey' or something I really have to be in love with - I just treat it like it is the project I have to get on with for the next 2+ years, more like I am contracted into a particular job, rather than a PhD. But each to their own and if you are finding that you need a certain amount of interest in it then maybe its not for you.

That is a good way of proceeding - treating it like a job.  Get on and do it, and I wish you the best of luck. I just don't feel in that situation anymore, I have let things slip and don't feel prepared to continue.  Unfortunately unlike a job I feel a little out of my depth and isolated, I was convinced this would not be a problem, but I need to be honest with myself. I have a lot of respect for anyone who completes and plan to come back to it in the future, maybe 10 years time, once I have partied hard.

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Have you thought about investigating possible job options before you make the final decision of chucking it in? Might be good to have something else lined up before you embark on that 10 year partying spree. Best of luck with whatever you decide though, I could never have even got to this point in my PhD if I hadn't worked fulltime for years in between my various stints in academia - it feels a bit like having a foot in the 'real world' even working part-time, but I was never really cut out to be a fulltime student. Whatever suits you, I guess.

Totally with you on that one Yikes. I too am reaching the end of my first year and it has been so up and down that I am really beginning to question whether I should be doing my PhD at all. I think I've had ONE good month of research - well I thought it was good until it came to writing up my findings and thought, 'I've completely forgotten the meaning behind the material I've collected!' My annual assessment is in November and I'm going to have to really think about whether this is right for me over the next couple of weeks. I think it's probably best to quit in the first year - am I right?? Anyway, whatever you decide to do - best of luck and I admire you for your honesty - not always an easy thing when doing a PhD (being honest with yourself).

Reading your message makes me feel a lot better as I had about two months in total of good research in the first year. I had my upgrade a few weeks ago and I couldn't answer all the questions properly. I said I don't know to some of them and I am rewriting some of the report, even though they agreed to upgrade me ayway

I was prepared to write up an MPhil and hopefull leave by Xmas, but I was told by my supervisors that it was my choice, so a week later I decided to stay!

I'm still not sure it was the right choice. How many people have had supervisors let them go all the way to witing up the PhD thesis and attend the viva only to fail, I wonder? It would be a waste of three years. :$

In my 20s, I left a PhD after one year. It really didn't have any impact on getting a job although I felt really depressed about it. After the first couple of jobs I edited the experience out of my CV completely. 20 years later I'm doing another PhD in a different field.

If you really think you are going to quit - it's definitley best to do it at earlier rather than later. If you are going to be really bored - you should at least be paid for your trouble ;-)