Zombie thread ;)

I started my PhD with no thoughts for an academic career. I wanted a job in industry but the kind of job that needed (or would be greatly helped) by a PhD. I'm lucky that things went to plan.

You don't know where your PhD is going to take you - conferences and presenting are great for networking. I know these things helped me so that I had three job offers before I had even submitted my thesis.

You could take this job now and forget this PhD. I'm not sure how hard you had to work to even get the PhD position but if you jack it in, are you sure you wont be thinking "what if" in a couple of years time? The PhD experience is unique, not always in a good way.

Basically what I'm trying to say, after the PhD is over, you may not even be interested in the type of job you are being offered now, maybe something better comes along. It really is a gamble.

Life outside of academia (particularly post-PhD) is very good. The PhD almost feels like a distant memory. I can't say it was a bad experience but I really hated being a student for so long. Once I started working I felt like my life was finally moving along.

I did get a couple of papers out of my thesis but I'm glad I don't have to do anymore writing EVER AGAIN!

I was extremely lucky jobwise, I had three job offers when I was finishing off year 3 and was able to pick the best one (best paid one).

Olivia - yikes!

I agree with the others, stick to the comments by your supervisor rather than the proof reader. Your thesis should be understandable by anyone who has a small amount of knowledge in your area (this is what I was told when writing my thesis - my field is science based). If you have seen the use of 'I' by other academics, then don't worry about it.

MS Visio gets a vote from me. However for all my diagrams in my thesis I used MS powerpoint. If they don't need to be so technical (to scale etc) then powerpoint is perfect.

Yay! Well done!

The best soap ever is Sunset Beach, they should definitely bring it back.

I loved that mooncup man, I have a copy of it saved in an external drive (found it the other day and still makes me smile).

Don't know about post-its but definitely true about the mouse mat.

I'm not jealous, I could have sent my ADDRESS to them too!

I remember this, I think PGFT must have had excessive amounts of marketing material as they said "email us your address and we will post you a mouse mat". I never did, I think I found the whole thing sinister.

Slumdog Millionaire is overrated.

I haven't seen any good films recently. It feels like everything has been done to death. Looking forward to the last Airbender. Keep meaning to watch Shrek 4 but nothing is dragging me to the cinema right now.

The new doc is finally growing on me (maybe from seeing him run around in a towel). I miss David T though :-x

Love Amy Pond, she's definitely one of the better companions. I agree about the story lines, not as good as last season.

Well done 404! Keep at it!

8-)

3.5 years...... got all my experimental and most of the write-up done in the three years. Extra 0.5 was for faffing about and not getting on with it.

I've worn flip flops to a conference before (3 day) but when I presented I wore smart clothes. It depends on your area too, I reckon scientists can be quite slobby and vary from one extreme to the other. If you are attending a conference for mostly students, then you can expect a large majority to be in jeans.