Hey there, just wanted you to know you are not alone. I finished my PhD earlier this year, but prior to that, especially during thesis writing, there were numerous times I got hurt by my supervisor's very blunt comments. Just to give a few examples, I got comments like "even an undergrad would know this", "over-dramatisation" (referring to a neutral - at least in my opinion - description of results that I wrote) whilst writing up. Even got said to my face "I believe you did nothing at all throughout the year" when I returned from a year-long placement. Thinking back, apart from my placement year, I was bombarded with comments like for pretty much the whole length of my PhD. I normally couldn't even worked for at least half a day after reading my supervisor's comments/feedback, as they were very demoralising and discouraging...but well you know, things like this, they happen. I don't want to say it's a thing that you have to go through, or should go through, but if you just persevere for a bit, you'll reach the end :) that is all it matters. And don't let those comments define you - PhD is just a part of your life

Hi all, I am now 5 months into my first postdoc. I am in life sciences, and I have switch subfields when moving from PhD to this postdoc (by switch subfields I mean change of disease being studied, e.g. from Alzheimer's disease to Parkinson's disease, and therefore techniques as well). Now, my contract is for one year and I am starting to think about my next step. Can someone let me know if it is a great idea to change subfields between postdocs or should I just stay in the same subfield? Would really appreciate if someone can shed some light as I really have no idea.

I got offered a one-year postdoc in life sciences. I am slightly concerned about the short timeframe. Has anyone done a one-year postdoc? Would you recommend doing one?

I have applied to quite a few postdoc/research positions but no luck so far. I have two first-authored papers, one published and the other submitted for publication. There aren't a lot of opportunities in my direct field (life sciences), so I have been applying to jobs in related fields that I can meet at least 50% of the requirements. Does anyone have a clue on how competitive it is out there? I am starting to wonder if it is me who isn't competent enough. People who have succeeded in getting a postdoc/research job, can you share your application tips?

I had my viva and passed with minor corrections. Fine, although I was not particularly happy as the past four years have been really hard, with a particular difficult supervisor. Dealing with said supervisor was much more intellectually (and emotionally) demanding than the PhD itself. I just wanted everything to be over.

I got my corrections list about 2 weeks after the viva. When I looked at it, I just felt like giving up altogether as some of the corrections are by no means 'minor'. For instance, I had summary tables with information that I compiled from around 100 papers in my field and was told to reformat the tables into something more informative. I am totally crushed as these tables took me A LOT of time to do, it simply wasn't a case of copying and pasting, although it might seem like it. And now I have to go through the whole process again. I don't even see what's the point of doing it, as no one will be reading my thesis again and even if I had the slightest thought of continuing research in my field, now I just wanted to quit research altogether.

To be fair I just wish I've never started this whole PhD thing. Now I'm unemployed, and with these corrections I don't think I'm in any mood to do job applications. To think that I've spent so much time on my PhD, most days 7am to 10pm, and going in almost every weekend, everything looks like a big joke now. Supervisors even denied my holiday requests, micromanaged me. I am just really frustrated and sad. Why did I pick this topic, which required me to work 7 days a week, in the end wrote a 400 page thesis (1.5 spacing) and examiners asked for more? Pretty sure others passed with a thesis with thickness less than half of mine, and most with minor corrections don't get 'major' changes as what I got.

One examiner even gave me a list of additional changes, most of which made no sense to me as comments were given in single phrases rather than sentences, and those single phrases were phrases that I used in my thesis.

I have been trying to calm myself down and do the corrections. I'm cool with the actual 'minor' ones, for example, rewriting some sentences, adding examples, re-doing graphs etc. But I can't help feeling frustrated and annoying with the more 'major' ones. To the extend I wish I could just die instead of doing those.

PhD exams are so subjective and unfair. Totally hate it.

Has anyone had a similar experience? How did you get past this stage?