Indeed I'm a law person. I agree there is a variation by subject but can assure the previous poster, there are no openings in the professions for Ph.D qualified lawyers, the question is "why did you bother with a Ph.D, you'll be 30+ by the time we've fully trained you" Practice is so different from academic law you've basically disqualified yourself.

I applied for two jobs, at the first one there were two posts and 90 applicants down to ten interviewees. I didn't get that one, the second again two posts 8 interviewees from similar number of applicants, pretty tough field, a lot of people travelling a very long way, already turned down for numerous posts, etc.

My supervisor is amazing intellectually, people who are now 15 years into their post-doc careers, having been supervised by him, still have that sense of intellectual awe I have - unfortunately I never see them!

Maybe that's the problem I am positivist! I really am. Thanks for the replies, I know how frequently these down times can come round it just doesn't make them any easier, the isolation of it all is like that insomniacs must feel, all your friends are at work, your partner's at work, there's no one call, let's not dream for a minute your supervisor is actually contactable - the world might as well be asleep and the blank Word document in front of you yields no answers.

I'm also doing law, it's not easy, at least not to get in journals of meaningful quality, it's well worth teaming up with your supervisor or someone else in your school to co-write. Also have a clear idea of what journals your targeting, beyond simply what their subject area is, legal journals often have pretty clear formats/lengths that they want. It is hard, a good start is to get a paper into a good conference and get that published as part of a collection.

I'm half way through my third year, starting a lectureship next month and moving to PT registration to complete. That's an open-ended contract at a research led institution. Not as good, arguably as where I'm doing my Ph.D but still top quarter for my subject. I don't see you should have difficulties unless you're going for an appointment at the most prestigious of institutions.

I'm at the start of my third year, have recently been appointed to lectureship on an open ended contract with a pretty good package, problem is, I don't know that I really love research I was just terrified of not having an income when my funding ran out. It's not easy, I'd say be brave and think if you really want to carry on doing what you're doing and don't be afraid to break out of it.

I'm now in my third year, I am writing, I have a clear structure and a clear question but I've still got a couple of years work left realistically. I've got a lectureship at a different institution stating in February and have to upgrade before then and I'm terrified.
In the last two years I've been so low at times, spent says just doing nothing, struggling to get out of bed, seeing no purpose in what I do, having no idea what I'm doing, why I'm here why I didn't just get a proper job, why all my friends have structure and purpose and I don't and above all just losing all confidence in my ability.I don't know how I got here, I feel like I've somehow blagged my way into this, my work just seems flimsy and pointless and I just feel like it's going to get worse, that I'm going to somehow get found out and everything is going to fall apart.

I've been here before and I'm back here again and I just don't know what to do, any thoughts, any shared experiences would be so welcome.

I applied for a place and completely contrary to expectations got Research Council funding and thought I'd be stupid not to take it up.

That was probably the high point. Once I get under-way I quickly felt out my depth. My supervisor took a very hands off approach, with months and months elapsing between any kind of contact, in truth I had no idea what I was doing, I didn't know where to begin, I just didn't feel equipped. I can't blame them, they are pretty prominent in their field and have a lot in the department but it's so disheartening when you feel even your supervisor doesn't think your work is of any importance. Luckily I did and still do a lot of under-grad teaching and that kept me busy. It's kinda been my saviour, I still teach a lot, do some lecturing and pretty much run two optional modules, it's great but as far the Uni. is concerned it counts for nothing, if I didn't do it someone else would.

I kinda fell into doing my Ph.D did a under-grad law degree, I'd always felt uneasy with practising law, for myriad reasons I didn't feel it was for me so I did a masters course, I found an affinity with an area of law that I had never expected and as a result got a really good degree, far beyond what I expected. I took a year out to try to find some direction. All the graduate jobs I looked at looked either soul destroying or just demonstrated law is not necessarily a very transferable degree. By this time I was working full-time on a year out, I actually really enjoyed it, menial as it was it was great fun and kept me really busy. I've always felt guilty that I was just wasting any talent I had, that I was just drifting - much as that kind of freedom appealed, my guilt always reminded I had to do something I ought to do if that makes sense. By this time I'd get friendly with my would-be supervisor, I was inspired interested and could really see I could apply myself to some really interesting problems,