Hi everyone,

Recently completed my PhD and have an interview coming up for a Research assistant post. I think I am possibly more nervous than for my viva! It will be my first proper interview and wondered if anyone has any advice what types of questions to expect? I am in the social sciences.

Jen:-)

Thanks everyone! Still not sure it has quite sunk it but feels a relief to have it all finished! :)

Good luck to all of those still plodding on with the PhD. It is worth it in the end!

Jen

Hi everyone!

Last week I passed my viva with minor corrections! I didn't post too much on here but found the website so very helpful throughout my PhD! Thank you to everyone who posted helpful tips about the viva recently it was very helpful!

My viva was surprisingly enjoyable. My advice to future students would be that you really cannot prepare! Not very helpful I know but i got none of the questions I had prepared for and actually think I was better on the spot and under pressure than i would have been with scripted answers. The viva really wasn't as bad as I had built it up to be in my head.

Thanks again forum! :)

Sneaks what questions did you get asked about your epistemology. I have used a post-structural approach, if i was asked about my epistemology is this where i would talk about post-structuralism?

Thank you for the advice. Did anyone have a question about epistemology in their viva? I don't think I would even know where to start! :(

Jen

Hi all!

My viva is in less than 2 weeks and I am terrified. I have not really started preparing and feel like I have a mental block with the whole thing! I feel like I know the thesis well as I only submitted recently but get so muddled when I try to talk about any of it out loud. How did people get past this point and how much time did people spend preparing? Any advice would be so gratefully received at this point!! :(

Jen

Hi all!

I am just putting finishing touches to the thesis to submit hopefully within the next week or so. Supervisors have read it and made suggestions and a friend has proof read for typos. I am really struggling to leave it alone now and just submit it! I really want it to be done with but I just keep reading over and over and over looking for things to change. The more I read it the more unhappy I feel with it. So do I just trust my supervisors (I am pretty sure they have read most, if not all, of it) and get it submitted and out of my life or should I use every last second to make edits and read the thing? Anyone else struggled to let go of the final thing?

Jen

Hi!

I am sending my final draft to my supervisors this week and submitting at the end of February! Hopefully that will give me enough time to make the changes they are bound to request!

The pressure is actually making me less productive! :(

Good luck! :)

So nice to hear people weren't picked up too much on little things like typos. Currently trying to make sure all my thesis is in the right tense and silly things like that and I am bound to miss something!

Good luck in your viva tomorrow! :)

Hi Blackbyrd,

I also used NVivo and faced similar issues. At one point I transferred a file from one computer to another and for some reason half the sources vanished in both files. Including all the coding I had done from these sources. Even our department's IT guy was baffled. I think the software is a bit unreliable at times (although also very helpful!). As you have done the analysis you will still have understood your data more and have your findings clearer in your head so try and focus on that. Even if you have to redo it, your work rate will be quicker because you will have all this already thought through.

Also you can talk about this in your methodology perhaps? Discuss the shortcomings of computer assisted analysis? I have been warned this may come up in my viva so you will have a very good reflective account to give of the fallbacks?

I am due to submit at the end of Feb and sending a final draft to my sups next week. Hopefully nothing major to change after that otherwise I am in trouble. I am also currently trying to make my argument more clear as I feel it doesn't really make any sense to anyone but me!

Good luck!

Jen

Thanks for the advice! I can't seem to find any guidelines at my university which isn't very helpful!

I hope all goes well for you. I can imagine it is a tough time, but imagine how good it will feel when it is all done (that's what everyone keeps telling me anyway! :p

Thanks again

Jen

My Viva is towards the end of March so I should probably already know the answer to this but what is the difference between major and minor corrections?

I assume major corrections need to be checked by your external as well as internal examiner but I am unsure about what qualifies as minor or major...

Say if I had to move the ordering of chapters (which my supervisors can't even agree on) would that be major? Or more stylistic problems such as using the passive voice at points in the thesis, or grammatical errors are they minor?

I am already having viva nightmares so any advice gratefully received!

Jen :)

I am due to submit my thesis at the end of February and I am currently reading through the whole document. I am pretty sure the structure is wrong and basically I have lost all faith in the project. My supervisors are very casual about it all and in our last meeting said they thought it would be ready if i made the changes they suggested, which i think i have. So my question is, are supervisors always right? If they say it is ready do i just trust them or go with my gut that it really isn't good enough? I feel like i can't face looking at the thesis at the minute because all i can see is fault with it!

Jen

Open book exam sounds a lot less scary! :)

I agree, it does seem an odd way to examine 3 years of someones life! I get really nervous and go blank when just talking to academics at conferences so i dread to think what i will be like in the viva.

I also can't recall every reference in my thesis and i am hoping I don't get shown up for this in the viva!

Again, thanks for the advice. Nice to know I am not the only one with viva concerns! Now to finish the actual thesis... :-s

Thank you for all the advice. Glad to hear people think 3 weeks is long enough!

I am already having viva nightmares so it looks like it is going to be a long few months! :)

Jen