God Almighty I feel dreadful now! :$

I'd be praising myself no end if I'd done all that in a couple of weeks - and over Xmas!!!

hey,

i haven't contributed to this forum for a long, long time, but with an end of Sept submission deadline (and i mean i have to submit!), I have been looking at it a lot. Been finding Lara's posts quite inspirational. I think she also HAS TO submit by Sept??

anyway, I'm working tonight

I agree with Matt - you can be both extremely happy to have a PhD and question its worth.

It sometimes seems as though 'you' have to place yourself in the i love my PhD camp or the I hate it camp. I have the feeling that a lot of people at my place don't like to be asked questions of this nature and to think about their choices too much. It feels as tho' they see it as a personal attack on them if I question the use of a PhD or academia generally. I understand that it is personal - but I'm in the same boat.

I have worse fantasies! I should have said, I keep dreaming longingly for life as a doctor or vet.

BTW, I think I would be one of those who chose a different path. I keep fantasising about life as a GP or vet!

The lack of post-PhD prospects is the real killer. I don't know any figures for other professions, but it seems to me (totally subjectively of course!) that law, medicine, dentistry etc. have jobs for their PGs - or at least for more of them compared to academic research.

I was thinking the other day, perhaps it would be better if funding bodies funded less PhD students for longer (3 yrs ain't long enough to fully complete). There are loads of PhDs in my place - and I know there are not that many jobs waiting for us all.

I really think that a serious talk to people about life after would lead to some would-be PhDs choosing more suitable paths for themselves and this would leave more funding for those who really want to 'do' academia.

I definately think that PhD students should be made more aware of life after - before they embark. I do remember saying to a few lecturers 'but I worry about what I'll do after' just before I started, but they looked at me as if to say 'don't be silly girl!'. they said 'worry about that after'. but what about when after comes? at the moment I haven't the motivation to finish because thoughts of 'life after' just depress me.

If you don't want to spend your life in academia, what can you do after a PhD?

I feel that if I leave academia, everyone there will see me as a failure, but I'm getting the message that everyone outside academia will see my PhD as pretty worthless.

I really wish I had been warned how much a PhD ties you to academia.

Thanks for your replies. I really hate moaning and whining, but I can't deny how badly I feel about it all right now. The more I think about PhDs and academia, the more ridiculous it all seems. And then I have to wonder if I have lost it! You just can't ask the people you work with if they're happy, if it's worth it, if they'd do it again. They'd look aghast - and I know they'd treat me differently - as if I'd 'turned'!! That's why I can understand the use of the term 'cult'!

PhDs and research generally make me think of an Oscar Wilde quote - can't recall it exactly, but along the lines of - I never saw someone take so long and work so hard for so little result!

I often think most research is neither use nor ornament. And if it isn't either, then what is it?

To those that are part way through, and to those that have finished, would you do it again? Even if you would do it again do you have any regrets? At the moment, all I can think about is how I wish I'd done this and that differently, and if I had my time again... Have others felt regret and felt disapointed that the whole thing - including 'academia' - didn't turn out quite as you'd thought/hoped?

I know - it's enough to bring on an MI!!

tho I think after you've ran around the room screaming a few times, if you think calmly, some of them are not that daunting.

positivity or denial?!

i tried ViaVoice, but even after many hours of reading stories to it (to learn my voice), it still got loads of words wrong. Can be quite amusing tho, watching what you say come out as something completely different on screen! I found it a bit like chinese whispers!

I'm in the same situation. Wrote a lit review in first year, and now, speeding towards end of third, have to update. Only on re-reading it's not update but re-write.

On reflection it appears a flowery written descriptive account of too few studies when I need a concise critical account of all the relevant literature!

But I am trying to see the positive - at least if I think this poorly of my best efforts 2 years ago, I must have learnt something / developed some skills in the last 24 months?!

Congratulations

I've seen loads of job talks in my dept, and the candidates always wear suit and tie.

Good Luck with the interview

Hi cc, I can totally identify with just wanting to finish. I am desperate to finish, but so far off. You are close, but the saying 'so near, so far' really captures those last months and weeks I think. The situation with your sup is frustrating and I'm afraid I don't have any words of wisdom. But I do empathise with your desperation for an end!