Thanks for all the comments, they are appreciated. I have been doing alot of researching for jobs relating to my PHD topic of ' friction of road surfacing materials' and have found no consultants or jobs in this field who specialise in safety of roads etc., any jobs I have found are just civil engineering ones, that I could do now with my degree!

Hi, thanks for the advice, My phd topic is really a follow on from my dissertation. My degree is Construction Engineering & Management, and the PHD is researching safety of road surfaces, so its more of a civil engineering disipline. As you said i think I need to decide where I want to be in my life when I am 40 or 50 and base my decision on how to get there.

To cut a long story short. I graduated with a first class honours degree last year, and went in to employment almost immediately in the construction industry, which relates to my degree. Due to limited opportunities in the current climate within construction I began looking for other opportunities.

I spoke with my final year dissertation mentor, who I enjoyed working with, who mentioned that a funded opportunity was coming up in the subject my dissertation concentrated on. I am very interested in the subject and my final year dissertation got the university award for best piece of research in my year group. So I applied and got word that I have been offered the post.

My dilemma is that the PHD is in a different subject than my degree, so I have to decide which avenue to pursue, and I am finding the decision so difficult! Because there is some much negative feedback about PHD's when I research about life after your studies. I would only do a PHD if it would guarantee me more/better job opportunities (possibly in lecturing). Some people have actually thought of them to have been a disqualification when going for jobs, as companies classed them as to highly educated and not gained enough real work experience.

I am in a reasonably good job at the moment, I dont know whether to give it up and risk doing the PHD and the prospect of 3 years hard work, and be in a situation with no good prospects or opportunities after the PHD. Or just stick with my current construction job and get a few years of experience and see where it takes me.

Any feed back would be greatly appreciated as I have to make my decision by mid week :-(