Yes I was also awarded my doctorate last month. Thanks to everyone in postgrad forum who inspired me to keep on. Good Luck to everyone :-)

Thank you, Good Luck with yours

Keep on Keep on. I had to resubmit my thesis but have now been awarded it.

Good Luck to everyone out there

Success. I am now a Dr.

Good Luck!

Keep on going, keep on going, I have am nearly there with amendments, keep on, its too god an opportunity to pass by. Good Luck

Nearly there? how many times will I say that? when will I be 'there' and what is 'nearly'

Any body else had that experience of nearly being there a few times?

Patience patience patience

Glad it feels the right decision for you and well done for making it.

PhD is a strange journey and an isolated path a lot of the time, which inevitably leads to soul searching and finding out what makes us tick and what's most important to us.

It sounds as if you have recognised your love of interaction with others. Think back to pre PhD and what you were doing then, is there a way of gradually reintegrating with those activities and then building it up. I guess coming out of any intense journey takes some readjustment.

Good Luck with your future career and life.

Glad it feels the right decision for you and well done for making it.

PhD is a strange journey and an isolated path a lot of the time, which inevitably leads to soul searching and finding out what makes us tick and what's most important to us.

It sounds as if you have recognised your love of interaction with others. Think back to pre PhD and what you were doing then, is there a way of gradually reintegrating with those activities and then building it up. I guess coming out of any intense journey takes some readjustment.

Good Luck with your future career and life.

I agree with much that has been posted already.

When I started doing mine it followed my Masters, with a year in between gaining more work experience. I wanted to do the PhD as I had throughly enjoyed my Masters and the research i had begun and wanted to further it.

At that point I also thought getting a PhD could easily lead to an academic job but 2-3 years into it found that it's a small percentage of PhD graduates who get academic jobs in higher ed.

The other thing I had thought was as I got funding for 3 years that I would finish then and then found the tutors had not had expectation of this and that it would take at least a year or two after the funding to complete. This leaves one in a state of the heavy writing up stage, much more difficult in my experience than the fun and stimulating research bit, and one has to get paid work. I was fortunate to get a full time job post funding but only did it for 6 months as i found I had hardly any time to do the intense writing up, since then its been a financially uncertain time with one or two part time jobs.

The other thing is that its a much bigger leap Masters to PhD, than BA/BSc to PhD.

So that's my response as these are things I wish someone had told me before I embarked.

Good Luck with making your decision as at the end of the day it's a personal choice but good to get as informed as possible before you make the choice. Don't make assumptions check out if they're based on reality.

There's alot of time, if its in the arts and humanities when you're going it alone ( it sounds different in the sciences as there's more working in the lab with others around), but you may want such a life challenge the choice is yours.

It's Ok about the rant I can identify with some of the emotions and concerns.

I also have same amount of time to finish and yes its nerve wracking, what will happen next?

I do have a small part time job but I am also looking out for well paid work.

There's been quite a few people close to me in other cities who have got very ill recently, which i am finding very upsetting.

I guess it is life's way of challenging us and we'll be stronger after getting through it.

On a practical note to cope I sometimes shut myself away with my thesis, go into that zone and really get into it. I switch off my phone and forbid myself from checking emails etc....Often after a good long stretch like that I feel satisfaction as usually I have made progress and as long as we keep moving forward we're gtetting there bit by bit.

Yes thanks, really like the chapter on autoethnography.

I think that writing in the first person about self-reflexive research is owning what you say and being honest. There's ways opf course of not saying I too many times but it's important that nowadays it's clear who wrote it and whose thoughts they are.

It is a very interesting area, one i have been dealing and addressing the usual academic habit ofwriting in the thoird person.

Hi getting on with things now which is good. Has anyone done heuristic research as their main research or alongside case studies?

Would be interested to know how others have decided to write about it, e.g. narrative style

Thank you Angel of the north, I have been trying to understand what's required and been having breaks away from it, especially to earn an income. At the moment I'm still at the stage of trying to work out what needs to be done before my DoS retires!!!!