I did a masters before my PhD and knew a couple of people who started PhDs straight from bachelors instead. At the time I felt it was unfair that others didn't do a masters beforehand but that was because I had always been under the impression (from members of academic staff!) that it was necessary to do a masters in order to start a PhD. Personally, now I am glad for the research experience from my masters and think it helped me more in the beginning of my PhD with knowledge and confidence. It sounds like the other person is feeling insecure about themselves and are taking it out on you. Even so there is no excuse for condescending comments etc. Stand your ground - I agree with PhDiddy - don't take their crap, otherwise their comments will probably just continue.

Hi Wowzers,

I would finish a chapter and send it to my supervisor once, and whilst he was checking that chapter I would work on the others - similar to what awsoci described, but then after I had made any suggested changes from my supervisor (and obvs proof read it a few times) the chapter was finished and went in my thesis for submission. Then I read the whole thing as 1 document before submission.

I think it depends on the field, how you and your supervisor want to work and how much time you have - I did a PhD in chemistry and wrote everything in the last 5 months, which probably explains why I only sent it to my supervisor once!

Good luck anyway, and do it the way that works for you best - everyone works differently!

I read your initial post after reading this one and to be honest I wouldn't bother bringing it up again. Just be glad you have new supervisors with whom you can have a normal professional relationship with. I think that if your previous supervisor really did think you had a crush on him he should have just talked to you instead of being weird about it. Just by laying some ground rules down about professionalism in the workplace or something similar. Clearly he is not so professional with the other PhD student anyway so you are better off not getting mixed up in anything like that. Hope that the new supervisors work out well!

Hey, not sure if this is the right thread or not, and sorry for the moan, but here goes...

Basically I have been a postdoc for 9 months now since finishing my PhD in a completely new place where I didn't know anyone before moving (so feeling pretty homesick as well). I feel like I am still a PhD student in the way that I don't think that many people take me seriously. I know I need to be more assertive, but it is starting to really get to me now and I am trying to be more assertive. It's just so frustrating when colleagues did respect me/listened to my advice during my PhD, but now I am a postdoc I feel like I'm back to square 1.

Does anyone have any experience of this or any advice on the transition between PhD and postdoc? I feel like there is no support offered on what's expected of me in my current role.

Thanks for all the advice, I think I just need to motivate myself - the idea of having to start writing whilst still getting lab work done and writing papers has overwhelmed me slightly. In meetings I have to present slides with data on, so definately having a slide just summarising our last meeting will help.

Also I feel miles better after being a half way through a week off!

Hi,

Sorry in advance for the moan.. I am in my 3rd year of my PhD - I always feel bad for moaning about my supervisor as he is really nice and friendly, however when I have a meeting with him to discuss my latest results he never remembers the things i told him in the last meeting. In our group meetings he'll be really surprised at new data that i showed him 2 weeks before. I've had a few major problems with my work recently that looking back with hindsight I think he should have been able to foresee (only because he had a previous student doing something similar). Feel very demotivated about it all, I have to repeat all the work i've done over the past 6 months because of this and do it slightly different! Just really annoyed by this!
should I say anything to him about how i'm not very happy with my work recently?
Also I wrote a draft of a paper that I don't think will ever get submitted 9 months ago, he's always saying things like "this work will be a paper" but these papers never seem to get written! I feel like he says things just to keep me happy and to stop me from pestering him about publications.

Does it matter for my future job prospects if I don't get any publications during my PhD if I want to PostDoc after?

Thanks