Hi guys,

I haven't posted here in a while. I am really a bit of a taker on this forum and I apologise for that! I have a bit of a dilemma and I wondered if any of you guys could help me out with thinking it through.

I finished my PhD last year, had my viva in October and passed with very minor corrections. I was of course over the moon but the reality of being unemployed and constantly being rejected for jobs soon turned my high into a major low. Eventually I got a couple of months admin work at university where I have temped on and off over the years. I am extremely bored and hate being stuck in the same environment doing really basic work I could have done before even my undergrad degree. Anyway there is no casual work left but the manager has offered me a full time job there. At the same time I have been offered a research job with a government department. The salary is much higher, I would be using skills from my PhD, and the research team seemed really nice when I met them. So - what's the dilemma? They can only offer me three months contract at this stage until they get an idea of their budget but would ideally want to keep me on. No guarantees though.

What would you do in this situation?

======= Date Modified 05 Mar 2012 22:34:40 =======
sorry stupid me can't work this phone and posted 4 times.

======= Date Modified 07 Nov 2011 21:35:43 =======
Hi all,

I had my viva two weeks ago and I wanted to share my experience of it now that my feet have finally touched the ground!

It was pretty formal at the start. The chairperson was really nice though - a Prof I hadn't met before from a different faculty. At the start I was offered 10 minutes to address the examiners. I had written a presentation so I did that. Then the examiners were invited to ask me their questions in turn. There was only one that I freaked out on - a vague one on the 'theoretical and conceptual framework'. I wasn't entirely sure what was being asked but I must have rambled my way through sufficiently!

The questioning went on for about an hour and became less formal and more of a discussion towards the end. It was pretty relaxed overall and all of the questions were fair. I was then asked to make a closing statement so i just said thanks etc and then was asked to leave the room. At this point apparently my supervisors were asked to make a closing statement (they weren't allowed to talk during the exam but they had to be there) and they were in there for another 2 minutes or so. Then they were asked to leave the room and we waited outside together for about 10 minutes or so although it felt like an eternity! Then we were called back in and the Chairperson said 'Congrulations Dr (insert my name)' and I almost burst into tears of relief! I got minor revisions - 11 typos, add one reference, and amend the wording of two sentences. I couldn't believe that's all they wanted me to do!

I have just had the amendments signed off and I am taking my thesis to be hard bound today. I am still quite amazed that it is all done - 3 years and 5 months after I started. I have struggled so much with self doubt since the start and I thought at a number of stages that I would never get to this point. I always thought I was the impostor PhD student who slipped in under the radar! So to anyone here who thinks they will never reach the end, who thinks that all of the other PhD students are way smarter, and that you are not smart enough - you WILL get there. I always felt like it was a mistake that I got PhD funding and I am so proud that I have overcome that idea and have reached the end.

I dont think I will be on this forum much now but I want to thank everyone here who has listened to me whine over the past few years. I have been a bit more of a 'taker' on the forum but I truly appreciate all of the support I have received. This forum has been invaluable to me as a source of support and as a source of information. Thank you all so much and good luck :-)

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very minor corrections that they reckon will take about an hour but I have two weeks to do them in. I will post a full report of my experience in a couple of days when my feet touch the ground. Thanks so much again for all the advice!

Wow - you guys are AMAZING! Thank you so much for all of the really helpful responses. I spent today doing a long trail run with my partner which has relaxed me and got out the excess energy that would no doubt keep me awake. I'm reading through some notes at the moment which is probably a bit silly but at 7pm I am banned from doing any more and that's in half an hour. I can't believe this time tomorrow it will be done (i'm in NZ).

Thanks again! I will update you when I am doing and have the outcome :-)

Hi,

I have my viva on Tuesday and although I am going in with three relatively positive reports I am am still so, so nervous. I am of course relieved that the day has finally come and I still can't quite believe it as it seemed never ending but I am pretty apprehensive.

I had a mock viva with my supervisors last week going through potential questions and what not and I have a ten minute presentation prepared that I have to do at the start. Today I am going to go over answers to questions again and have another read through some of my chapters.

Has anyone who has been through the process already got any words of wisdom to share? Or just anyone with any tips in general for it?

Thanks :-)

Hi all,

I have my viva next week and I want to get my supervisors a gift to say thank you because they have been pretty excellent over the past 3 and a half years. I am really stumped on what to get them though. Any ideas? I was thinking chocolates and wine but that seems a bit dull!

Any suggestions are appreciated :-)

Hi all,

I have my viva next week and I want to get my supervisors a gift to say thank you because they have been pretty excellent over the past 3 and a half years. I am really stumped on what to get them though. Any ideas? I was thinking chocolates and wine but that seems a bit dull!

Any suggestions are appreciated :-)

Minor revisions! My viva is in two weeks! I am so, so, so happy! :-)

Thanks for your reply, Dunni. This is exactly what I am experiencing. I don't feel like I can relax until I know the outcome although I know that stressing out and letting it play on my mind is totally pointless! Thanks for reminding me that regardless of the outcome this is the final stretch (and hopefully the shortest!). Sometimes I forget how far i've come to get to this point.

I hope you get a date soon Catlin!

The bulk of my thesis was written between Feb and May this year but I did have basic drafts of most of the chapters before then, in some cases there had been a couple of drafts. I reckon six months is a good amount of time if you can really hammer it out for those six months and you already have some stuff drafted.

Good luck!

My thesis was in Social Science and the max we are allowed to submit is 100,000 including references and appendices. The norm around here seems to be 70,000-100,000. Mine ended up at 99,372. I found it really hard to cut down to that in the end, despite my disbelief for three years that writing that much was actually going to be possible.

Congrats on submitting :-)

In all honestly - not a huge amount. I can't believe it has been 12 weeks in some ways because really I have done very little other than recover. I have been applying for jobs and haven't had a huge amount of luck. I did go to a conference last week which was great for getting me back into it. I had all these grand plans to write papers and a book proposal between submission and viva but that hasn't happened. I haven't wanted to think about my thesis at all. I have started a new relationship though which has made the time pass a bit quicker :-) Now i'm basically just starting to go a bit mental. I just want to know the initial outcome so I can either get back into it or finish off final changes and have the external validation to know it's worth trying to publish some of it. It feels like such a long wait and an anti climax after such a slog at the end. I know what you mean. I expected to feel amazing when I submitted but I just felt exhausted, numb and a bit relieved.

I am currently waiting for my viva date to be confirmed and I am so, so sick of waiting. It has been 12 weeks now and I still just have a tentative date of the 25th of October which I am told will be confirmed if the final examiner report is sent in by Friday. I am going crazy waiting and don't feel I can do any prep until the date is actually confirmed. I am not really sure why I am posting this - I guess I just need to moan to some people who can relate to the situation. I've had enough limbo and I don't even really care what the result is now I just want an outcome of some sort so I can move forward in either making the required revisions or getting it into the library and being done with it.

My thesis was of normal length and all of the examiners agreed to do it two months before I submitted and said they would have no problems getting it done. It's driving me crazy knowing that there are two reports sitting in an office that would give me an indication and I can't see them until the final one comes in. I really hope this happens soon. I have contacted the examinations coordinator a couple of times in the past month or so for updates and I feel like a stalker/neurotic pain in the backside but I can't help it (sigh).

Thanks to anyone who can tolerate reading this rant!

Dunni - congrats on getting the amendments signed off. I can really relate to what you are experiencing re the job hunt. I had an interview for a research job recently and I didn't get it because they found someone with more experience. It is a tough market at the moment it seems. I'm struggling to get part time work too because it is assumed i'll leave when something better comes along (true!) It's so frustrating Best of luck - I hope something works out soon.

As for me I have now got a viva date of the 25th of October (I can't remember whether i've already shared this - sorry!) So if it all happens on time it will be out of the way in 6 weeks. Fingers crossed!