Thank you for your kind words Satchi. It did take me quite some time to get over my PhD failure, as I mentioned in my original post things went horribly wrong in my PhD both in my work and personal life. Having a quite significant bereavement in the last year of my project took it's tole on me as well as struggling to keep a roof over my head.

Fortunately, this was a number of years ago and as I mentioned, I really enjoy my current role in the Life science Industry and have no plans to apply for a PhD for a few years yet. I just know that in a few years of relative stability I'll be ready and that love of research never really goes away does it?

I also feel your pain when it comes to securing employment, I was left with absolutely nothing when I left my University without a PhD to show for it but I managed to get a job in Life Science after a few months despite everything by taking a few chances.

After all, fortune favors the bold.

Thank you HazyJane for the response, it was most helpful. I also do not completely agree with whimsical 'Follow your dream' thinking as I'm very pragmatic. It sounds like my PhD experience was similar to yours other than the fact that I refused to quit, which was clearly a mistake.

My currently role is very much as a technical associate within a company so although I do not publish papers for example I am very involved with technical developments within Life Science and speak to University labs on a daily basis providing technical advice. However, as I mentioned I am not even considering applying for a PhD for at least another two years in which time my role may have changed. By then it will have been a good six/seven years since the end of my 'failed PhD'.

I do feel that I could offer a lot as a perspective PhD student as I have lots of University teaching and supervisory experience as well as knowledge and expertise in lots of different laboratory techniques and procedures. Essentially, I wasn't a awful student, I just ended up in a really bad place at certain points in the PhD process which killed it for me.

I'm confident that when the time comes I could put together a strong application if I do find a project and a environment that would suit me. My issues is that, regardless of my application or research proposal I will just be binned because my CV has 'on paper' a PhD failure which I would be unable to escape from.

I would love to know of a mature student who was accepted onto a PhD project after failing one when they were younger.

Hello all, I'd really appreciate any thoughts, ideas or similar experiences to my own.

At least on paper, I carry the delightful stigma of the dreaded 'Failed PhD'. To elaborate, after a very successful MSc at a red brick University, I was offered a PhD at the local polytech university in a area I was interested in. I was desperate to avoid 'the dole' and thought the project sounded interesting and took it in 2007.

To put it bluntly, the whole thing was a utter disaster. Anything that went wrong, more or less did, some of it was my fault, some was personal circumstances, some was the Universities fault and some was just bad luck. My biggest regret was that I didn't quit when the project turned into some amalgamation of my original project, things I found lying around and quite possibly a reverse tardis (big on the outside, small on the in).

I refused to quit of course and doomed myself to a viva which, quite honestly I doubt I had any chance of passing and lacked any funding for something like major corrections. I ended up staying around the university (post-fail) to do some teaching and lecturing (I'd done lots of this throughout my time at the uni, don't worry I wasn't rubbish).

I eventually left the University and area all together and after a brief stint in school teaching (Never again!) I've settled into a office based but highly technical role in one of the big life science companies. I really enjoy this role but in around 3 years time (my partner finishes her accountancy accreditation) I will be free to explore my options should I choose to try something new.

Would I be crazy to think I could ever rise from my old 'PhD disaster' and apply for a PhD, if I see a project that I feel passionate about? I still feel I have so much to give to Science or should I just give my dream of being a researcher up?

Thanks guys.