You probably don't want to say you have a love of hacking... maybe say protecting against hackers.

You haven't said "how you intend to manage your studies with your other commitments".

"I also want to do more of practical work as I didn't do much of that during my first degree" - you might not want to highlight potential weaknesses.

I think you need to make it longer, with more details and highlight how your previous experience makes you a good candidate.

Why do you want to do an MSc and PhD combined? Many places have these separately now, and an MSc isn't required to do a PhD if a good BSc is held.

I've no idea about the best places, but each institution sets their own English requirements so you need to check league tables and look up each place separately.

There are other threads on this somewhere. A few people on this forum have done this, usually by changing areas and explaining why they should be given a second chance.

Hmm kind of a difficult one. What were your initial reasons for wanting to a PhD? If you stayed and finished a PhD, what would you want to do after? If you quit, what would you do?

Why did you fail your qualifying exam? Didn't you have to write a proposal and defend it in order to take the quals? Didn't you have to nominate a PI in order to do that?

My initial feeling is if your heart isn't in it, maybe a PhD isn't for you.

That is awful to hear. It does sound like he is the reason you didn't get the job.

I think you should be honest with your supervisor, explain to him about the micromanaging and tell him that it's not fair of him to prevent you from getting a job in this way... try to appeal to his better nature (if he has one) and ask him to give you a good reference because you deserve one.

It's so hard to predict what will happen as like you said, something may come up, but then again it may not... I wish you luck in finding a job and at least you have signed on so that's something.

It certainly never hurts to contact old supervisors, as maybe they will have a position, or know someone that does. Alternatively, try looking for funded PhDs on findaphd.com as these often specify whether the PhD can be fulltime or parttime.

It's not shameful, but personally I don't feel my time is worth less than 10 pounds an hour... so let's hope I can find a job that pays at that level if I end up taking any random job to pay the bills.

I also need something where I won't die of boredom. I've done cleaning jobs before and I hated them for that reason. Shops are ok when they are busy.

Nick1, you should be eligible for benefits, have you considered signing on? It's not ideal, but might go some way to helping you out?

Also, are you looking for a specific type of job or just any job to cover the bills?

I'll be in this position in December, and I'm really hoping it's not going to be this way for me as by then my saving will have run out and I also do not have any family members able to assist me.

I think your supervisors are better placed that you to say whether is it original or not, as maybe you are defining the word differently to them. Having said that, it is possible they may not be aware of this other research so you do need to bring it to their attention, just in case. Even if you find that it has been done before, this is not necessarily a problem as you can just change the orientation of your project slightly.

I don't think people should just be selected on research output. Great research output does not necessarily mean 'great researcher', especially in early stage careers.

I'm also not surprised that other skills are equally important when getting a job/postdoc - emotional decisions ie 'do I like that person' that arise from interviews are hard to override, even when the facts are different on paper.

This is a really useful site:

'For mummy' sounds better than 'for my mummy'... and personally I think if you want to write it, you should write it. It's your thesis and noone is not going to give you a PhD on the basis that it is dedicated to your mummy.

I'll will definitely be acknowledging my mum in my thesis, although fortunately I call her mum!

I agree with littleowl. It doesn't sound like you got the position.

It seems that you normally hear within 1-3 days if you are successful in obtaining the PhD. It's a bit strange that they didn't send you a more formal response but I guess they thought that this reply would be sufficient.