Well done that woman!(up)

It took two months, but included an apology that this was too long, and the internal's view that this was way beyond what the examiners had asked for and he was delighted! The detailed letter helps.

I'm currently proof-reading a PhD and all the refs are in footnote format. It's driving me mad! While I know what most PhDs in the sciences and social sciences are in Author, Date format, has anyone here done refs as footnotes in other disciplines?

You must be over the moon! Well done! Tip - the other candidates will be smart smart, not smart casual, as it's a gov job. Remember to take deep breaths between now and the interview! All the very best!

Well done, Corrine!(up)

What great news, KB! Is that the same post they mentioned when you went for the interview? Good luck!(up)

Have you ever thought - this problem may just be these people? You and they may not get on. It happens! It may not be the PhD, it may be a personality issue.

WOW!! WOW!! WOW!! I'd swing from the chandeliers and break out the bubbly if that happened to me! It must be a truly amazing feeling. WELL DONE! It means that all that hard work actually MEANT something to someone else. And isn't that what it's all about?(up)

Exactly! How cheap do they think these things come? Blood, sweat, tears, battles, and in my case £100,000 in lost earnings and fees.

I've heard about this, and I know it goes on...but...maybe I've been too naive.

I'm desperate to earn some money and I know I can proofread and edit really well as I've been doing it for many years. So I decided to register with a site that said it dealt with academic proof-reading.

NO!!! There was no proof-reading. Instead, students were asking writers to do their Masters and PhDs for them (the admin says these are just templates - ha ha!). These were all laid out on the site, like on ebay. Some guy was offering just under £3k for an entire 100,000 word PhD. Kids were offering £500 for a Masters and even dictating what grade they wanted! Undergrads were offering between £15 and £30 for a 2,500 word essay. There was NO original writing contribution at all. Just the question. The writer had to provide the entire assignment.

If people can pay £3k for a PhD why are we putting ourselves through all this angst and soul-searching and last-minute panic and viva vivisections? What's this all about?

I'm truly sickened. As I said, I'd heard about it, and I've seen some suspect dissertations. But this was so in-your-face that I'm still reeling.:-s Isn't there a section in every PhD on ethics???

Gentle and apposite. Well done, Apostrophe! May I wish you well-deserved and successful healing.

I've used a Mac for over 10 years, and just can't work on a PC (my Uni has PCs and they drive me mad, so I prefer to work from home, which fortunately is just across the road from my department). Macs are fast, user-friendly, and are generally non-hackable and a lot less clunky. However, there IS the software problem, but you can get over that by using parallel systems on a Mac. That said, Macs are seriously overpriced compared to PCs!

I've seen it done many times! You can only try!

You can be both.

Good. Let's have some transparency. Then perhaps some of them would be kinder to us.

I sent my Dept the stats from my Uni's thesis/reports/published data database this week, really pleased that my thesis is the highest accessed research paper in the Uni database this month by miles and miles, and thanked everyone concerned. I got an email from my ex-super to say that actually he didn't want to embarrass me by sending this to others BUT this database isn't ALL research done by Uni people, it's just that published by the Uni, and that journal papers are what matters. I emailed back to say yes, I understood that but no thesis from my dept had ever been top of stats lists, and by this huge margin.He replied that actually most postgrads don't bother to submit to the electronic database. I pointed out that since 2008 it was a statutory requirement. He replied by saying he thought we should end this discussion as it was getting us nowhere.

Nice one, mate.

What a downer I was on when I had to listen to that ego-driven rubbish day after day (unless of course he was relying on me to do his work for him as his Research Associate)! He HAD to put me down as a ritual male act.

Scary green-eyed monsters. Academia is full of them. They dish it out - they can't take it.