Landed my new job but still haven't completed my PhD

W

So, here goes after years and years of hard work, grafting, complains, going round in circles not having a clue about my project and even at some point I was going through major depression and wanted to suicide by means of crashing my car after a meeting with my project sponsor. I even had counselling at one point to help me get through life.

Most of this was because I had no clear indication of my PhD project as a result I was frustrated. Although my supervisor is supportive he hasn't been so in terms of helping me shape and direct my project problem. Looking back I can see how this has helped me to date but yet eaten up valuable time through my PhD. Eventually I defined my own project problem based on my own experience with projects and literature review etc.

For me unfortunately, my PhD project fell into pieces about 16 months before my funding cut off point and since then I have genuinely embraced and enjoyed every moment of it. I have written up about 50% of my thesis to date and still working on various aspects of developing my simulation model. Things have improved dramatically with the possibility of commercialising my tool.

However, the last few months I have had to look at the bigger picture and analyse my potential options since my funding is cutting off shortly. The reality is I need to find a way to survive to pay for bills, food etc. Fortunately for me I landed a professional junior management role which is an offer I cannot decline.

Clearly my thoughts are how hard will it be to complete my PhD and work full time. Either way I need to be able to survive and really cannot afford to work in retail etc which I did in the past just to finish off my thesis.

I haven't asked for potential opportunities from my sponsor but I do know they start PhD's on their graduate scheme.

Any advice on how one may work full time and complete my PhD ?
My advice to anyone who is struggling with their PhD is never give up or you will regret in the future !

R

Congratulations on getting a job.
It is good that you already completed 50% of your ph.d thesis.
I know someone who defended his ph.d, after starting to work for a company. It was not easy. But it took him for about one year to finish writing!
Another friend said that he completed 80% of his thesis and he would schedule his defense as soon as he finishes writing the thesis. He has started to work for a company recently.
May be if you could sacrifice weekends and so on, you could finish your thesis writing and finish the remaining work for ph.d.
All I can say is that Do not give up.
I wish you all the best :)

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