Focus on the role and what you bring to it, rather than your personal needs. If you feel that, in practice, the role will require a work load that is more demanding than advertised, then you should be at the top end. If you feel that your additional skills and experience mean you will do a better job than someone who only just meets the requirement, that too is grounds for negotiation. But I would leave out reference to the childcare or any other needs as they are not really things that are your employer's responsibility.

Good luck! I've only tried negotiating once and wasn't successful but it's always worth a punt!

What kind of course are you being interviewed for? Masters? PhD?

You need to contact your university as soon as possible to check whether your submission was accepted. There is no point in guessing what may or may not happen based on people's experiences elsewhere.

What are your areas of expertise? There may be a wider range of options available to you than you think.

Do you have any experience of medical/science writing beyond journal articles?

Congratulations!

Another example of hiring/firing on the basis of grant income:

Whichever bright spark came up with that idea clearly has no idea of the huge variation in research costs. I've done laboratory work that costs £1000+ per month to do, but I've also worked in analysis of routine data that costs nothing beyond computer+software+salary costs. According to their thinking on of those would keep me hired and the other fired, despite the latter probably being more 'cost-effective'. *facepalm*

Erm... on a less positive note, is there any protocol for *not* giving gifts? My main supervisor has been missing in action for about a year and the junior lecturer on whom supervisory duties have been dumped has done his best but has been quite clumsy about handling the working relationship, through inexperience. Though I do not wish to leave on a bad note, and I acknowledge the contribution that they *have* made, I don't right now feel in a place where I can sincerely and formally say 'thank you' as I have been quite wounded by various things. Giving any kind of gift seems somehow fake. Any advice?

And therin may lay your answer.

In the UK at least, it is rare for prospective students in science, technology and engineering subjects to propose their own research plan, unless they are coming with their own funding from somewhere. The vast majority simply apply to an advertised position which has a specified project. An exception to this might be where an existing research assistant puts together a fellowship proposal or a project grant proposal, with the support of their supervisor, while already in post. But it is usually difficult to do this 'cold' i.e. when you don't have an existing link to the department that would host the work.

So I would follow the advice you've been given and apply for advertised positions if you really want to do a PhD. There are many structural problems with academia and I've become quite cynical about the whole thing, but I think in this scenario you are hitting a wall not because of those issues but because you're not trying the conventional application route for your discipline. I really wouldn't spend time putting together a research proposal unless explicitly invited to.

Hope this helps.

I wonder now if it was an error - click through to the uni's page, and then the job's details and you find a job description and person spec of an admin role. Maybe something just went wrong

Looks like they've 'accidentally' left about £10,000 off the starting salary.

Appalling. Twitter campaigns have sometimes got things retracted (e.g. extended unpaid 'research internships' that were equivalent in workload to RA posts) but I don't know about underfunded salaried positions.

I'd recommend boycotting such posts but there will always be someone desperate enough for that kind of role that they will get applications.

See if your uni has a copy of this:

It lists various charities and trusts that give grants for all sorts of things - including 4th year PhD students.

As for me my 4th year has been funded through (i) savings (ii) credit card (I opened one with 0% interest on purchases for >12 months so I wasn't racking up interest (iii) casual RA work (iv) starting a full time job 3 months from the end. I did apply for one grant listed in that guide but was unsuccessful - I probably could have tried more if I'd been a bit more in need but I've managed to get by.

If you're going to go down the credit card route, be savvy to avoid extra debt through charges. Your existing cards probably have high interest rates attached and you may be best off applying for a new one. I would recommend applying while you still have funding coming in as you may be declined otherwise. Only go down the credit card route though if you feel comfortable with managing your finances and keeping track of things as people can get into all sorts of trouble that way. I have tried to avoid using it frequently for little purchases as they can add up without you realising, but instead have used it for the larger ones that I will remember e.g. long period bus passes, internet line rental (cheaper to pay the year up front than monthly), a one off bill that took me by surprise etc. For day to day spending it isn't, in my opinion, ideal to use a credit card as it's too easy to over-do it. You also need to factor in (i) ensuring you can meet the monthly minimum repayments and (ii) how confident you are that you will have some kind of job by the time the interest free period ends.

Good luck!

What is this 'after' work whereof you speak? Surely there is only 'work' and 'more work'?

Hazy (trying to work on her thesis on a Saturday night)

Worth checking out each one's strategic priorities to see which might be more interested in your kind of work. Wellcome are an odd one, IMO, in terms of what they're interested in. For example, clinicians can apply for public health type project funding, but if you're a non clinician it's assumed you want to do basic science. And then they're *really* into genome wide association studies.

Does your department/faculty do any specialist workshops on applying for fellowships and so forth. I get the impression there is often unspoken stuff that senior academics know about regarding funding chances, that they might be able to share with you.

I'm sure some are easier to deal with than others but I think ultimately it comes down to what career stage you're at and what your proposal is about.

To be honest if you're feeling that uncertain about the website I'd strongly recommend going to a branch and having a chat with someone.

Just don't get signed up for any kind of account that (i) has monthly fees attached and (ii) has restrictions on what you can take out. Simply ask for a basic savings account and get them to enable online access for you.

You can have as many savings accounts as you please, and with as many different banks as you wish. The only restriction is related to a particular type of account called an ISA, where you can only open and/or pay into one per year.

For example, I currently have three savings accounts, one of which is just a regular basic one with a rubbish interest rate which I allow myself to dip into whenever I please, while the other two are ISAs, one of which has been open for years and I just leave there and the other of which is new and I am actively paying in to.

At the moment, if you are saving up from scratch, I wouldn't worry too much about interest rates as they are all pretty rubbish at the moment, but do check the conditions of any account in terms of how often you can make withdrawals. That is more likely to be important to you at this stage.

Do have a look at this site for general advice: