The opportunity to do just a year's travelling (i.e one chunk) was never practical for me for family reasons. I gather you and your boyfriend are all set up to go and by the time you finish your masters, you'll have been in education for 4/5 years (including undergrad).

I'm going against predictable advice and I'm going to say "Go for it, travel, enjoy the year of your life."

If you really want to do a Ph.D., have a look at what's available when you come back. I can vouch for the overqualified label (had to hide the PhD to get back into the real world) and you really should do a PhD because you really want to do it (i.e. an original programme of research where you find out something new, plus all the hard work that comes with it - god and bad you could say) and not because you've been coaxed in a particular direction.

I see your family and friends point about the PhD being a good way to see out the recession, however, I believe you should go into a PhD for the right reasons.

I did get to do litte bits of the world and (bar briefly knowing a fractious group of people in Northern India - which I found ways of breaking away from) I loved every minute of it. Life is too short and if it's now or never, make it now.

I did two bolgs / websites a while back:

http://www.wearthesis.talktalk.net

This is from my perspective what you face during a PhD.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/tibet/

My travels, plus photos (a bit eccentric and needs text-wise editing down).

It's your choice though at the end of the day.

======= Date Modified 09 May 2011 08:40:30 =======
From someone who's been through it, we all have plans as to how many hours a week we're going to allot to our PhD work.  That goes by the board as you approach the end.

During early literature review, I kept hours normally to about 40 hours a week (5 days by 8 hours).  Once I started practical work, this pushed to about 9.5 hours x 5 days (we weren't normally allowed to do practical work outside normal hours and at weekends), however analysis of data and background reading pushed this towards 10-11 hours.

I then started to write up alongside the practical work from just before the end of the second year, the intention being to finish on time.  That pushed the time up to about 12 hours plus 4 or 5 hours on Saturdays and Sundays.

Once write-up took hold, time input was 12 to 16 hours a day and about 8 hours a day on Saturdays and Sundays.  There were odd days I was just too knackered to think straight and I had to nothing, I admit.

Between submission and viva (bar a few days break immediately after submission), I did not let up and the 12 to 16 hour routine continued as I revised on just about anything I was likely to be asked (related subject outside the scope of but related to the PhD).

So there goes all the best laid plans of mice and men!!! :p

After viva, minor corrections and submission, I suddenly had all this spare time on my hands that I did not know what to do with.  I found the intensity of the work required a two year adjustment period to return and gear back down from hyper to normal.  This latter transition, women seem to cope better with and are normally back on a normal keel much quicker.

======= Date Modified 08 May 2011 17:28:52 =======
Am I misunderstanding this in that you're actually interested in his advances? If so, this is a private and personal matter between you and him.

If not, then he quite frankly comes across as seedy and the way you've written the above, his intent is clear. It's not you as a person he's interested in, he sees you as a potential bit on the side and just wants to get his leg over. What happens to you and your Ph.D. if he gets his way? Used and abused comes to mind.

Sorry to be so blunt. Is this anyway to treat both you and his wife?

Ian (alias 'Beefy')

When you say hate it, do you mean you find it boring? Your heart's not in it so perhaps you're occupying a position that could be filled by someone who wants to be there.

That said, start to look for a job in your chosen field and quit your PhD only once you have a firm job offer. It is better that you have 'currently doing a Ph.D.' on your CV rather than 'unemployed'. Tell a prospective employer in interview that you find your potential career choice more fulfilling if they ask in interview why you're quitting.

The answer to the above is a no brainer if you don't want to be there this early into the Ph.D.

After all, look what you have to look forward to!!!

http://www.wearthesis.talktalk.net/phdgame.pdf

;-)

This is plain sexual harrassment and you need to get out of his way.

Can you obtain some sort of evidence discretely of his actions? To be blunt, if so you need to act straight away and make a formal complaint.

The problem is without evidence, currently it's your word against his (I've seen with my own eyes how Universities close ranks against a probable troublemaker). Has he acted this way with other students? That would count in your favour.

I understand how badly you want your Ph.D., however, it's not worth this kind of harrassment. What happens if he goes further with you or another student?

With a lack of clear evidence, I suggest for now you look to change your primary supervisor to get out of his way. Find another excuse for the time being and do as said above, working instead with your second supervisor (who you can request becomes your main supervisor.

With PhD in the bag, you can then make a formal complaint and stop this man. Or is he the kind of person who might do something stupid if you wait until then?

Talk to the student counselling service and they can give you clear advice on what action to take.

I was subject to harrassment (more by day-to-day treatment, nothing physical, nothing in the same league as you are facing) at post-doc. When the person is in a position of authority over you, you can feel helpless. Talking to people that can advise you will help make your course of action clearer.

Ian (alias 'Beefy')

This clause does appear in the terms and conditions of many studenship and post-doc emloyment contracts. I never had teaching duties enforced, however, this is very much at the discretion of the department and supervisors. Also, department workload may dictate whether such a clause is enforced. I was expected to assisst in safe student use of equipment and maintenance of that equipment.

Teaching duties can mean anything from student project supervision, personal tutor duties, laboratory class supervision up to lecturing. If you intend to follow an academic career, pushing the lecturing angle may be useful.

As regards workload, note for every hour doing laboratory supervision and lecturing, you should add an extra hour preparation time (lecture notes, etc.), so five hours could end up ten hours (a quarter of your week).

I don't think a first year PhD student will be considered ready by most Universities to take on such duties and this is something you may be asked to take on second year onwards. Indeed, if you overrun at the end, teaching duties can provide a useful source of finance.

However, many candidates may choose to keep such duties to a minimum to concentrate on their PhD, a big enough source of stress in itself. A number in my Uni. decided not to push the teaching angle for this very reason.

I opted to make my thesis as public as possible. My subject area was never going to 'sell' copies as such. However, the alternative was that my thesis and research was going to sit on a shelf and gather dust if I restricted access. With my group closing down after I left, no-one was going to take the subject up again.

I acknowledge there's a danger of copying or plagerism, hence my predecessor not publicising and I know of one that barred his Uni. from putting his thesis on Ethos. If someone wants to see the library copy, he gives permission to them first. Whilst this is a secure approach to protecting your data, I don't see the point of doing this after all the work I'd put in, for no-one to ever know about a body of research that might just be of use somewhere to someone. It annoyed me this was the probable outcome.

To establish intellectual ownership, I thus opted to publish as much of my data to journal as possible (I also promised the external examiner in my viva that I would do this). If the data is in recognised publications and journals with my name as corresponding author and my thesis is referenced by each paper, no-one else can claim they own the data or claim ownership. If someone does try to significantly plagerise my data and claim it as their own, these journal publications clearly show from date and issue that I made the findings in them first. What looks like my final paper is currently being refereed, giving me a total of ten papers and a book chapter from the PhD work - you could say I produced too much data.

Added bonuses were I also mananged to publish extra data and findings not included in my thesis and also correct one or two statements with extra data, which my primary supervisor asked me to put into the thesis document. This allowed me to tie up a few loose ends that were left dangling once my hardbound thesis was submitted.

When Ethos was established, I also took matters into my own hands and ensured firstly that a PDF version of my thesis was placed on my Uni's Open Repository and that it was that copy the British Library uploaded to Ethos. With the data otherwise published, there was no advantage in hiding the thesis to protect my findings and my wish that the data did not gather dust was also fulfilled.

If you do decide not to publicise, I guess that's your choice. However, do you want all that work never to see the light of day? I would only restrict access if there was value in controlling publication for financial gain and many PhD subjects are so niche, significant income from them is unlikely. I'd be interested if anyone here has actually managed to earn some money from them.

I stand corrected. However, I found that with a Welsh thesis I had to go to the Welsh National Library.

It's Ian (my real first name), then alias 'Beefy'. Mackem_Beefy is my internet alias basically speaking. I've never used 'Mr. Beefy' (though after gaining my PhD, I briefly changed from Mackem Beefy to Dr. Beefy for about a week a few years ago).

'Beefy' was originally 'Beef Sandwich' due to a crap joke on the Internet during pre-web days. I was bored one day writing up for Masters back in 1992 and said something really naff like 'I'm a Beef Sandwich, please drink me' (eunet.jokes on Usenet from memory). It was an Oxymoron joke thing going on at the time. Don't ask!!!

It became 'Mackem Beefy' due to me being a Sunderland AFC season ticket holder (Mackem is a slang word for someone from Sunderland). I post on the Sunderland Message Board (run by Sunderland fanzine 'A Love Supreme') under that alias.

I'm not actually 'Beefy' in appearance, I'm actually quite skinny!!! ;-)

Found the e-mail address of the person at Cambridge who posted up the original PhD game. Looking at this newer version, he / she thinks the world is a crueler place!!!

Version 1: http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/~kw10004/phdgam/phdgame.pdf

Version 2: http://www.wearthesis.talktalk.net/phdgame.pdf

Ian (alias 'Beefy')

Definitely 'his'.
;-)

No way!!!

======= Date Modified 29 Apr 2011 18:53:45 =======
Man Universities also have 'open repositories' (in the UK and elsewhere). If you can't get hold of a recent thesis on Ethos, do a web search for the appropriate University open repository or place a request with the University library.

Also, the British Library's Ethos website only covers England. Scottish and Welsh theses are looked after by their national libraries. I'd assume similar arrangements are made internationally by various national libraries in other countries.

You comment you've a job and also family commitments. You supervisory team seems to have lost interest. You were exhasted and depressed then and (I assume) happy now. It seems to me you've answered your own question.

Deciding whether or not to go back depends on what direction you want your life to take. If you want an academic future, then talk to your department to see if it's worth going back. Otherwise, it might be better just to move on rather than put yourself back in a position where you were miserable.

However, the decision is yours at the end of the day.

======= Date Modified 29 Apr 2011 11:55:39 =======
Straight away, PhD workload plus depression is a bad combination. I'd advise you suspend your PhD for a few months until you get your head sorted out.

Go home, see your family and give yourself time to think what you want to do. Your PhD is not worth your health, no matter how important it is to you and I think you're too close to the problem.

In the meanwhile, have a smile. I came across this a while back and I think we could all wish for a square 39!!!

http://www.wearthesis.talktalk.net/phdgame.pdf

:-)