Excellent reponse, thanks for the input Hazy and Beefy! I'm still working on publications but looks like the only way to accomplish is finding part time work and getting on with the rest in my spare time. Although I'd argue that academic disorganisation is a product of the dismantling of public institutions, I retract that "at its worst" comment, as there are many worse examples!

Yes there's the catch. I was never officially employed in the industry but they still dictated the course of my research. I learned no skills applicable anywhere else but this company. The whole process was a lure to get me to work for a company as they had provided funding for the department. It was intended that I work there once per year but later I was told they didn't have space for me. In the end, the department gets paid and the company gains a thrall. Although I understand many of you still believe universities to be legitimate institutions please take heed. Lack of public funding is leading to increasingly shady practices as they evolve into corporate entities. This is predatory capitalism at its worst and I really wouldn't want anyone else to suffer a similar fate.

You misunderstand me. I was led to believe I was working with one supervisor when the plan all along was to work with someone else of much lower quality. It was a complete scam. Thanks for the support anyway.

I'm not sure if anyone else has gone through something similar, but I'm interested to find and also feel like I should warn others about the "co-supervisor" trick played on naive undergraduates.

Basically, I came from a pretty unstable background so needed some security that I'd have some sort of income after graduating with a first class degree in a hard science discipline. I got an offer from one of the top 10 UK universities (based on THE rankings) which seemed to be related to a topic of interest. One matter of concern was I had a primary supervisor (a professor) and a secondary (a part time industry/academic) .

Unfortunately the initially "keen" professor rapidly lost interest in my work and I was left working with the part timer who was rarely on campus, on a topic that was not really what I was looking for. Probably at this point I should have seen the warning signs, quit and looked for something different, but eventually I finished it anyway.

Now there are not really any opportunities to move forward into something I am interested in, since I have no publications. I lack the motivation to publish because the direction of my thesis was dictated by industry and not really something I was particularly enthusiastic about.

So, it looks like the only option is taking on a job which is intellectually unsatisfying and forgetting about working at a university altogether. It is very unclear where to go from here being over 30 without any transferable skills. Lesson learned is, be careful of rushing into anything which takes a long time to do, and do not allow for uncertainty as to who your supervisor might be. Has anyone else had a similar experience?