@Welcome to you SU3AD, wishing you the best of luck. I am sure you will get much support from the forum and this thread when you need it. Hope all goes well and the writing issues are manageable.

Yesterday I had my final meeting before submission in 7 weeks time. It was around 4 hours and we went through the whole thing.
What do I have to do now?

Check for absolute consistency, with headings and APA citation.
Work a bit more on the table formatting. Some clarification of terms.
Some further work on bringing out contribution to knowledge-its in there and the study is a 'lovely story' but contribution is a bit underplayed and needs to be drawn out in conclusion more effectively.
Send a copy of Chapter 1 and 4 to second supervisor and ask her to read to check that she is happy with my formatting and consistency changes in.about 3-4 weeks.
Some paragraphs here and there need to be moved from where they are and placed in another part of the thesis.
Some headings need to be collapsed into one heading or removed at different points.
Add or adjust lit review in small parts to reflect some references introduced in discussion chapter.
Few more editing sorts of things, doable definitely.

I think this is my penultimate or second last post on this particular thread-I'll post on or just after submission. Best wishes to all of you on this last year, last months thread and all of you drawing closer to the finishing line.

Congratulations DrnPM133 and Dr Muspectrum, fantastic news for you both. Hope the celebrations went well and best luck for the future!

Hi Missy,

The remarks quoted above are inappropriate, irrelevant and unfortunate.

a. How other students feel is not your concern, nor that of the person who made the remark.
b. Your behaviour/work habits in any future employment is not the concern of the person and they are making assumptions beyond their remit when they make these comments.
c. Any statement with 'should' in it (that isn't part of a legal or policy document) is also using a form of high moral tone that is unnecessary and, in this case, untrue. Many people on this forum have completed PhD's using a 9-5 formula that has worked well for them.

The remarks are unfortunate though, also in that while they are misguided and regrettable, people do make these assumptions and remarks, no matter what their role or position. So my perspective would be to try not to take these remarks to heart, but put them in the category of general 'tosser' remarks and file them in your mental wastepaper basket.

Can you discuss how to manage these sorts of situations with your support people, and if necessary, have the disability office help advocate for you if needed?

With regard to the presentations, the university should have provisions for reasonable adjustments. This might include recording a presentation or making a podcast perhaps? Or other forms of adjustment. However, there should be some form of policy or provision for adjustments in your situation.

Best wishes Missy. I personally hope very much that you don't believe that this is a reason why you should leave the PhD program.

Hi Satchi, I can-have sent pm, cheers P

Hi there and welcome! Re-your statement above- I still feel like this and I am going to submit my thesis in 8 weeks time anyway. I think it might be down to just wanting it to be perfect and always seeing room for improvement. When you get the final product, even with a bit of editing to go, there are all these thoughts that swim around.." my analysis is limited, I've got to reshape the first chapters, etc, etc". When you come to do this work, it isn't as complex as you think-although owing to fatigue, it can be hard to be motivated to do it. So then the thoughts come back "wow, my thesis is 'meh', it can't possibly be good enough. Surely I need to do more. What was all this pain for anyway?".

I think these thoughts are common and, of course, you can always do more but at some point you have to stop and graduate. There may also be some truth to these thoughts but not in a negative way.

Essentially, the PhD is just a large study-your final piece as an apprentice. And the first step to a research career, or a symbol of reaching a level of understanding or intellectual scholarship, if you don't use it for academia but in the professional world.

And what it looks like at the other end, isn't quite how you envision it at the start or even in the middle of the journey. So your supervisors may be less worried because their expectations are for a 'good enough product that qualifies you for a PhD' whereas the candidate may be hoping for and seeing in their mind a perfect product, that may even be transformative or transform your life somehow.

In my opinion, it is still very worthwhile doing, absolutely essential if you do want to be an academic or researcher and still worthwhile as a form of terminal degree which conveys a level of professional expertise in an area-even if you don't. (Provided though that you understand and are hoping for one of these two outcomes. It can be disappointing if these outcomes are not what you were aiming for).

As well as trying out all of the other responses-great ideas folks-one of the things I love to do is just to organise a catch up with a friend for lunch/dinner/drinks and really good chat (gossip) in a nice place. Cool coffee bar, place with some form of view or nice outlook or great decor. This tends to lift my spirits in the really difficult times, that, Netflix and making sure I do some form of mild to moderate exercise even if I don't feel like it.

PS: if no money for eating out, even coffee/drinks and nibbles at home-with a friend and some conversation can help out in-between the writing times.

Hi there, I understand both that writing your own reference letter could be difficult and frustrating/upsetting. It may be though that if, as you say Emaa, your supervisor is really nice, it isn't just about saving time. She may also be asking you to draft the letter because you have more of an idea than her about what criteria you want the reference to address-meaning how to target it specifically for specific roles or audiences, so that you really sell yourself, your skills and what you would bring to that particular job/role.

So you write your letter, looking at the specifications of the job (or types of positions) you are applying for and addressing the key criteria, explaining how your skills and strengths match these criteria. Then once this is sent to supervisor, she individualises, modifies and endorses this statement or reference letter for you personally, based on her (hopefully objective) assessment/perception of its accuracy.

Having said this, perhaps you need to really think about what you want your profile to say about yourself, your skill set and experiences and abilities and how they fit the sorts of jobs/positions you would like to gain, and then draft these up into a statement about yourself. Send this to the supervisor and she will adapt this to a reference that she has endorsed and modified to be a testimonial. Best of luck, hope this helps...it can be very hard to talk yourself up in this way if you are not used to this sort of process. Don't second guess or doubt yourself, be bold, send it to her and see what results.

I have had similar experiences to CloudoFash (minus the lab experience). My supervisor was a first time supervisor-I will be her first PhD student to graduate, although given that I have taken 5+ years (part time student), she has had a Masters student or two finish in the time we have worked together.

Positives:

She remembers the journey and stages very clearly and can empathise well with the highs and lows
Acted as coach in the first two to three years-clarifying, encouraging and helping to set targets
Great reader in the last year during write up and finalising-very thorough, meticulous and timely
Good sounding board
'Gone in to bat' for me once or twice when administrative issues were annoying
Get on really well with her and this has been a huge positive

Cons:

Not much specific expertise in my area
Hasn't provided much guidance in the way of theory-theoretical or method

I also have a second supervisor-who is far more experienced, is senior and head of the school/faculty, incredibly busy but can provide that dash of concentrated expertise that causes me to rethink, redraft, restructure.

@ Congratulations to Teegs90-great result and best wishes for your future success and publications.

@ Chickpea, I hope that your submission issues are resolved very quickly now so you can move on. Well done though for all your hard work and talent in getting to this point. And on your resilience-must be very hard to be at this point and have to be held up by administrative issues.

My current status is I have a complete polished draft, with all bits and pieces finalised. I'm waiting for feedback from both supervisors as to whether I can give my formal intention to submit notice (8 weeks notice) and then formally submit the thesis mid to late July. I have a big meeting lined up with supervisor in 2 weeks (owing to move and new job I don't live near the university any more so have to travel around 1000 k's) and this meeting will be the last I think. I just have to 'rest' now until this meeting on 25/5 and then make their suggested adjustments in the final 8 weeks before submitting. They've been very quiet now for almost a month, so I am a bit nervous that I might find they want structural changes rather than surface-which might hold things up. Anyway, I can't do anything about it now until I meet face to face and find out whether they approve my notice (or not).

Congratulations Kamali! Hoping you have the opportunity to really celebrate your success and achievement. Best wishes for the future.

Hi Fallen Onion, don't think that your background knowledge (which you are really familiar with) is obvious to others. The people interviewing you may not have your marketing background (probably don't). Play to your strengths here.

Another tip I have is that, given that a 10 minute presentation actually isn't a lot of time, I'd limit myself to four key strong strategies and be really clear in my presentation about these 4 points.

I would make sure that when I expanded on my strategies or fleshed them out, I linked all detail back to my four main points and any supporting material highlighted the strengths of the ideas without confusion. This is where you can use PM133's point about demonstrating your knowledge of the College and where it is headed. 'Student voice' is really important so Hanginthere's idea could also be a selling point to flesh out your social media strategies.

Don't just rely on where the College have been or are currently situated in the market-think about where they are headed and what their mission or vision for the future is as well and incorporate this into at least one of your strategies.

Very best of luck with this.

PS: In relation to your previous post and interview experience: I was given three interviews last year and received feedback on all of them. First one I was 'gutted' when I didn't get the job and found it hard to take the feedback on board; second one disappointed but more open to the feedback and positive about it all; and the third one I got the job and a lot of highly positive feedback. Even though it can be crushing, try to think of feedback as your friend in these cases and don't be too hard on yourself or worried about your previous experience. Onwards and upwards...

Wonderful work litphdgirl! Well done and best wishes for the graduation-not long now...

You have done a brilliant job in pushing through the wall these last few months. Just a little bit more and you are almost there. Best wishes and well done GM. You will get there and well done on your professional academic work as well! Great achievement.

Hi Sofi,

I think you have been given some excellent feedback already from HiT and TD, and I thought I would offer my perspective on your comment below: "I may not be the hardworking talented candidate that he always wanted and that he always encouraged me to be." .
You are not doing a PhD to gratify your supervisor's expectations of what he believes you should be or to please him. And the PhD is not about 'you'-the PhD is about your study. Once you have submitted and completed your PhD, you and your supervisor will probably part ways. (For many of us-both candidates and supervisors- this will be a huge relief, I might add).

So given this, when it comes to the PhD, perhaps you can listen to what he is saying about trying out different ideas. For many of us that means reading more of the literature or research to expand our thinking and asking 'what if?' questions, or trying out something new, even if we are not sure how it will go. I think you might know this anyway. Being 'creative' on a PhD often comes down to the strategies we try or work through as we go, and these can be learned (from books, from other people, from the literature we read). And to committing to thinking through things rather than going with the first option. So creativity relates to what we do, not who we are.

You, Sofi, are fine just as you are. Your supervisor may have 'expectations' of you. These are fine as long as they relate only to the work you do and with regard to you meeting your PhD obligations-doing the work, researching and finally writing and submitting a PhD. If you are doing that to the best of your ability, and in good faith, then you are meeting your obligations and any reasonable expectations of your supervisor. This PhD is about you and your study, and your supervisor's job is to guide you to this end point. Hope this helps, I mean it well, so please don't think this is a criticism of your post or your position.

Hi Nake, sorry to read how difficult your experience has been. Hope that it all works out for you finally and you do finish and get your doctorate, even if you don't use it to enter academia.