Hi Moomin,

the anticipation is much worse than the actual event itself. Just try and be clear what your objectives were; did you succeed in doing what you set out to find; why did you do things the way you did, and if you could go back and do it all again would you have done anything completely differently?

My advice to you (and others awaiting their viva) is just remember: this is perhaps (one of) the only time(s) you will ever get in your life to sit and thoroughly discuss YOUR work, YOUR results, YOUR research etc. The people sitting there in the viva with you, yeah sure they're probably experts in their own fields, but does that mean they know absolutely EVERYTHING you've done? I think not, and it wasn't the case in my viva! So the more time YOU talk about something you enjoyed, or that worked really well, or perhaps threw up a surprise nobody expected etc. - the less time they have to grill you on other things that perhaps you overlooked or just didn't enjoy.

Anyways, good luck - like others have said you'll be fine.

P.S. if you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's probably because I'm a scientist...

Someone3: I'm British; I finished my PhD last year (August); compared to other PhD students around the world I definitely feel I had a severe lack of supervision; and now even though my thesis was highly praised and had very few corrections to do after my viva, I still have doubts whether my ex-supervisor will bother to help me get any papers from my research. So I just wanted to let you know: it's nothing personal, there are a lot of people in the same boat, and I guess all we can do is hang in there and keep applying!

I'm currently registered on over 20 job-searching websites. Been looking and applying for about a year now, with little/no success. Please note, however, that I'm only interested in company/non-academic work with (at least the potential for) long-term future, as I have no desire to stay in academia and absolutely no desire to teach etc. Could have had a job this month if I wanted, but rejected it because the company turned out to be tiny, and they wanted me to do too much for a rather poor salary. I can do better!

Hang in there, yeah? Would be nice to hear from others out there in the same/similar situation, and how you're dealing with it.  ;-)