Oh I see. My PhD will need lots of international travels, lots of long specialist machinery time while the jobs open to me are probably not 40h/week jobs but quite a bit more, also including travel. It would be fairly difficult.

My stipend gets paid per month, btw, and I'm a EU citizen. Worst case I might even be kicked out in two years time. I don't think it will happen but it's something I need to keep at the back of my head.

I know my thinking is not very positive at the moment. It's difficult to think straight.

Thanks a lot for your answer. I've looked into part-time. Once I do that and start to work I'll have to pay council tax and water charges, which brings my monthly costs up by about £150. My profession and transferable skills will not allow for a part-time job, hence any kind of work at minimum salary seems the only option. That would just be above £600/month, while my stipend will be halved. Taking council tax into account I would have less money than now. That's just not an option.

Also, considering my funding lots of grants are closed to me, and the time needed to apply for them is too long. I cannot get into debt just to stay in my PhD and hope I'll get small amounts of money here and there.

I certainly need to talk to my supervisor, though I'm afraid I'll be kicked out immediately, and then I'm in serious problems. I just don't know what to do at the moment. I'm at a complete loss and feel like I'm running in circles without getting anywhere.

Started a dream PhD in December. Am somewhat older than the average PhD student. No work in my industry at the moment.

4 weeks ago my world completely collapsed. I don't want to get into detail, but fact is that I need more money, much more, each month again and for years. Money I could not earn with demonstrating, and finding a part-time job that pays well enough is also not possible. I need to stop my PhD and find proper work. :(

My problem is that my PhD is industry funded and a company that might be a potential employer one day is expecting results, not someone running away. My supervisor might also end up in problems. I need to inform him as quickly as possible. However, as I cannot get work in my profession I need to look at transferable skills, thus finding a job that solves my problem won't be easy and I'll run into serious financial problems if I just stop without having work. Keep in mind that a normal stipend is the evivalent of about 18-20k/year.

How do you think should I solve this? I'm already talking with uni counceling as what happened has left me pretty suicidal, but I know that this is not a solution. I'm also talking to career advisors, but there's no quick solution. Will be away for my PhD until May, thus I cannot do anything until then anyway.