Oh I am sorry to hear how long you have been waiting Hugh, that is so frustrating!!

Well my sup reckons I will be officially submitting in November but they are not the fastest at providing feedback so I reckon it will be December. I was meant to send them my full draft this week but it will be later next week (they want it binding which can take a few days at my institution's printing service department). I have proof read my thesis on paper (which took 6 whole days- dawn til dusk) and I have been working on applying the edits to the electronic copy.

I am behind with applying edits because I have a couple of job interviews lined up so I have been preparing loads for them, and I mean loads. I have one for a teaching only post and one for a research only post! Please keep your fingers crossed for me :) Also Hugh, any tips for research interviews would be amazing if you can remember your interview experiences well enough, but I understand it is difficult to remember what was asked!

Well done IntoTheSpiral :D

I agree with Chickpea Hugh, I cannot see how it is possible to avoid referencing previous literature in your conclusion. If it helps, I answered each research question one by one by highlighting the significance and uniqueness of my findings which did involve comparing and contrasting with the literature previously cited in the thesis. I made recommendations and evaluated the methods etc. all of which I feel would be difficult to do without referencing previous literature. My sup had no issue with this.

I feel the same as you Hugh. My experience on the PhD hasn't been all bad. It has been mostly enjoyable overall, but yes I have experienced how toxic the environment can be and I am looking forward to getting into the routine of a job now.

I have been feeling this way recently too. I remember having lots of emails ignored and then getting emails from them where they did not acknowledge my previous emails and instead asked favours etc. I was livid. I kept emailing though with the same questions and asked if there was a reason for them not responding to which I got a reply to. Not sure why that wasn't done the first time I emailed though.

I am desperate to find a job so I can move on. I am submitting another application this week and I am keeping everything crossed that I get somewhere with this one.

I have not handed in my full thesis draft yet but I am concerned it will take ages to come back to me.

I have completed editing and proofing the majority of my appendices and I am aiming to finish them by the end of next week before giving the whole thesis a final read before it goes to my sup. I am also presently applying for jobs, but I have had a horrible cold for two days and I think I may have to take it easy over the weekend!

I am happy that you have nice new hair Pjlu ;) I really nee mine sorting but I think that will be my 'reward' when I had it to my sup. I can at least not think about my thesis for a short while then :)

Whenever I have submitted journals, it has sometimes taken over a month to assign reviewers, then up to 6 months for the outcome to be reported. As most reviewers are typically active in academic posts, it is a very busy time with it being the start of a new academic year, so it may be taking a little longer to find people willing to review the paper.

That's awesome :) Yes its just a case of keeping on trying, getting feedback, applying it where possible, and trying again! We will find something eventually.

You may get a response, it's the start of the academic year and so really busy. I never received a decision on one so I rightly assumed I was unsuccessful (for a lecturing position) but the professor got back to me after about 2 months. I discovered that I had got to the final few people when they were shortlisting which boosted my confidence so that was good.

You are doing well to be getting interviews Hugh :) I just applied to another teaching job and was mindful of feedback from previous posts I applied to. Hopefully we will find something soon!

The viva is something else I worry about- my sup does provide very thorough feedback and has a reputation for being strict but there is always that worry of 'what if we both missed an obvious mistake?' I have not handed the full draft in yet but I am battling with editing the conclusions at the moment so I am very close!

Well done on submitting the draft Hugh :) Did you ever hear anything about that job btw?

Pjlu I worry about the same thing! My sup has seen one version of each chapter and some of those were ones I had wrote in my first year that have now completely changed. I think they are much stronger and coherent but there is always that doubt.

I checked Chickpea and I have had confirmation from the postgraduate office that my uni does not do intention to submit, just told me to hand it in when im ready and advised me to make sure that I had examiners in place....which is exactly what I have been trying to do for weeks *sigh*

Intothespiral- ooooh so close! Must be exciting :)

Thank you Pjlu :)

I have just had to email my institutions postgrad office as to whether I need to formally notify for submission. It is not something I have ever been told about and just hear students from other institutions discuss it. I am struggling to get any responses from my sup lately about submission procedures, my phd, viva, anything which knocks my motivation somewhat.

I have just completed editing a chapter and now have the conclusion to sort which I am hoping to have completed this week. Then it is a case of getting through the appendices editing as quickly as I can (dreading that!)

That is really odd for them to include appendices in the word count! My 120k was not including appendices for which I have about 200 pages :o

Would there be a problem with selecting the option in word to exclude text included in tables from the word count? I have some tables and this is what I have done (albeit, I don't have many tables). If it reassures you, at present, my thesis is about 500 pages with appendices!

Types of jobs- anything and everything. My scholarship has ended and I need to find a way of paying my rent and bills fairly quickly. Over the past couple of months, I have applied for teaching jobs, teaching and research roles combined, research posts etc. I have not been shortlisted yet, but I did receive feedback from a university where I had applied for a teaching and research post (at a Russell Group) and they said I made it to the final 10 out of 100 applicants before I was rejected (which was due to other people having a stronger publication record). It gave me a confidence boost though :)

When I was teaching, I would receive a report from the university's disability services about specific students which would detail what actions I needed to take. For instance, ensuring that all visual information was described in detail, or avoiding drawing attention to those needing to leave the classroom to take medications etc. Did you receive anything like this/ is there someone you could ask for such a report?

My thesis was really really long before I started editing it all chronologically. It was about 120k, now it is 99k. I am struggling to come to terms with the fact I managed to actually cut that much out as I spent months declaring that everything was essential as it was a longitudinal qualitative project! When you say 'stupidly long' is it still within your university's word limit?

I am lucky as there is no quant stuff in my thesis, I haven't touched an spss database since my MA haha

My focus is starting to flag a bit today. My goal today is just to edit another 9 pages of this chapter then return to it either tomorrow or Monday (depending on how quickly I can get a job application done tomorrow morning) but even so I am finding it so draining.