...will get better/don't waste the opportunity" talk but in the end the thought of leaving made me so happy and quite excited about changing direction. My parents etc have been okay with my decision because they were fully aware of my unhappiness, though still shocked. My supervisor is willing to give me a good reference but I don't really know how to approach my incomplete PhD in job applications (i'm applying for technician posts in a similar area).

5 months into my PhD I decided to leave. After several months of dreading going to work, repeated experimental failures and severe demotivation I finally realised that I didn't actually care about doing a PhD and the pain was just not worth it. Like others have said, I almost felt obliged to do a PhD because I had the ability to do it but at the end of the day I just want a job. Yes, I enjoy science, but I'm not willing to dedicate my life to it and make the sacrifices that some deem neccessary. So I told my supervisors my decision and they gave me the "but you have so much potential/things...

what???

I was just wondering how much experimental work science PhD students on here did in their first few months. My supervisor seems to expect me to have some data by the middle of January to present in a meeting, yet that leaves only 4 weeks (once Christmas is accounted for). I personally doubt that will happen. I have been working almost solidly in the lab for nearly 2 months and am not even near the data-collection stage. He also regularly mentions the 1st author Nature paper he expects me to have in a year or so. Talk about pressure!

I thought I was deleting the references that were search results from pubmed and it seems I deleted over 200 of the references from my library. I'm in the middle of my literature review (nearly finished) and I'm scared that if I do anything on the word document it will delete all the references from my review. Will this happen? Is there any way I can get them all back without searching for them all again? I know I could have clicked undo, but in the panic I closed down the programme (I'm so angry with myself)

Thankyou for your replies. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I think travelling out a day early is a great idea, that way I get to see the sights even if I can't get away with skiving off. If anyone else has stories to share on their experience of sight-seeing while at a conference then please do share.

I recently started my PhD and am discussing with my supervisor some conferences I might like to attend, some of which are abroad. I was just wondering whether there would be opportunities for tourist-type activities and if people usually set time aside for such activities?