You could be me writing this I feel exactly the same, and the same time period in!!! And just got back from a cross uni conf!!!

Walrus, I couldnt agree more, I have been in the lab since nov and still feel am stuck at the begining. It has taken me 6 months to get anything to work. Like you say I have learned alot but do feel am not progressing as quickly as others in the labs who started at the same time

It make me feel so much better that other people are in a simiar situation. I am in my 3rd month in industry and living in the middle of knowhere.

I am still struggling but hope I can turn a corner next week (but I have been hoping this the last few weeks). The winter blues dont help either.

I am in the first year of my PhD and have only been in the lab for 2 months. While I have read about the people having a slump in the 2nd year onwards, does anyone else have this happen at the begining. I have several years lab experiance but not in the molecular biology (the area of my PhD).

While I used to be confident in my own work, I hit a wall after a month and am now making silly mistakes, which is compounding the problem further and so knocking my confidence further, in the knowlege that I am not making a good first impression.

Has this happened to anyone else? and how do you get out of this rut?