Thanks for your advice Hazyjane.

I think I will be able to maintain my focus for the 3-4 years needed to complete it. What I really need right now is something definite and permanent to focus on, instead of swaying from one idea to another about what I want to do with my life. The thing is, I just hope I can achieve everything that I want to achieve in this area with such a late start into it. I will be 31-32 years old by the time I finish the phd, then I'll need to get a job. I wouldn't have had a lot of work experience in this field by that time, and yet this will probably be the time that I will want career security. With it being such a competitive area to get work in, how early would you recommend that I get work published and take on teaching jobs? Can you do that whilst doing a masters? Would there even be enough time?

Just out of curiosity - why did you quit a year and a half into your phd?

Hi SmallGreenElk,

Have you thought about starting up your own business? You might be able to get a grant from princes trust or something else like that if you have a good idea and a good business proposal. Maybe you could make it music related? If you play a musical instrument (which I'm guessing you do) then perhaps you could teach at an hourly rate. This way you get to choose your own working hours and at least it will give you an income til you get your dream job. :-)

Hi all,

I'm in a bit of a panic and need some reassurance. I'm almost 27 years old (oh my, that's scary :$ ) and I am seriously considering doing a Phd. I would really like to do a taught masters first so that I can prove my worth (so to speak) in order to get funding.

However, as you've probably noted already I'm a little bit concerned about my age when entering into all of this.

I procrastinated quite a bit during my undergrad years (and there were a lot of them!) - things just got in the way of my studies so I just kept on starting again and re-taking years. Lack of money, meeting my other half at uni (we were together all of the time) and confusions about what I wanted out of life/career just all got in the way. Before, I was always someone who was top of the class and looked like I was going somewhere in life. But I've constantly had difficulties in choosing just the ONE thing to focus on, scared in case it's the wrong choice.

As a result of this, I haven't got anywhere yet, and I know that if I don't do anything about this now then I'll never achieve anything in my life.

However, I'm worried about going back to uni at 27. I'm nervous about the work. Nervous about younger masters students being so much brighter than me because I've been out of the game for so long (daft thing to worry about, I know). Bricking it that I won't actually get onto the Phd after the masters. And I'm also worried that I won't 'fit in' to postgrad and academic life. What if I'm not clever or organised enough?

Any advice would be welcome.


Many thanks in advance,
Bumble