Hi everyone,

I am writing to seek your advice on job hunting. I defended my doctoral thesis a few months ago and have almost finished my thesis revision. I will also submit my final thesis this week. After my viva, I started my job search. So far, I have focused all my attention on teaching and research positions that require a Ph.D. or master's degree such as lectureships, assistant professorships, and research assistant/associate positions. I have sent around 10 application letters and got two interviews. But so far, I still haven't got any offer yet. There are not many vacancies in my field at this moment. I wonder if I should start to look for jobs that require a bachelor's degree such as editors and supply teachers at middle/high schools. I don't know if this is good for my future career development because I want to develop my career in academia. I think that these jobs are totally irrelevant to what I have been doing in my field for years, while at the same time I need some money to support my life (coz I am using my savings to support my life). Should I start looking for non-academic/research jobs now? Or Should I wait for a few months to see if there are more vacancies coming up?

Could anyone give me some advice on job hunting after PhD?

Thanks a lot for your time and help.

Hi guys, I would like to seek your advice. I will have 'a job interview' next week. I used the quotation marks because I don't know whether it should be called an interview. The job I applied for is a teaching job. The HR said to me that the department would like to have an informal conversation with me. Does anyone have this kind of job experience? What is it like to have such an informal conversation as 'a job interview'?

Hi all,

I need your advice. My university is hiring several teaching fellows and I am interested in submitting one job application. The job advertisement states that newly-hired teaching fellows are mainly responsible for teaching undergraduate courses. But I am not familiar with some of the courses because I never took any of them at all. I would plan to read through some of the courses that I am not so familiar with from the university website so that I have a general idea of what to cover in those courses. What else should I do to prepare well for my interview? Do you have any useful tip or experience to share with me? Thanks a lot.

Thanks for your reply, lawlin. The next semester starts next week. I hope that I will receive a reply from my former supervisor soon.

Thanks a lot for your replies, Anne1987 and rewt. I will wait until the next semester starts.

Hi all,

I need some advice from you. I am now doing a Ph.D. and will be graduating next year. I will also begin my job search very soon. As we know, most academic positions require applicants to have referrers. I have already emailed my current Ph.D. and former MPhil thesis supervisors, asking them if they could act as my referees. My current supervisor has replied to me with a 'yes'. But my former supervisor has not still replied to me yet, and it has been almost a week since I emailed my former supervisor. Should I send my former supervisor another email again? or should I assume that my former supervisor does not want to act as my referee?

Thanks a lot for your help. Happy new year, everyone!

We have similar problems. I feel guilty too if I spend a day without working. But I think we have to learn how to strike a work-life balance. Phd is just a small part of our life. In our life, there are many other things we can do like hanging out with friends, watching movies, swimming and going shopping. We still have two more years to go! Dont give yourself too much pressure!

Coarvi, so sorry to hear what you have gone through. Actually, I have similar problems to yours. Not sure if you have read my recent post. I am losing my motivation for doing my PhD. I have started to feel fed up with my project. I am still working on my proposal that i have to submit next week. I am really under great pressureand i have never had that feeling before in my life. Sometimes i force myself to think about the positive side of doing my phd.. But that doesn't work. What i do now is to work out for a while every day and talk to my friends and share my feelings with them. That helpes me ease a bit of my pressure. No matter how busy you are, you should spare some time to do something you like - something not related to your project. That will help you.

Thanks for your replies! I am feeling a bit better now after talking to some of my friends and sharing my feelings here. I think I will submit what I have done when the deadline comes - Unless my boss lets me extend the deadline (but i would rather she wouldn't give me any grace period because I really need some rest.)

Hi guys,

I need help!

I am under great pressure right now! I am a year one PhD student. I am currently writing my proposal which is due this month. I am losing my motivation for doing my PhD. My boss has always asked me to revise the proposal. Actually i have finished it already. Although it is not the best piece, it looks fine enough as a proposal in my opinion. I do think that I can submit it for internal examiners to assess. But my boss is so demanding (or picky), always requesting me to do a lot of rewriting. I have been working non stop for months from 10 - 10 . I feel exhausted. I cant sleep and eat! I start to think that doing a PhD is not suitable for me.

What should i do? Anyone with similar experiences can give me some advice? How did you get through this difficult time?

Thx for your help!

You are right! I think I would want to do a PhD if I was not doing it. I will keep thinking positive!

Yes.I still have a few months to familiarize myself with the topic before I submit my proposal. I will try my best.

Thanks, Chickpea. I know my supervisor is trying to help me develop. Because I am working on a topic that I am not familiar with. I need to do a lot of reading, which makes me feel great pressure and mentally exhausted.
I hope that I will get used to his supervision style.