Hi Peep,

I quit my phd after 2 years (supervisor issues) and am just about to start at a different university in September. So quitting doesn't need to be a bad thing - but you need to tell another senior member of staff who can help you out with a reference and support you on why you quit (ie that it was the fault of the supervisor and not with you).
Having said that, you have done 4 years and so I think the best thing you can do is change supervisors. The university should help you out with this (it doesn't look good for them if you leave and so they'll do what you can to help you).
Good luck :-)

Hi all,

Just wanted to say thank you so much for all your advice. To update you, I took a week to think about things and had a chat to my supervisor about how I was feeling. I was completely honest & she was really nice about it. Anyways, we agreed that I'd keep going for another few months and then see how I feel. And now I'm feeling a lot more positive about it - I may as well at least try and finish now I've started.
When I posted the first post I was 100% sure in my mind I was going to quit - it's amazing what a difference some time & an honest chat can make.
Thanks everyone & good luck to you in your PhDs and future careers

K :-)

Hi everyone,

Really need some help on this. Basically I'm doing my phd in psychology and have decided I want to quit. The main reason for this is that I no longer want to do anything related to academia or psychology - I want to work in the fitness industry instead. This is something I've always wanted to do but have felt 'pushed' (by family mainly) to do something more academic. Now at the age of 28 Ive finally realised that I should do what I want to do - not what others expect. However, I tried to tell my family the other day and my nan got all upset and told me my late grandad would be so disappointed in me if i quit! So that just made me feel a million times worse than I did already. So the whole situation is a bit of a nightmare really!
There are 2 things I need help with here 1) how do I tell my supervisor - I don't think she has any idea how I'm feeling & this will be a complete shock for her. She's a bit of a control freak ("a bit" being a massive understatement), and only the other day was saying how bad it would look on her if I didnt finish on time! So i think she'd be pretty mad at me for leaving. I'm going to have to send her an email before I meet with her (theres no way Im brave enough to break the news to her face to face!), but what do I write in the email?
And secondly, how do I explain my decision to my family without them being massively disappointed in me? The whole situation is making me really depressed so I just need to get it sorted ASAP.
Would also be good to hear if any of you have had similar experiences and how you dealt with it.

Thanks!!


:-(