Hi guys,
Do you think that it is a good idea to have a job in the first year of PhD study?

thanks

Is your PhD full or part time, and what sort of job are you thinking about? I know some full-time funded PhDs specify that you can't work over a certain number of hours per week, for example.

i am a full time PhD student. I just want to know whether PhD students should work and study at the same time. Is it a good idea? do you think that it maybe slow down my study if i have a job during my phd study. advice please~~

There's an expectation that you will work full-time on your PhD, so if you have a job on top of that, you will be working a lot of hours. Speaking from my own experiences, I have taken on small amounts of university-related work (teaching, invigilating etc) because it's good experience, but I would have found it difficult to have a regular job as well as my PhD. It depends on your circumstances, and I would also say it's important to check the conditions of your PhD, as there may be a specific restriction on how many hours of work you can take on.

We are told we are only allowed to work 6 hours a week outside of our PhD work, and that includes demonstrating, tutoring etc

hi hiini,
I became a part-time cleaner during the first year of my phd and I gave math tuition to 4 children every Wednesday. I loved being with the children because they always made me laugh but juggling the time was difficult. I found that I had to make up the time in the weekends on my PHD work for what I didn't do on that Wednesday because I was going to their houses.

I stopped the cleaner job after 10 months because it was simply too much for me, walking 50 minutes one-way, and another 50 min all the way back, just to save busfare.

The good part of my short stint as a cleaner was the plane tickets I managed to buy for my parents to come visit me.

If you have sufficient funding, please don't work another job during your phd.
love satchi

Against government cuts? Excellents! Great to see the spirit of '68 contractually enshrined :)

I worked part-time (10 hours a week) all through my PhD, and then full-time after my funding ran out. I found the part-time work fitted in fine for the most part, since it was just one evening and one weekend afternoon each week. Working full-time while finishing writing up and then doing corrections was pretty horrendous, however.

That made me smile :)