Hi, Sabby777,

Thank you for sharing your struggles and ambition. These are my personal opinion. I do not think you need a PhD to be a good consultant, but you will need a lot of hands-on experience in the area you are providing advice.

Instead of sinking more time, effort and money into a 4-7 year study that may or may not help you in your career choice, why don't you look for a consulting internship/ apprenticeship and talk to your respected consultant peers to see how they got where they are. Most will not have a PhD or even a Masters.

What you don't want is to be overqualified with your PhD but underexperienced with work skills. I understand it is hard to let go that you may never be called a Dr, but weigh that with having a strong career and importantly good pay down the line. A lot of PhD holders unfortunately are unemployed or working in a job beneath them due to the horrible academic job market. Looking for an industry position with a PhD is awefully hard, but much easier with a master. Peer pressure is a massive challenge, but you may be the one who have the last laugh yet

Hi, Sabby777

The area that you want to work in is quite niche, but I did find one link https://www.scholarshipsads.com/category/subject/international-entrepreneurship-management/. Not sure if the advertised scholarships are in the country that you are interested in or if they are of any use.

Personally though, I don't think you need a PhD to study entrepreneurship. Ground on job experience is far more important than reading on papers and going through online materials. Why do you want to do this PhD? If your answer if to work for a multinational, you might as well just get that job first and work your way up because a PhD won't help you. They prefer life skills. If you want to lecture on entrepreneurship, people would prefer to take a class or attend webinars hosted by actual entrepreneurs who has been round the track. If you want to start your own business, best you look for an actual mentor in business.

Banks don't like people on short term contracts. They prefer those on permanent contracts. Your role or job is irrelevant. One way to counter short term contract would be to have a huge deposit yourself or a partner who is quite well-off. Otherwise, it's going to be tough

The first post doc position is usually through recommendation from your supervisor. Any reason why he/she is not helping you get that first job? Like calling his/her friend to see if there is any vacancy for postdoc? I find it weird that 4 first authored papers and you can't get a job. Is there anything wrong with your recommendation letter?

Sorry you had to go through this, Jassica.

I would suggest you get out. You are still in the first year of PhD so you can start looking around and see which other lab you could jump to. Don't tell your supervisor until you are ready to make the jump. See which lab has good working culture and project that you are interested in. Start talking to other labs and their students to learn more about them but don't say anything about wanting to go until you are certain that that is the lab for you. Then talk to the new potential supervisor. Once you have confirmation of new supervisor, go through your Graduate school to change your supervisor. At that stage you can tell your current supervisor. All the best

Tell her that you will finish that new paper after you defended your thesis.

Get your postdoc admin/coordinator on board to clearly state what the immediate next steps are so you can submit. Document all the things that have happened in great detail and talk to your student union body if you have one.

Regarding the thesis, do you have a senior postdoc or other researcher to read it?

Sorry you are going through so much challenges, Eve1234

Make sure you document everything they did, including time and date. If they are as bad as you say, they could be trying to pull your project(s) from under you and giving it to someone else. So make sure you record everything going as far back as you can on all the mistreatments/absence etc.

Might be too late to get a co-supervisor. Do you have a postgrad coordinator? Let him/her know the situation. Put in place step by step what needs to be done so you can graduate. Seek you student union for advice if you have one. Finish and get the hell out

Hi, Jesse1309

You were on adrenaline, go go go for the many months. Suddenly it's all done and you are coping with the loss of purpose and routine.

I suggest you go on a holiday to properly unwind. Then if you feel ready, plan your day. Maybe set aside x hours thinking/looking/applying for job, if routine and predictability are that important to you. Then rest for the rest of the day.

Congratulations on submitting! it is a huge milestone.

Hi, hatemyphd84,

I am sorry that you are feeling so awful, BUT can you even see all the accomplishments that you had overcome in your life. You juggled divorce, illness, kids, jobs and house move, all very very serious and challenging matters. I think you are awesome.

Regarding your PhD, you are so so close to the end. A week away to do your PhD thesis sounds like a great idea. Complete what you can. It will not be perfect, but as long as you submit a PhD thesis, you have a shot. You have already come this far, you might as well try to get that PhD. In the worst case scenario, you will still have a masters.

You who have overcome many challenges can overcome this one more hurdle. All the best.

Hi, highopes,

Let's analyse your situation:
- Amazing full time position in area of interest
- Job needs to start in Nov
- Third year PhD with no clear plan for data analysis and clueless supervisor
- No guarantee of PhD completion
- No guarantee of job after PhD if rejecting this one

Question
- Will you mind possibly not finishing your PhD? What you have mentioned here with regards to your PhD study and unhelpful supervisor are unhealthy. You could be delayed significantly with no end in sight

This is my opinion. Bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

If the job does not require you to finish your PhD, take the job first. Worry about the PhD later. Ultimately, you complete a PhD so that you can have a better job and future. If this is the one, take it.

Hi, Maturestoodent,

Thank you for sharing your experiences, I wish you the very best in your future avenues.

A PhD supervisor has the responsibility and are paid to guide the PhD students. Unfortunately good supervisors are few and far in between as they too are under the stress of continuous grant application, labwork and other admin tasks to secure their next funding and employment. And some just outright see students as numbers to prop up their career and do the bare minimum to train the students. What you are searching for, a person whom you can have many scientific discussions with is extremely rare. Supervisors are generally pretty overworked and simply don't have the time. So under the excuse that you are meant to be independent, you can be intellectually abandoned and left to your own device to sink or swim.

Leaving a PhD is a personal decision but unfortunately can be seen as failure by the academic community. Hence there will be no support and people who do leave normally do so under a lot of stress and do not want to openly discuss it. Ex supervisors never mention the student again and it doesn't get reflected in the supervisor's profile how many students did not complete.

It is actually quite refreshing that you leave very early in your PhD when you saw all the red flags and are able to reflect on your experience so rationally. Most find out too late.

Many universities do basic research due to limited fundings whereas industry has more funds to go deeper. In fact, it is hard to do good research if the environment of academia preferentially support the Profs/PIs and does not support the growth of upcoming researchers. Not great salary, limited career trajectory, no job stability and security despite lots of hard work. That's why more and more leave academia. https://www.science.org/content/article/professors-struggle-recruit-postdocs-calls-structural-change-academia-intensify?cookieSet=1

It is wonderful to hear you are in the company of colleagues who can mentally stimulate you. I hope you are happy back in industry. All the best.

Do what you need to do to finish your PhD and get out.

You don't have to tell anyone about your plans to leave academia, including your supervisor.

Now that your are in your last year, plan your last months well. Do your week by week plan on what you need to do until you submit. Write down your essential tasks and commit to it with everything you have.

You owe it to yourself to work hard and finish the damn PhD since you are so close. Then get out with your PhD award in your hands and do something else that you love outside of academia.

There is no security in a research life in the university, living from grant to grant, and the pay is very low. Your decision to go is wise, but do not tell anyone until you leave academia.You do not want to be sabotaged (eg your superviosr takes you off first author because "you don't need it anymore", or your team treats you poorly because they won't be collaborating with you in the future)

Giving up your precious limited time as a PhD student to build labs at different places for him? What madness!! Definitely the right decision to go. If this guy doesn't let you graduate with a MPhil, best you just leave because there is no way you can do your PhD properly if he continues to ask you to slave for him

Hi, Sid,

This may be hard to swallow, but you have totally missed the boat. Usually the first postdoc is obtained immediately after the PhD with help from the PhD supervisor. You have no relationship with your supervisor or colleagues, so essentially no reference. You have worked as a lab technician in a school for the last 4 years, not producing any publication or getting any grant during that time. Usually, mid career is 5 years post PhD, so you are nearly at the mid career stage already. I am sorry, but you are not competitive at all for any future grant or academic position.

Could you try exploring other non-academic options? There will be something for you, even if it's not in academia

As long as you can answer the questions on why you jump around so much, that is fine.

Do employers think 40s as old? I can't speak for others, but if you are asking me to choose between two equally motivated but inexperienced people for one entry level position, one in the 20s and the other in the 40s, I will choose the younger one who will likely be easier to train and manage.