Overview of YorkFuller

I have just started my second year of an EPSRC funded PhD.

Passed my confirmation review last week and have a conference paper from my first year (the conference was quite niche and unheard of). But I feel quite unhappy and lost at the moment.

I feel like my research proposal is rubbish, and I don't feel particularly proud or interested in the work I am doing.

My PhD is an interdisciplinary one, based in engineering, but also doing some machine learning. I would prefer to have a PhD based in machine learning but my confirmation examiners told me I won't be progressing the field of ML but instead it has to be an engineering PhD (it is based between two departments).

I constantly worry about whether I'll be able to get a job at the end of the PhD as I am unsure I want to stay in academia, and I wonder if the next two years could be better spent by gaining industry experience (I want to be a data scientist) and earning a decent salary - if I can even get a job.

I am doubting whether I thought carefully enough about my decision to go and do a PhD in the first place, and maybe wish I chose to do one at a different university to my undergraduate degree.

There are some aspects of doing a PhD I enjoy:
Teaching
Coding in Python and learning new skills

Don't really know what I'm hoping for, is this second year blues/imposter syndrome? Or is this a gut instinct that I should look for jobs and quit?

Hi, yes I am thinking of quitting. Going to post a new thread reaching out for some support I think.

Pretty much as the title says. I am in my second year of an EPSRC funded PhD. If I were to leave it, would I be eligible for another EPSRC funded PhD in the future?

Currently 6 months into a PhD into an institution and have seen a PhD opportunity elsewhere that seems pretty aligned with my interests.

Who do I put as academic references? I don't want to put my current PhD supervisor as then he will know I am applying for other opportunities.

I am 6 months into a full-time PhD in the North of England. The PhD is funded by the EPSRC. What I would like to know is that if I got a job in London, would I be able to continue the PhD part-time and away from the University?

The PhD would technically compliment the job I would be going for, and I do not need to be in the same city to study the PhD. The PhD itself is computational modelling and machine learning.

Has anyone done this before? And what is the protocol for doing so. Is it dependent on my supervisor letting me? Also what would happen to the expected time to complete the PhD?

It is worth noting I understand how big a task a part-time PhD could be, but I honestly think this scenario could work quite well for me.

So I'm a 23y/o guy single and no children. I am applying for part time admin roles at my University that are ~17 hours per week. I am on an EPSRC funded PhD and want to know if this is acceptable.

My supervisor might not like it, but I want to know if this is feasible. I would happily work weekends etc in order to keep my PhD hours around the ~40hours per week mark. I think having 2 days or so where I am working on non-PhD work would help me focus on the days when I do have PhD work!

Has anyone done something similar?

So this may come across as a bit of a rant, but I feel like I need to get it out.

I recently quit my graduate job I had been at for a year to do an Engineering PhD, I'm 23.

I moved back to the University I was an undergraduate at in the North, though everyone I graduated with has left. The majority of my friends are in London (including my long term girlfriend of 6 years or so) so I'm getting a lot of FOMO about that which is hard to get past.

I started at the end of September and I am finding it very difficult to settle in, I keep procrastinating on the PhD because I don't feel settled or have any friends here and haven't really got going with any work yet, I feel like this is a loop and that I'm rapidly falling behind on the PhD.

There's a lot of tension between me and my girlfriend and I'm worried it won't work out. And if it doesn't, then I don't really have a support network of friends up here to help me get through, and to top it off because I feel so unsettled I can't work out if the PhD is right for me or not. But I don't want to pass up this opportunity as I think I'd always regret not trying it in the future.

I am worried about joining University sports clubs as I don't want to feel like the old guy who is clinging on to Uni Life, plus its november and think I have left it too late already.

Does anyone have any advice for me?