PhD support group?

jamtart6

studentphil wrote:

If writing articles will be all your life is then it is a fairly sad life. All work and no play makes for a very sad and lonely life.

Buzz off your not even a postgrad! :eek: and did I mention articles in the above?! hmm????

Actually I'll choose to ignore your post and wait for some nice replies off the nice people who post here!

Heth_2

Hi Jamtart,
I'm in my final year of my phd and have pretty much decided I won't be continuing in academia. I don't really know how easy it would be to combine it with a family, I've made that decision because I don't feel very passionate about what I'm doing, and unless I wanted to stay where I am to do a postdoc (which I don't as there isn't a real group here) then I'd have to move away to do so. I just don't want to do that. I'm struggling with my phd to be honest and at the moment just want it done with, as giving up now would be stupid.
Good luck with whatever you decide!

studentphil

jamtart6 wrote:

Buzz off your not even a postgrad! :eek: and did I mention articles in the above?! hmm????

Actually I'll choose to ignore your post and wait for some nice replies off the nice people who post here!

Dont get too big headed mate!

You are only a postgrad not a God.

jamtart6

thanks for that. i really love the research, but im not sure about the whole job and the pressure! im a total worrier, so everything gets to me easily - like conferences, seminars, writing!

what part are you struggling with ?

magyar

jamtart6 wrote:

thanks for that. i really love the research, but im not sure about the whole job and the pressure! im a total worrier, so everything gets to me easily - like conferences, seminars, writing!

Out of interest, you might like to know that life is a little easier (in my experience) in industry research vs. academic. In academia, you get more freedom but generally less support from colleagues (if anything, you get quite a lot of backbiting), plus of course you're always wondering if they money will keep coming in.

In industry, I have found that you get more support, more collaboration (where possible, of course confidentiality becomes an issue) but of course your trade-off is they decide what you work on.

There's no right answer, you earns your money and takes your choice!

Heth_2

jamtart6 wrote:

thanks for that. i really love the research, but im not sure about the whole job and the pressure! im a total worrier, so everything gets to me easily - like conferences, seminars, writing!

what part are you struggling with ?

Generally motivation and not really liking what I'm doing, plus tiredness of combining it with commuting and stuff. In retrospect I shouldn't have chosen this phd, there has been so much I've had to learn and that has made it very hard work. I'm doing atmospheric modelling, sounds interesting but alot of it has been code debugging, learning fortran and that is incredibly dull after a while (and very hard to see the bigger picture). Had I started with more experience (I'm using Fortran which was totally new to me) then I could have progressed quicker and would have enjoyed it more.

jamtart6

magyar wrote:

Out of interest, you might like to know that life is a little easier (in my experience) in industry research vs. academic. In academia, you get more freedom but generally less support from colleagues (if anything, you get quite a lot of backbiting), plus of course you're always wondering if they money will keep coming in.

In industry, I have found that you get more support, more collaboration (where possible, of course confidentiality becomes an issue) but of course your trade-off is they decide what you work on.

There's no right answer, you earns your money and takes your choice!

Thanks maygar, not really sure what I would work in in industry, you dont hear many going into it from our dept. I do have a few (!) key skills that could help get me a job, and a funded phd starting aged 21 wont ever do me any harm, so I am sure I have plenty of time to decide what to do! academic freedom is excellent, but agree about back biting!!

jamtart6

Heth wrote:

Generally motivation and not really liking what I'm doing, plus tiredness of combining it with commuting and stuff. In retrospect I shouldn't have chosen this phd, there has been so much I've had to learn and that has made it very hard work. I'm doing atmospheric modelling, sounds interesting but alot of it has been code debugging, learning fortran and that is incredibly dull after a while (and very hard to see the bigger picture). Had I started with more experience (I'm using Fortran which was totally new to me) then I could have progressed quicker and would have enjoyed it more.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: that sounds just like me (flood modelling!) i cant even begin to imagine how hard it must have been to learn Fortran! Ive had enough trouble setting models up and modifying code etc never mind writing them! Its that feeling of "im not a computer scientist....Im an atmospheric/flood modeller" horrible horrible!

Do you ever work from home? or do you need to be in for the models? The commute and tiredness get to me too, but I try and work from home, writing or reading every so often too

magyar

jamtart6 wrote:

Thanks maygar, not really sure what I would work in in industry, you dont hear many going into it from our dept. I do have a few (!) key skills that could help get me a job, and a funded phd starting aged 21 wont ever do me any harm, so I am sure I have plenty of time to decide what to do! academic freedom is excellent, but agree about back biting!!

Do you mind if I ask what your area is? (General area, rather than specific)

jamtart6

magyar wrote:

Do you mind if I ask what your area is? (General area, rather than specific)

Of course not, I'm in geography/climate change