PhD support group?

findingmyownway

Hi all
Just thought i'd resurrect this thread and see how everyone is doing!
I have 9 weeks of funding left aaaagh

misskool

Haven't seen this thread in a while

:wave: hi everyone

Submitted thesis 12 July but sadly examiners busy for ages and viva which I wanted late august/early sept is now mid-oct!!!

findingmyownway

woo hoo well done misskool! such a long wait for viva must be horrible. are you working now?

misskool

findingmyownway wrote: »

woo hoo well done misskool! such a long wait for viva must be horrible. are you working now?

still finishing up bits and pieces in the lab, looking for work half heartedly until I get more things out of the way.

How it's going with you? (and everyone else)

melancholly

i'm officially 'writing' this week - hence my post count on MSE is up! getting there slowly - should have the best part of 4 (of 8) chapters done by the end of August - then more data collection and more writing......

that's a long wait for a viva.... now that i've started writing, the idea of having a finished thesis is more terrifying.... prob time to pick my external examiner to make sure they're referenced often enough!

misskool

melancholly wrote: »

i'm officially 'writing' this week - hence my post count on MSE is up! getting there slowly - should have the best part of 4 (of 8) chapters done by the end of August - then more data collection and more writing......

that's a long wait for a viva.... now that i've started writing, the idea of having a finished thesis is more terrifying.... prob time to pick my external examiner to make sure they're referenced often enough!

:rotfl: I know feeling when MSE is just the most exciting place to be.

Unfortunately, supervisor away late august, external examiner away 1-17 sept, internal examiner away 16-29 sept and my birthday is early october so it's all been pushed back. It's going to be hell because I can barely remember what I wrote for the thesis much less try and be examined for it in Oct!!!

You'll be so relieved when it's done, it will be rather quite anti-climatic as you've still got your exam to wait for. And as for picking examiners, we decided on ones which had a good enough reputation to pass me rather than an exceptionally famous one which would be really fussy.

Good luck with the writing, not long till the end now!

melancholly

misskool wrote: »

And as for picking examiners, we decided on ones which had a good enough reputation to pass me rather than an exceptionally famous one which would be really fussy.

Good luck with the writing, not long till the end now!

that sounds like my kind of thinking too! have to see if my supervisors agree or not though - they've been quite evasive when i've asked about externals so far.....

ffeindadifyr

Top tip: Try and get an external who might want to employ you in their research group - I've known loads of people who got their first postdoc job like this!

melancholly

no posts on this in a while........... but i'm in need of some support right now!

4th year - just spent the day analysing data............. and not one significant result. not even a trend in line with the hypothesis that i can cling to. don't even want to tell my supervisors, no time to do it again, and there's not enough alcohol in the world to help with this!

anyone else had one of these 'i feel physically sick, the world is ending' moments lately?! you know when you're not angry/frustrated or anything like that, just numb and drained and no way out of it?

laserboy_2

melancholly wrote: »

no posts on this in a while........... but i'm in need of some support right now!

4th year - just spent the day analysing data............. and not one significant result. not even a trend in line with the hypothesis that i can cling to. don't even want to tell my supervisors, no time to do it again, and there's not enough alcohol in the world to help with this!

anyone else had one of these 'i feel physically sick, the world is ending' moments lately?! you know when you're not angry/frustrated or anything like that, just numb and drained and no way out of it?

Hmm... Not a lot can be said in response to that. But do speak to your supervisors. You won't be the first in this situation, and you won't be the last either. The worst thing you can do is bottle it up, you have to discuss the "results" with someone.

I had a moment like that 2 years in. 2 years, no results, major conference coming up and had signed up for a poster. 3 weeks before said conference, started to see a trend in some data that fitted our hypothesis. Pulled it together, wrote poster, printed poster, took poster to conference, had bloody good time at conference , came back, tried to build on data. Nothing worked, not even repeating the experiment. Finally dawned on me that I'd basically been plotting instrumental drift instead of a real result. And that I'd just published it at a conference.

The conversation with my supervisor was not pleasant, but it did get me to go back to basics and I did eventually get plenty of data that fitted the hypothesis. And it did teach something very important - ALWAYS question the data. My colleagues probably think I'm picky, but I always want to know if sample prep, or instrumentation, or user stupidity or background interference or anything could have caused the result to appear as it does.

I guess I was fortunate my epiphany came after 2 years, but I think there is always something to be learned, even from what can appear to be the absolute worst data imaginable. Please go talk to your supervisors.