Help. Financial worries. Not passed PhD 1st year and really worried.

theoretica

yerblurt wrote: »

My other supervisor has agreed to supervise me to write what I do have as an MPhil, the deadlines are 12 months from now (although I'd realistically want to get it done and submitted in under 6 months).

I'll be going along to the careers service for a analysis of this, it is a worry how I'll present this to future employers.

When I was a student postgraduates were officially registered as MPhil students for the first year of what everyone knew was really a PhD and only progressed to being registered as PhD students for the 2nd year onwards. This was explained as a way to keep the attrition rate of PhD students low (on paper) as it was better for the university. However this presumably works both ways and you can present a year of study leading to an MPhil as a success and only if asked say yes you had initially hoped to do a PhD but discovered during the year of research that you were better off out of accademia/it was not the right project for you...

You say your stipend runs out at the end of September. You could get a lot of dissertation written in that time, or chase up loose ends while you still have access to the university's resources. I assume the timing of this bad news is intended to give you time to move this year towards a closure.

yerblurt

theoretica wrote: »

When I was a student postgraduates were officially registered as MPhil students for the first year of what everyone knew was really a PhD and only progressed to being registered as PhD students for the 2nd year onwards. This was explained as a way to keep the attrition rate of PhD students low (on paper) as it was better for the university. However this presumably works both ways and you can present a year of study leading to an MPhil as a success and only if asked say yes you had initially hoped to do a PhD but discovered during the year of research that you were better off out of accademia/it was not the right project for you...

You say your stipend runs out at the end of September. You could get a lot of dissertation written in that time, or chase up loose ends while you still have access to the university's resources. I assume the timing of this bad news is intended to give you time to move this year towards a closure.

Sounds like a good way to present things. I had thought of something along those lines but you've phrased it in a clearer manner. I just don't think the project and PhD life fitted with me, maybe I'm not as bright as I thought I was.

I'm pretty sure I can still register for writing up and I will be able to access the university library as an alumni and have access to journals via uni friends should I need articles.

bewildered123

yerblurt wrote: »

Sounds like a good way to present things. I had thought of something along those lines but you've phrased it in a clearer manner. I just don't think the project and PhD life fitted with me, maybe I'm not as bright as I thought I was.

I'm pretty sure I can still register for writing up and I will be able to access the university library as an alumni and have access to journals via uni friends should I need articles.

This is a good strategy - also think about additional skills you've learnt, and training courses you've completed etc - some of these will be valuable to employers in your field.

Also it's not about you not being bright enough necessarily. It's just that academic research requires a certain skill set that isn't necessarily the same one needed to excel on taught courses. Don't let this experience make you doubt what you achieved on your other degrees.

yerblurt

bewildered123 wrote: »

This is a good strategy - also think about additional skills you've learnt, and training courses you've completed etc - some of these will be valuable to employers in your field.

Also it's not about you not being bright enough necessarily. It's just that academic research requires a certain skill set that isn't necessarily the same one needed to excel on taught courses. Don't let this experience make you doubt what you achieved on your other degrees.

Thanks. I'm feeling quite down at the moment but posts like this buck me up a little. Thank you!

I do have a very extensive practical in laboratory skills from work, this course and my MSc was to pursue further interests and a bit of a careers sideways shimmy. So I do have quite a wide range of skills.

I'm just worried about getting too pigeonholed in my old role, but as long as I get a job asap I can concentrate on developing my interests. I do have the experience from this year and familiarity with a wide range of techniques so that's not a total loss...

yerblurt

Well I've been given funding for 3 months to write-up which takes a big pressure off me.

I'll still be job hunting intensely of course

KiKi

That's good news.

Best of luck with the job hunt.
KiKi