Good idea?

I am due to finish in October (Plus a 6 month extension, maybe, probably if I want it), but my sponsoring company has a permanent position come up, it would be starting in October(ish) but I definately won’t have finished writing up by then!

Anyone else done this? What was your experience? The only person I know who did it took over a year to write up having finished!

Damnit worng forum AGAIN!

It’s difficult, but achievable. (especially if you’re 6 month extension is a definite – check that).

I’m due to finish at end Sept, and don’t have very much time for anything else apart from full time consultantcy work and finishing the write up at home.

Not been biking properly for months. Given up booze too.

In the library today sorting out a few references etc.

Depends entirely on what shape your thesis is in right now. Some write themselves, others can feel like life and death. I’d never take on a postdoc who hadn’t submitted for this reason, but if you have the offer already then such considerations are not your problem.

A year to write up whilst working full time would be the norm IME, but this is more a function of people working to the submission deadline at my university.

HTH MrDomRob

I am writing up whilst working full time – it works out quite nicely as I have a tidy salary and my employers see the benefit in supporting my PhD completion, which means that most of the time I get left alone to write up – splendid! I have 61 days left… woooo!

@Gary_Lager – Thesis is well, in the early stages. Although I am happy I have enough to write about, whether it’s to the right standard or not though, only my supervisor can tell me that!

The advertised job is not a post doc, a normal job, but something which would be more secure, at the moment the uni are working on a proposition which might take me through the 6 months following my extension to October next year, which may lead to a podt doc, but it’s only a 2 year contract. I haven’t got the offer, but am fairly certain that I would definately be a strong candidate if I applied.

@LabMonkey – I am hoping that since the offer is coming from the company sponsoring my doctorate they may have the same attitude as the guys you are working for.

I did 3 years extra after my funding ran out (there was a ‘small’ incident). I then had to work part time on contracts, helping spec a whole new facility etc etc. I even had 4 part time jobs at one point as well as working in the lab when I could. In the end I got it finished after living for the last 6 months with zero income and I would have loved some money. I then didn’t have a job to walk into either, was exhausted and almost bankrupt.

So as above – if you need to work full time on it then you will manage. Just become a hermit and work away.

But if you think you have time then certainly go for it – having no financial pressures will be a big bonus but you need to make sure the company supports you and you don’t get too many work pressures. See if you can get 1 or 2 days a week off to work on your thesis and be paid accordingly. The quicker you get it done the better for them.

Well done and good luck.

PS when I was not doing bar work, reception work etc etc and had some decent contract work to give me income the pressure to get stuff done was pretty useful and I knocked out my 1st patent from concept in my head to full working prototype in 3 months! Impresive in an academic environment.

i would not turn down a one year position at your sponsors… Worst case scenario you’ll write the thesis after the position. Mate of mine worked for 18 month before submitting his thesis…

BTW doing ONE post doc where you’ve done your PhD isn’t the greatest idea of all. Doing several one the other hand.

I haven’t read the posts however I know lots of people who have done PhD’s all those I know who took jobs before the end of writing up, never wrote up! but I guess a lot depends on you, your personality, mental state (let’s face it everyone I know through the writing stage is finding it mentally tough) and how far through it you are. Good luck though.

BTW doing ONE post doc where you’ve done your PhD isn’t the greatest idea of all. Doing several one the other hand.

Why?

Get a job ya hippy lay about student type 😉
Seriously there are loads of highly qualified unemployed people in the job market at present. You are far better off being employed and unqualified. The wife is working full time and has spent the last 6 years doing her PhD. She is just about to submit and she was not sponsored so has worked very hard. Only you can drive yourself to finish and getting a job is probably why you went for the PhD so do both.

What’s the subject area? I’d have found it very difficult to write mine up without dedicating (at least) five days a week to it, but that is how i write best and the discursive nature of the subject (economic geography).

The opportunity of a job is likely too good to turn down. Would the employer agree to a day or afternoon a week dedicated to writing on the thesis?

Dom because one may be interpreted as:
you need more time to finish your thesis or you can’t cut the strings with your PhD labs.
More means you’re good at what you do and your boss wants to keep you around.

writing up is really a full-time job and will take three months, minimum. have you published results already? If not you may need to factor in extra time.

Will they hold the position for you? After all, they have sponsored you and paid for the research you are going to publish.

Purely for the reason that you are calling yourself Dr already, I hope that you have lots and lots of problems during your write up. Have you always had problems being premature?

SBZ – 😀 I’ll ask my missus!!! I figured I’d fall back on the fact that D and R are also my initials if it all goes horribly wrong!

djaustin – That is what I am wondering whether to ask them. Although the position I would be applying for also carries with it a fair amount of work, if I could persuade them to let me do a day or two a week focused on my thesis and not the other tasks then it might be workable. I have published in a conference, but that was 2 years ago, adn I have been plagued by hardware issues since. The frame work is there, but I am waiting for the results to come in!!

Juan – fair enough, I can see that. I have 2 supervisors, one I am barely sure acknowldeges my existance (He’s head of research group and has 4 possibly 5 PhD / EngD students including myself that I can think of – that’s just in my field, God knows how many he has in similar but different fields) and the other is my industrial supervisor who listens to me, nods and tells me to crack on as I seem to be going in the right direction. Would happily work with both of them again though if the opportunity arose! The job is offered by my industrial supervisor so it may be a factor.

CptJn – Engineering. I think the companies culture may allow me to bend them to doing research/job as a part time thing on the same money (They have already offered to cover my stipend for the 6 month extension which the uni wouldn’t have done.)

MAtt24k – You sound like my dad! 9 years and still going strong. May just make it into double figures if I include the year available on nominal registration available if it all moves another 6 months tot he right!

one or two days per week will soon fall to the odd afternoon. You really need to work on it full time. When i finished mine I wasn’t allowed to start my postdoc until I had formally submitted. Painful, but the right policy.

I’d have that frank discussion. Good companies wait for the right candidate. I’ve waited up to 12 months when recruiting in the past.

I know the university have that policy, the 6 month position which would take me through to October next year would be on that condition.

As someone who took a full time job and never wrote up, I would normally say don’t do it. However, if it’s with your sponsor, then they have an incentive to encourage you to finish it, and the job market aint what it was.

If it were me, I’d just hunker down from now until October – 12 hours per day, 7 days per week and get the bloody thing finished before you start the job. Or ask them to delay the start date until November / January and get it finished.

Good luck.

Trouble is there is still a lot of data capture I need to be doing along side the write up, hence the 6 month extension.

Not to mention the modelling refinements!

thanks MonqueChick, I may need the luck (Didn’t do a proper read through until now)

Trouble is there is still a lot of data capture I need to be doing along side the write up, hence the 6 month extension.

Not to mention the modelling refinements!

So a bit more than writing up then. I wouldn’t do it.

But….. It is a permenant position.

Something with no end date.

Not a temp.

Not many around these days, certainly not where I live.

But….. It is a permenant position.

Something with no end date.

Not a temp.

Not many around these days, certainly not where I live.

Speak to the sponsors and explain the situation – maybe they can let you start off on 3 days per week or something (use the other 4 for finishing!) until you get completed.

It may seem that it is a very good offer, and it probably is, but other opportunities will come along – so don’t treat it as a do or die situation.

Good luck with whatever you decide, but think seriously about hunkering down and just getting on with it between now and October. If you don’t think you could get most of it done by then using this approach, then you need to rethink your priorities as it will only become much more difficult once you start working – it wont be just the work either, there will be a whole new social scene to engage with along with as well. It will be harder than you think.

Social scene isn’t an issue, I pretty much work full time in the company anyway with visits back to uni so I already know and work well with the guys who would be my colleagues, its more that the priorities would change.

At the moment they let me get on with what I think I need to do with people reacting to what I ask them, wheras the new job would involve reacting to things that come into the office amongst some other stuff.

DrDomRob – Member
Trouble is there is still a lot of data capture I need to be doing along side the write up, hence the 6 month extension.

Not to mention the modelling refinements!

So it is a bit more than just writing up. You need to have a serious chat with you supervisors and work out how much work you’ve really got left and how long you need to complete the work and write up – you’ll know how much research you’ve got left to do, but they’ll have a much better idea than you about completing the whole process and the realities of getting the thesis to the point of submission.

I’m currently supervising a PhD student and there is no way I’d suggest they take a job unless it really was just writing up that was left, and even then only if they’d made good progress on the early chapters up to now. I’ve got friends who struggled to do their corrections post viva while in a job, so they’d have really struggled in you position.

See your academic supervisors.