I have found
... my ideal job.

Basically, I work for a semi-famous IT organisation as a technical bod. Not going to go into further details since I don't know who is reading ... but here is the best bit.

I work from home.

Which basically means I get to spend all day with my family, I can drink and smoke as much as I like, and I get dressed perhaps four days in seven. I have had meetings with clients over the telephone while completely naked, smoking and drinking neat brandy.

I feel it is a reflection of the unfairness of life that, just four years ago, I was working night shifts in a mail redistribution depot, flinging boxes and cartons to and from lorries, for about a sixth of the salary I'm on now.

Seriously, this is great. B3tans, if you can possibly work from home (and for office bods, this is becoming more acceptable and commonplace as accountants work out it costs less to supply broadband than to keep a desk and drawers - yes, my unlimited downloads/uploads are paid by The Firm) - then I strongly advise you to do so.

Right now I'm drinking my brandy, perusing b3ta on a Friday afternoon and rolling another cigarette.

Life doesn't get better than this.

Sadly, I'm off in three years to pursue a PhD ... which means going back to a real job :-(

Length - about three and a half miles from the cubicle farm.
(hangableautobulb is an anagram of the best album ever, on, Fri 7 Nov 2008, 12:41, 5 replies)

How does a PhD count as a real job?
I spent a lot of mine in bed. And much of the rest was spent drinking absinthe.

Happy days, etc.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 7 Nov 2008, 12:45, closed)

Student fun again!
To be honest I'm more worried about the prospect of finding funding ... at the moment I'm in the middle of a Master's degree, supporting a family of four and working full-time. The missus is unskilled so rules out her earning the crust. I can probably wangle joining a fully funded PhD research project but the prospect of supporting everyone is keeping me awake at night. I mean, I can live on t'dole and housing benefit with £20 a month for food quite happily, but little 'bulb (2) and littler 'bulb (due in March) demand more than Smartprice nappies...

Enzyme, anyone, any tips / tricks to obtain not just PhD funding (£3000/year) but living expenses too?

A part-time bar job seems the only way forward.
(hangableautobulb is an anagram of the best album ever, on, Fri 7 Nov 2008, 12:54, closed)

I'm really not the person to ask...
I did an MSc and a PhD mostly without funding - I got £5k a year for the last two years of the PhD, but that was spent on course fees and some accommodation. That'll teach me to be an arts student.

Beyond that - I guess it depends on your field. If you're a sciency type, I guess your programme'd be like a regular job with a boss and tasks and stuff. If you're self-directed (as I was)... well, I suppose that with discipline, you should be able to have three days a week at a job, three studying, and a day off. But it'll take IRON discipline.

Good luck with it. It's not something I'd have the balls to try, so you've earned my admiration already...
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 7 Nov 2008, 13:02, closed)

I'm flattered
Thank you, and I am a sciency-type unfortunately ... computer science, which isn't so much 'how do you use Windows?' but 'What type-2 fuzzy sets can be formulated from a triangular Einstein t-norm type 1 FLC given an n-dimensional Euclidean hypercube with x pseudo-random points?' ... believe it or not, I actually enjoy this stuff and it beats my current job maintaining databases around the head with a stick. I'll work it out in three years time, I think. Cheers for putting in your tuppence-worth.
(hangableautobulb is an anagram of the best album ever, on, Fri 7 Nov 2008, 13:12, closed)

Odd
I can see all the words in that synopsis, but I can't understand any...
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 7 Nov 2008, 13:39, closed)