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, 1 reply)

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)