So this is my first post.. I am not really one for writing ( hilarious I know, considering I am doing a PhD), but I felt there was a lack of information for people who are doing a PhD part time. For me, when I say part time what I actually mean is that I have a full time job and then on top of that I find hours to do PhD work. I really struggled to find others with a similar experience to mine, and so I thought this blog might be valuable (?).

I have also found myself paralysed by fear that I am not coping as well, or doing as well, as other PhD students. Time and again this has been proven to be untrue (we all suck equally, haha). So I thought perhaps someone would find it valuable to know that doing a PhD is like someone ripping out your heart and then asking you if you feel ok. This is especially true when your topic is your passion, as is the case for me.

So where I have been, is down a road of about 14 concept notes to get entry into the program and eight proposal drafts to be able to submit to faculty. That doesn’t sound so bad right, until you remember that those numbers don’t include the hundreds (literally) of drafts that you work on before you feel comfortable enough to send it to your supervisors for comment. Where I am at, is as follows. I have a few months now where very smart people are going to tear apart my ideas in a very orderly fashion so that I don’t feel too terrible about myself- welcome to Academia. In these few months before my data collection starts, I want to try and coordinate a group of young people, who are also doing PhDs, into some kind of support network. I know for me, given that I am hardly ever actually at university, I have really felt that this network of people who ‘get it’ is missing. If you’re interested in joining, please reply in the comments and I can loop you in.

I am going to try and blog my way through the different milestones, and talk about some of the things that have helped or hurt my progress, in the hope that it will be useful to others.

Jo