Twice a week we publish problems that will feature in a forthcoming Dear Jeremy advice column in the Saturday Guardian so that readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. Here is the latest dilemma – what are your thoughts?
I am a 24-year-old postgraduate (PhD) student in an area with little or no application to the job market (dataset analysis in palaeontology), although I have developed many transferable skills while studying.
I am about to start the third year of a three-and-a-half-year course which is fully funded with a stipend. But I have come to realise that I have no interest in continuing in academia, I do not get on with my supervisor and the research topic is unfulfilling. I have pretty much decided to quit, but I am delaying because I have nothing to go to and, additionally, I don’t know how to leave without souring any future academic reference.
I am applying for data analyst jobs, and have also considered doing a law conversion course, but I don’t know how to explain what has been effectively a two-year gap in my CV, or why I am applying for jobs two years into an uncompleted PhD.
Should I: carry on applying for jobs while trying to rescue my PhD (but how would I explain this in job applications?); or quit, be temporarily unemployed, and have this glaring gap in my CV; or just limp on for a year and a half to complete a qualification which I have no interest in using?
Do you need advice on a work issue? For Jeremy’s and readers’ help, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@theguardian.com. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or to reply personally.
- This article was removed on 6 October 2015 as it contained personally identifiable information.
