All has been really quite blog-wise for the past few months - why you might ask?  Is it that I am not doing anything, have I forgotten about the blog or what?  Well if the truth be known I have been a bit stuck in the data analysis tunnel.  What does that mean?

Changing jobs mid PhD is not recommended - all the books tell you that but sometimes when the time comes to move jobs and the right job appears on the scene then one is left with no choice but to go for it and cope with the consequences.  Clearly changing jobs is in itself a major transition without relocating to London Monday-Friday!  Having said that, it has all gone well - the job is great, my flat is great and dividing time between London and Norfolk and the family is working well.  The occasional weekend in London is great - husband comes to me; daughter uses flat as London base for a few days when she is on hols from university - all working well there then.  However, what about the data analysis - has been verrrry slowwww.........  The indexing of all the transcripts was to say the least monotonous, dare I say boring (!) - talking to other qualitative researchers this is true and just the way it is - so I don't feel quite so guilty now about thinking those thoughts.  The charting is fascinating and enthuses me as I start to summarise and chart chunks of data in preparation for the next stage of analysis.  This phase now coincides with completion of 4 months in the new job/flat and I really feel that I can now take the PhD back on board properly instead of fiddling around the edges of it - hope that makes sense.  Also helped by getting all our 2007/08 QOF submissions finally in - the last 4-6 weeks has been a lot of hard work by not only me but also the HE1 Team to get all our QOF data maximised - looks like we will have our best QOF points ever - 50 points more than last year,  a 5% improvement which is great news.

So, I guess to summarise - I can see the light at the end of the data charting phase, only 11 transcripts and a few weeks away; the newness of working life is no longer there and normality and routine are beginning to fall back into place and I have got room in my head to think about the PhD and do justice to the data.

So should you change jobs mid PhD? The right answer is probably no, but if you must then it really is OK, and you do move through the PhD 'stuck' patch and get though to the other side OK.  So my advice - go for it!!