Can you remember why you embarked on a PhD what you hoped to get out of it?

Probably a lot of it was not really… it was kind of the obvious choice. I'd finished my BA and I got funding to do a Masters and so that was… I mean I like what I was doing – I like philosophy – but it was also the easy option. You know, choosing something else would have meant going and finding out about other opportunities. And, in a way, the PhD was the same sort of thing – it was the easy option and as I say, towards the end of the PhD there were various stresses. I wasn't sure because I had never investigated anything else I wasn't sure whether it was the thing for me. I would probably say to somebody else who was going into graduate study 'try and think about whether it is exactly what you want to be doing.'  Not to say if the answer is 'I don't know!' that you shouldn't do it. It is probably a good idea to keep an open mind at all times and you sort of look at what your friends are doing and sort of constantly think whether other lines of work might be better suited to you. It just probably makes things easier and then you won't get to end of the PhD and think 'Oh God, what do I do now.'