[ColinWright]

Added in edit: Assuming it's not possible to change advisor ...

You have to make a decision: Quit, or take control of your own education and finish.

You will need your supervisor to deal with the administrative aspects of your degree, so you can't avoid him entirely. However, you can limit your contact with him to that role alone. However, you will need someone to supervise your academic requirements.

So you need to find someone with whom you can talk about your work, and possibly with whom you can collaborate. A supervisor suggests problems to work on, suggests material to read and understand, monitors that you're working hard enough, checks on your progress, and if your progress isn't adequate, suggests modifications to the current schedule/scheme of work.

You will need to do almost all of that yourself, or find someone else to collaborate with to accomplish those academic aspects. But it can be done, and if you succeed it becomes a major, major accomplishment on your CV.

But you really need to take control.

Or quit.

[shoyer]

> But it can be done, and if you succeed it becomes a major, major accomplishment on your CV.

I agree with your advice except for this line. To be clear, a Ph.D does count as a "major, major accomplishment on your CV" (at least to the right audience). But you won't get any extra credit for putting up with a bad adviser.

I am tempted to simply advise quitting, but switching to another adviser (or even sticking it out) could also make sense. It depends on how exactly your adviser is bad, and whether you could honestly expect another Ph.D. adviser to be significantly better. Actual abuse is one thing, but benign neglect and a "sink or swim" attitude are pretty typical attitudes. If the problem is that your adviser is just focused on raising funds and doesn't have much time or inclination to help you on your research, then you can't expect any better if you roll the dice another time.

Also - what field are you in? What are your career goals? Most people with Ph.Ds don't end up in jobs that require them. If you think you'll be dropping out of academia in three years anyways (and there's no shame in that), then there really is little reason to stick it out for three more years of suffering, regardless of the whys.

[ColinWright]

    > I agree with your advice except for this
    > line ... you won't get any extra credit
    > for putting up with a bad adviser.

The value doesn't lie in putting up with a bad advisor, it lies in taking control and organising things. It lies in being in a bad situation and devising a plan to deal with it. It lies in solving a problem, accomplishing a goal, despite starting from a poor situation.

The value is in having proof that you can manage your resources and create a positive outcome.

Since several people are saying the same thing I'll add my response here:

Yes, absolutely, probably not actually the thing to put on your CV. Bu anyone who values a PhD in a candidate will appreciate the comment "As it happens I didn't get along with my supervisor, just personal chemistry as it happens, but I overcame that by taking control." I believe that for most people who knows about PhDs that is actually worth something.

To the original poster - people disagree with me, and that's worth considering. I could be wrong.

[Bartweiss]

The problem, though, is that it's not the sort of positive outcome you can put on a CV or otherwise use professionally. You simply can't badmouth an advisor, which is part of the "look what I overcame" narrative. Without that you'll either be "just another PhD", or to people who know the advisor, "a PhD from that jerk". The latter might get you sympathy or antipathy, and the former will get you nothing special.

None of this to say it's not an impressive achievement, or an educational one. But in the professional sphere, it's not proof of any of those positive traits - they'll still need to be demonstrated elsewhere to trade on them.

[bllguo]

It's a big achievement, of course. But on your CV? No. I fail to see how you could convey the lengths you went to in dealing with a bad adviser in a brief, tactful way on a CV. Nor would I want to; seems like it could easily backfire.

[chestervonwinch]

Exactly. Replace "advisor" with "boss", and see how it works out. It might be a good life experience for the OP, but putting it on a CV? No way. I wouldn't even mention in conversation the true explanation for quitting or switching advisors, unless it were a close friend who was genuinely interested in hearing the details --- for anyone else, a generic, "we had different artistic visions".

[ludamad]

Assuming you want to even draw attention to it. Having a decent thesis is probably enough