You should always bargain the graduation time with your academic mentor instead of with the industry supervisor, i guess. A good version is that the graduation would be the next Janurary, while you could start working as early as possible (this is tricky). When you are sure about the offer, talk it with your mentor or ask for a sponsership from the industry supervisor. You are always on a winning side if you hold the offer in your hand. Either your boss will let you go, or she owe you one and you can bargain something else later.

嗯，有道理，偶准备就这样做。还是老大的经验丰富，呵呵。

There is no job security in American. The only thing reliable is the ability to find another job. To hold an offer, you will be in good shape for any bargains.

You can tell them when you are avaible but not when you grad,:)
Before you got degree you are not graduated.
But before you got degree you can work.

You can get the offer then negotiate with your instructor and if he is nice maybe he will let you go for 1 while to write thesis and then come back to DaBian, I know lots of people did that.
My ShiXiong used to work 1 year before he grad using CPT etc.

我就快申请opt了，但是申请的一个工作要填写是不是authorized to work in US，我写yes，但是他们还要ead号码，这我就没有了，虽然跟他们说我很快就会拿到，但是估计他们也不会考虑我了。

I don't the detail of this kind of process. But in my department, students can definitly work full time before defense their dissertation. Maybe use cpt, I guess. But I do know that 3 students came back to defense after they have been working over a year (with their advisors permission).

So your problem is really not a problem.

我刚刚和老板谈过，他不允许我毕业之前开始工作，又在毕业之前给我布置了一大堆的事情做，说他毕业之前半年每天工作18个小时，感觉我也应该这样，我现在特别郁闷，不知道该怎么办。我想quit phd，又怕得罪老板，万一找工作的时候公司要reference，就不行了，大家给出出主意吧。如果不quit phd直接找工作，人家公司问我：‘你什么时候available啊？’我说immediately，他们到时候一check reference，我老板肯定不高兴，肯定说不让我先工作，那人家公司不会觉得我不诚实么？sigh

导师很重要的,想清楚了,不要轻易得罪你老板.