Postgrad Forum, reading blogs, sometimes facebook, and chatting to friends/other PhD students in the department (always longer than you think)

Jojo, end of Feb is not far off at all! I think one of the hardest bit is when people ask you how things are going and I haven't really got anything new to say.. "still writing that thesis", yes I have said that for the last - oh- maybe six months...oh well, it'll soon be over (hopefully!)

Yes, I know of a case where the postgrad did the work and the sup wrote up the work and took credit for it. (At some point I considered working for this guy, but this made me seriously concerned and I will try and stay away from him in my future postdoc career... ?!)
Helping out your sup with a bit of teaching or some research work, I think, is okay, as long as it does not take over and it becomes more important or time consuming than your actual PhD work.

Yeah, why not send it to them before the meeting, but don't be too suprised if no one has read it by the time of the meeting ( I have had that a few times). But sending it, I suppose, is part of "show and tell", can't do any harm?!

Hi there - yes I would think a cover letter (highlighting how motivated and suited you are for the project:-)) and a one-pager for the project description is what they want. Just wondering, is this the university asking for this or a funding agency? I am asking because the university might be less strict about the length of the project description, I mean, if you'll only have a discussion with your potential supervisor (and other people in the department) about this, maybe you do not need to go to the lengths of cutting your text. If that is the case, maybe you can double check with your supervisor how strict the 1-page length is and save yourself some time. If however, it seems like a strict guideline, you'd better stick to it and make it one page long. Remember to keep the key points of your proposal, and be happy to leave out details and/or background to the proposal (nevertheless emphasising why your proposed work will fill a gap/be original/is timely etc). You can always point out in your cover letter that you are happy to provide more detail (on x,y,z) if required. Good luck with the application.

Thanks everyone for replying, it is good to read other people's perspective on things. I understand now where this "not having it all" comes in, i.e. at some point women were encouraged to have it all, whilst, yes, indeed it is not possible to have it ALL AT THE SAME TIME. I suppose my gut reaction to the article was that it is "wrong" to tell young women that they will not be able to have a satisfying career and family (for instance) and that they should be happy to have lower expectations (than men). Isn't the key to encourage girls/young women to do their best, to consider the choices they make and in general to support them in whatever they want to do. Of course it is vital to somehow instill some realism into young people's heads, but at the same time, I think there should always be scope for a challenges and an aspiration of "the sky's the limit". And about men, I think, yes, in the same way as it should be acceptable for women to make their choice whether they work/stay at home/whatever, men should feel free to do the same and take out some years to see their kids grow up, nurse their elderly relatives etc, if they want to, and not be regarded lesser for it.

Mmm, I don't know where "here" is, but for me (funded by UK Research Council), I get just more than £1k per month, and converting 1500 euro into GBP gives me about £1300, which is more than what I get now.

Fair enough though, other students might get more?!

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Have you not already posted something similar some time ago?



http://www.postgraduateforum.com/threadViewer.aspx?TID=11931



About your post above, well, I think you have to consider that it will be the first postdoc and that you should be able to get paid more with the years/further postdocs. I would think that with 1500 (or even 1700) euros, you are doing better than during your student years, surely?!



Good luck with the job hunting...

Hi everyone

Recently I read this article on the BBC news website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8358991.stm
which reports on how..

"Encouraging girls to "have it all" is not realistic and they need to know their lives will be more complicated than that, a leading head teacher says."

I was intrigued by it and wondered whether boys (in boys schools) are told/should be told the same for the sake of equality

,-)

To me this whole article, whilst rightly raising the dilemmas many women in society face, was like a slap in the face for anyone who would want women to aspire to the become good/the best in their field.

Is it just me who found this article "odd"? Anyone?

Yes, not very supportive at all. It is good to be in touch with reality, but 2-3 times a week is excessive. May I suggest that this supervisor is just expressing his/her own fears about his/her own job situation? My advice would be to grow a thick skin to that kind of talk (and show the middle finger to him/her in your mind)...

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In my area of research, there are not many who self-fund, but to me this just sounds ridiculous. How can you tell whether someone is self-funding or not? And anyway, the ones I know who self-fund don't get their money from "mummy and daddy" but rather from savings, their spouses and loans. Am I missing something here, how can weaker candidates (with rich parents) make a mockery of academia?? - if someone produces sufficient quality work in their thesis/viva, then they deserve to pass, self-funded or not.

Well, I understand that *some* research should be useful, or rather have an aim to support/protect society, especially if society pays for it through taxes. But then, I also think that the pursuit of knowledge and understanding in itself should be supported and it is something natural for humans to do (right?!). I think it is shortsighted and inhibits an aspirational, dynamic society if only "useful" research was allowed/financially supported.

Okay, an hour later, things don't look that bad now in terms of the paper.. just goes to show what a rollercoaster ride the PhD can be :-)

Thinking and obviously procrastinating. Have got to sort this draft paper, and just did some new analysis for it (co-author suggested that) and now I am not sure whether my overall approach is still correct or whether it was all WRONG.. argh. So what am I doing now? I am trying to stay calm...

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"The Valentine's Day research department?", Jemima wondered. Well she knew well what Valentine's Day was, she was just a child, but she knew it was all about LOVE:-x and couples being nice to each other on this one day in February. It was all about chocolates, roses and lovely things! But what was there to research about all this? As if what had happened so far was not enough of a puzzle, this was just so strange...