The insecurities and feeling like a fraud are perfectly normal (i'm not just saying that, i mean it). People don't judge moments of stupidity/naivety/inexperience as harshly as you might think, most of the time, all the negative stuff is all in your head.

Good luck, kid!

Supervisors have a nasty habit of doing what you've just described. Throughout my entire first year when i was getting EVERYTHING wrong, i walked away from every meeting feeling 2 inches tall - believe me, it's a very common feeling.

Things will get better with time, one day you'll realise just how much you've changed and how far you have come. Just keep at it!

check out the institute of biology website:

http://www.iob.org/general.asp?section=education_careers/education_iob/careers

Click the links on the left. In particular, check out 'a week in the life of a biologist'. Hope that's helpful, good luck!

happy birthday angie, have a goodun!

I’m more than happy to give advice and support to you, and I understand the position you are in at the moment trying to figure it all out, so please don't take this the wrong way but...

...I'm not too comfortable about handing out any personal contact info to anyone on this forum. I value the anonymity that makes this forum what it is. If the postgraduate forum administrators ever sort out personal IMing (subtle hint guys!) between posters that would be a different story.

If you have any more questions or queries, just post them on this forum. There are some really lovely people on here (like I said, don’t let jouri put you off!), many of whom are better qualified to answer your questions than me!

secretions*

hmmmm, protein sucretions!

I'm English, and studying in England. Don't know too much about Dublin myself. Haven't heard much about research coming out of UCD. I hear good things about Dublin from a touristy point of view, so i assume there is quite a lot going on, e.g. pubs, music, entertainment etc. Good luck with everything!

You're welcome. I'm in biology - the ecological, biodiversity, nature type of biology. Good luck with your search, i'm sure it will all come together in the end, don't let jouri knock your confidence

thanks again for the replies. I pitched a few ideas at a meeting today. the video and peer review ideas went down like a lead balloon, but was helpful nonetheless. Integrating demonstration feedback with the end-of-term questionnaires seemed more popular with the staff and students, but if this turns out to be a crappy system, i might take it upon myself and use apple_scruff's idea - i could always do with an ego-rub!

I'm in biology too. More specifically, i'm in ecological/population genetics. i'm using molecular markers to detect evidence of natural selection in natural populations - it's a mix of fieldwork, labwork, computer simulations and statistics.

this might interest you(?) www.graduatejunction.com

Hi jorges. I don't know much about computer science research, but a good place to start looking might be the research council(s) websites (which ever research councils support computer science research). They usually have 'priority areas' of research that they want research to focus on. These can be a bit vague (e.g. climate change) but it's a start.

Try and get hold of some up-to-date journals from your library as well and see if there are any common themes that emerge (a particular technique, a particular problem etc). If you are at uni at the moment, don't be afraid to ask lecturers what they think - at the very least they should be able to point you in the right direction.

Research is a very diverse field, so I’m sure you'll come to see that there is potentially a market for research into (more-or-less) every topic.

Thanks for your comments guys. helpful stuff. Much appreciated!

Hello boys and girls,

For those of you that have done any demonstration work before, I was wandering if your university/department has any kind of system in place for demonstrators to get any feedback on how good/bad they are doing? This is a point I am going to raise at our next student/staff liaison meeting. I don't think it's enough for postgrads to say: "I have done demonstration work. It was fun". I think we stand to gain more from the experience if we know what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong, what we need to improve on etc.

What do you all think? I would appreciate your views/comments. Thanks.