Yeah its windy here too.. a huge tree had been blown over on my way into the lab.

Well I first of all spent time working in technical support for a veterinary nutrition company.. giving nutritional advice to vets and nurses etc. But I didn't really like that job so I left with a view to do a PhD. But it left me with a free year ultimately, so I took a temping job in a local college to start with while i looked for a suitable science based job but nothing came up and I ended up staying at the college managing one of the sectors. It was completely unrelated to my degree and what i wanted to research but it gave me good time, project and people management experience which can be used in all walks of life including research.

Um.. it means the days are now getting longer

If you checked your thread you will see that my comments were not insulting, but in line with the thread..

Tricky
[Registered User]
04 December 2006 22:51 I have just seen this thread.. I am doing a PhD in microbiology and my supervisor is Asian, and the institute where I am doing my research is teeming with various nationalities. When I was doing my undergrad degree (in London) I had 2 asian lecturers, 1 black lecturer and there were various other nationalities.. Obviously I don't know if they have come up against racism, but the world of science doesnt seem to be affected by nationality/race/creed from what I have seen of it.

My god take a chill pill! I saw your earlier thread on ethnic minorities.. I commented at the time with my experiences.. This a public forum, therefore people are allowed to comment on threads!

And the point of the 'UGLY' comment is what? Seems you are somewhat hypocritical, complaining that people were nasty to you then throwing an insult about.. pot and kettle comes to mind.

cont..

I was honest and they were cool with it. The worst thing you could do is lie and then get found out as that would certainly put any potential supervisor off. You have to remember that these supervisors are intelligent people and will be aware that people have set backs and will not hold it against you. If however they did hold it against you, would you really want to spend 3 years with them as your supervisor?

Temporary work is nothing to be ashamed of; I did a temping job for a year before i started my PhD. I had looked for a science job but there was nothing available in my area and i needed money so I started temping. I explained that at various interviews and nobody had a problem with it. I also think that spending time working in an office is time well spent; for myself it involved time management and working to deadlines, dealing with people, team management and organisation.. Skills that are useful in the research environment. Regarding your illness, my view is to be honest about it, I had some personal probs during my undergrad degree which affected my final degree. If someone knows u turned a phd down then it is inevitable that they will ask why at an interview. In my interviews I was asked to explain what had happened and whether it was likely to occur again.

I am a northerner too and I did my undergrad in London. I hated the place at first, its flat with poor air quality and the people aren't as friendly as yorkshire folk. But after a little while once you get over that its a great city to live in and its not really as big as you first thought. There is always something going on and there is always someone to go out with plus there are good transport links back up North and to other places in the country if you need to get out of the big smoke. It is expensive but not that much more than other cities to be honest. I would quite happily live therea gain if the need arises

The only thing that I was asked about regarding my future was where I saw myself going i.e. industry v's academia and whether I was interested in pursuing blue sky science or more practical science.

I want to go to Australia, its not the distance that puts me off, its simply the fact I havent had the time or opportunity to go.. But hopefully next year I will be going toa conference in Brisbane which will be cool

coolsam24:- I am based in norwich and the area i work in is gut bacteria, various people in the group do what you are interested in. But I think the best idea is to trawl the internet for a project that ticks all your interest boxes

Congrats

Well done Doc

I am doing my PhD in molecular microbiology and intestinal health.. What area of microbiology are you interested in? There are lots of unis in the uk that offer phd's in the field. My advice would be to sure findaphd.com or jobs.ac.uk as the phd studentships will be advertised on there.

Nothing wrong with doing that at all.. It shows you are keen.

For every PhD that I applied for I contacted the supervisor, there is nothing wrong with asking for more information, or simply emailing saying you are interested and why you are interested with a copy of your CV. I found that if you email them direct with your CV then that is better as an initial step than just applying to the graduate school. From my experience its not uncommon for supervisors to meet students and decide that they want them prior to the advertised application deadline.

In the US professor is used differently to the UK. In the US I think it goes:-
PhD, postdoc, Assistant professor, Associate professor,
Full professor,Professor emeritus (retired)

Compared to the UK which is something like:-
Postgraduate, Postdoc/research assistant, research fellow, lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, professor.

I read somewhere that warwick is going to use the US system soon.