CND = campaign for nuclear disarmament?

Golfpro- so your sister's pal didn't get a job at NASA? Quite frankly- I don't get it either- what does that have to to with changing fields after your PhD? He/She probably didn't get the job because of internal NASA politics- not because he/she changed his/her field. Or because NASA found someone else they thought was more quilified for the position, or a number of other reasons ...

Mia- what would you do if you had to choose inbetween not doing a PhD and doing a PhD that you're not really interested in?

What does CND stand for?

I disagree with Stu and Mia. Muvi probably hasn't got the posiblity to apply to most projects. It's easy to say you should only apply to projects that interest you if you have a choice.

Most PhD projects are interesting, once you get into the subject. If Muvi is comitted to working scientific as a PhD student he/she will probably do just as good a job as anyone else here on the forum. You can't always just do the interesting/fun things in life- not even (or should I say especially) while doing a PhD.
Muvi also has the posibility to change field after the PhD.

If it is better (to work in a factory) or not depends on your personal opinion about what you want to get out of your work. Some people go for well payed jobs, some just want to get by doing as little as possible, some want a challenge, ... so yes, for each of us there is possibly a "better" in that sense.
Our society also clearly distingishes inbetween "better"/ not so good jobs by paying accordingly (often not fairly).
Also, it depends on your circumstances- if you can afford to take a risk in leaving your job if you have children to take care of.

Errr- could we all insult you and call you names when things go from bad to worse???

My oh my- what a Freudian slip! That should have been "bad luck", not "bed luck"....

I would like to have children, which is not very compatible with academia. I've met several people who are postdocs and are failing at getting anywhere in academia either through bed luck, the wrong lab head or their own inability to comunicate with others. Working hard and being brilliant doesn't seem to be enough. I'm going to do one postdoc and then see where I go from there.


When I talk to my mother about this she's got a carefree "it will all work out just fine" attitude that I find rather irritating.

I met most of my friends at uni and most of them are now doing a PhD. So doing a PhD is not seen as being a big thing and my friends can relate to it. My dad has one and my sisters husband is doing one. What I find harder to explain is why it will be much harder for us to get a permanent position (in academia) and why I have my doubts if it is really worth it all.

Once you've been on a conference it will be much easier to put a face to a name and you will remember. Have you tried to organize your papers according to the last authors name? Then you'd have all the work of one group together and can put the name on the back of the folder.

Mann, now they are swapping radioactiv ATP for tea bags!

-Why the question?


Well several people in my lab see them selves as geeks and are proud of it. One even has a private subscription for Science (although we have a subscription for the centre and the journal is in the coffee room), others download nature news onto their iPOD and listen to that on the way in. There's almost a competition in nerdiness going on .... especially amongst the girls……and I was just wondering when being a nerd came into fashion. “Nerd” doesn't seem to have a negative image anymore- or does it? Is science the new sexy? Brains instead of (improved) boobs? On the other hand- calling them a nerd is a compliment, saying they dress like a nerd would be an insult. Does anyone else own a personal subscription to Science/Nature/Cell ….. what kind of nerdy things do you do?

Do you see yourself as being a geek? How would you define the word geek?

Hmm, I only see little boxes with red crosses in them. Very confusing, I'll have to guess who's frowning - or smiling at me. On the other hand I can see the smileys under the Add a Message box I'm writing into

Oh dear- let's hope Johannstein doesn't read what you wrote about Anita Roddick...
Anyway, there are several mentoring scemes out there for us .. just look it up on the internet and get the career advice from real woman- let's show the boys how networking really goes.