Dear all

I'm just wondering how do you search for the conferences that might be suitable for you?
I simply google it by "keyword" + "conference". Is that the right way to do or there is a specific website for conferences?

Just wondering whether is an easier to do it which I will get auto subscription to the conferences that related to my field?
I just realised I have missed lots of good conferences :-(

Thanks for tips.

Thanks a lot for the information, Bewildered. I'm rather surprised to see your source seem to be quite different from what I have been told. Some of the professors actually made it quite specific by saying, "if you are from EU, you are fine. If you are not, then it is slightly problematic". They also mentioned this is not about working visa but more specifically about the requirement from the funding bodies. They said it used to be quite straight forward to hire a non-eu (i.e., tick some columns in the job description stating that this person best fit the job than a EU), but now they have to write an essay to "prove" that.

It's really good to know about your source though, it's really helpful. And you are right, we need a backup plan because of the overcrowded academic jobs.

Thanks again for your advice- much appreciated!

Dear all

Thanks for the reply-I raised up this concern because I have been talking to a few professor about job opportunities lately. They all mentioned about the importance of filling in "nationality" in the CV as nowadays many academic jobs (i.e., postdocs, lectureship, teaching) are funded by EU organisation. Hiring a non-EU person is not easy anymore as they need to go through a lot of procedures to explain why they did not choose to hire a EU person (i.e., they can't find any suitable EU person for the job)...some department dot not want to go through this hassle hence the jobs are always posted for EU only..

Sadly, I do notice almost all of my department academic staff are from EU hence the worries...

Thanks for all the info- I really appreciated it

Hi

I understand most academic jobs in UK often for "EU" only...

I am not a British citizen but I'm a permanent resident which I don't have any restriction to work in UK.
Does anyone know whether I can apply for "EU only" academic job? It's not normally specified on the job description.

If not, can I assume it's really hard to get an academic job in UK without being a EU citizen?

Thanks

"He is a very new professor, and I am his first student"- I am in the same position as you, but my supervisor was a controlled freak and yours is the opposite. Have you tried to talked to you research committee group (or whatever it's called in your department), even the chair of graduate school or something like that.

Does your department has someone who you can talk to when you have problem with your supervisor (confidentially)? I think every department has someone like that- try to look into your postgraduate/phd handbook

Try to talk to to them, that might help.

Hello

I am in my third year and I need to get some advice what is the best way to organise the thesis writing.

1. At the moment, I am writing each chapter in a separate word document instead of combining them all together in a big document as it's rather heavy if I do that (it takes ages to load). Can I confirm this approach is OK or would it be better to combine everything in one document now? I assume I just have to make sure the footnote, figure, table and page numbers are in correct order in each document which I will combine them into pdf when they are complete. Should I put all of them in Word eventually? I imagine that would be a really heavy word file.

2. The order of my writing process is Lit Review, Empirical Chapters (Experiments), Conclusions, Introduction, Overview, Reference, Appendices, Table of Content, Figure and Table Lists. Is that in a weird order? I just thought it would be easier to write Introduction at the end depending on the argument that I will be presenting in the conclusion.

3. Can I copy and paste certain sections from my publication to my thesis? I have written up some publication manuscripts with my supervisor and I'm not sure how much content I can take from there. Is that considered as self-plagiarism?

4. Is there any better way of organising references? At the moment, I am compiling the reference whilst I'm writing, but I have to admit that it does interrupt the flow of the writing. But I'm worry if I don't do it "properly" now, I might lost the reference source eventually. Any suggestion what is the best way of organising reference? I'm using Zotera

5. How long does it take to 'tidy up" the thesis after finishing the main writing (excluding references, appendices, table of content etc). I just want to have a rough idea how much time I should put away for this bit.

6. Any other advice how to make a write-up year slightly easier!!

Thanks in advance

thanks for clearing it up! it makes more sense now...

i want to avoid working with my supervisor if possible- i feel rather suffocated working with him for my Phd as he is very controlling and I can only do what he thinks is right (i'm not allowed to have any opinion).

would it be weird if I email some other professors and ask them if they have suitable post-doc position? If so, I assume I have to email them rather early as it takes a while for them to apply for funding etc?

Dear all

I have been very confused about the differences between postdoc and research assistant.
Can I assume postdoc is more like a fixed-term research assistant? or is it more like another qualification?

Is post-doc the only choice if we want to stick within academic after PhD? Some people also told me
post-doc is just like Phd but being paid. I have seen some people doing research work without doing any post-doc so it does not seem to be the only way to do research work.

Also, when do you normally start looking for opportunities whilst doing a PhD? What is the general approach of doing this?

Any advice and clarification is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

thanks everyone for sharing their views and experience. To be honest- I'm actually quite disappointed to know all these- I always thought education is "cleaner" than any other industries but I'm wrong as you have pointed out.

Can I assume since there are no differences between academia with any other industry- I can't avoid any politics/backstabbing issues wherever I go anyway, it is still a wise choice to stay in academic since I do truly enjoy research? Just that it would be difficult for me to go up high up without involving myself into any political issue.....

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Dear all

I'm in my 3rd year and I'm considering to work in academia environment after I complete my PhD.

I really love doing research work but at the same time I am aware of the politic issue in an academic department.

The reason that I really love doing research is because I think research can us to understand more about human behaviour and ultimately my goal is to help people who have special needs.

The question is, is it not possible to avoid politic issue in an academic environment? Is it true that everyone works in academia simply compete who can publish the most papers, get higher salary and reputation? I have a feeling this type of attitude kill research badly.

Can anyone who works in academia tell me how is it actually like working in academia?

Thanks.

it sounds like you might be more suitable to do a master taught course rather than PhD- PhD or postdoc is A LOT about racing yourself to publish a paper unfortunately! The main reason is because of your funding resource, you can't drag a project for too long "without any result"- funding bodies normally require you to make some kind of progress report time to time as well...

Not sure about singapore, but it's not compulsory to publish a paper during your first or second year, some people don't even publish any paper until they finish the whole PhD!

talk to your supervisor first, he might have better suggestion- or there might be a reason why he pushes your publication (i.e., he's applying a funding based on your research?)

keep us update

I told my supervisor that I would like to publish one of my studies, he agreed and voluntarily offered help to write the introduction and discussion. However, as time goes by, he asked me to write the introduction instead which he will edit later. I basically have written the introduction, method and results.

And now he requested to be the first authorship of this paper! He argued that although I have done most of the work, but I got help from him to make this paper publishable, and also said that he did most of the conceptual part and he put more initial on this project! He mentioned if I want to be the first author on this paper, he ought to be the first author of one my next papers.

It is true he has applied funding for me (or he hired me) to do this project based on his initial research idea. But in terms on the concept of design of the research, I feel we are equal and probably I am slightly more than him as I created all the stimuli based on what I want. However, it is true he tend to over-control what I want to do which I have brought this issue up to the department.

Is it normal that supervisors are always the first author of one of their students' paper?

Anyone has similar experience?