Little Owl,

Based upon advice I received on qualifying, one place you might consider using the Dr. title is on credit and debit cards. It can be used to add a little bit of trust or security in a more sizeable financial transaction, perhaps giving you an edge in loan applications. I would also consider it on your passport, say if you're travelling on business (i.e. conferences) to say you are who you say you are (and tying in with your debit or debit card).

It's only really the UK where people have serious hang ups about title use in non-professional situations and it's seen more positively abroad. I agree with the UK position being English myself, as I think it's overuse is quite frankly embarrasing. But the two situations I specify you might consider.

If you don't want it seen in your passport at other times, just don't show the extra page separate from your identity page in the passport on which it appears.

Ian

Some old threads on the use of the Dr. title. The first one goes on for ages.
.

A further thought is you don't want to be mixed up with a medical doctor. That's another reason to be circumspect with it's use. One of my lecturers at Uni. got woken at a hotel in the middle of the night to treat a heart attack patient until an ambulance arrived. There's nothing worse than a brick sh*thouse relative threatening to punch your lights out when you say you're not a medical doctor!!! :-)

There was a big discussion on this ages ago on here - you might want to do a search. One girl used Dr. regularly to avoid the Ms. / Mrs. / Miss. situation - she hated Ms. Personally, I would go with the Ms. rather than bandy the Dr. title about.

If you get married, one thing you could further do to separate your professional identity from your personal one is change your everyday name, but continue to use your single / maiden name professionally with Dr.

BTW, if you use Dr. before your name, it's not considered the done thing to also have PhD after your name. I've seen that catch a few people out.

Ian

You've summed up the situation pretty much with your own thoughts, in that Dr. is a professional only title. It's also adds a little authority if you're carrying out a major personal financial transaction and can be used as a security check if you're canny with it (on bank cards??? - your choice!!!). Other than that, never use personally as it gives an air of arrogance and puts up a barrier between you and others.

I'll add that professional use should be with care too and whilst my CV lists the PhD at the beginning of the second page, I do NOT have Dr. next to my name at the top. If an interviewer or other professional contact calls you Dr., that's up to them - I'm very wary of putting across the wrong impression of me as a person. In academia, it will help. In the real world, probably not so much and it may even be a hindrance for some positions.

As regards conferences, then it's use does give an impression of knowledge in your chosen field though I note some conference proceedings and the majority of journal papers don't necessarily list titles. I've come across plenty of experts in the field without a PhD and I would personally look more at a person's professional rather than academic qualifications to gauge their expertise in their field (neither's really a guarantee and does not substitute knowing the person).

I guess what I'm saying is you'll have to judge each situation on it's merits and where you feel you'll benefit and where you won't. If you know you won't, don't use it.

Whilst the PhD is important to you as a person as a symbol of the work you've done, unless someone has a use for what you know it doesn't affect the rest of the world one jot. You've got your PhD, have your ceremony and I guess get on with the rest of your life!!!

Ian

I get the impression that Office does work best under Windows, though I stand to be corrected on that.

If you need to travel I'd be looking at a 10 inch screen notebook computer, which will be next to no weight at all to carry - my Toshiba has a good 9 hour battery life too. You can then transfer the data to your main PC on your return home. Note that they do enough to run Office, Windows and can do say day-to-day graphics and video work, however, the Intel Atom processor used in them will be sluggish if you're running any really high end software.

The notebooks can be attached to a larger screen if you need this out in Columbia. My Toshiba 10" notebook can be attached to a monitor to give a normal sized display.

Ian

Windows 8 does seem more crash-proof than Windows 7, however, I know not everyone is a fan of the Metro touchscreen-style start screen - that includes me.

I did the following:

1) Install Windows 8 or 8.1 if not already installed. Watch out for glitches such as sound card and other drivers.

2) If You've Windows 8, upgrade directly to Windows 8.1 by downloading from Microsoft store on the Metro screen.

3) *** Bear in mind that Internet Explorer 11 under Windows 8.1 can be problematic and unstable. Downloading Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox instead of using IE 11 is probably a good idea anyway. ***

4) It's possible to restore what I would call the Start Menu - I would recommend the excellent "Classic Shell", which is very customisable and seems to be the best one out there. There's an option to bypass the start screen and boot straight to the desktop. A real big miss for me were the little recently accessed file menus that popped up when you moved the mouse pointer over an item on the Start Menu under Windows 7 and Classic Shell gave me that back.

Sieajiang,

You could be writing the experience of my second post-doc, the exception being that I was able (and had no other choice but to) see the second post-doc period out. After a good PhD and first post-doc at my PhD University, I chose a second post-doc at another Uni. It was clear from my first meeting on starting the Prof. hadn't wanted to employ me. "A stop gap measure", "Very much a second choice" and "We'll just have to make do" were remarks made about me during that meeting with this Prof., the girl who was to be my (de)mentor and myself present. He'd only met me once previously for a half hour interview and if that's what he thought why did he employ me?

Suffice to say it was a rough year and I made mistakes because I didn't know where I stood with people. I twice nearly quit, but had to see out my contract simply because I would not be entitled to "Job seeker's allowance" if I did. I left without a reference (bar bland statement I'd been employed by said Uni. from Human Resources) and it took me a year to find a non-Uni. job after I left. Thirteen years previous good employment (including PhD) record gone just like that.

I considered various options including a Harassment and Attempted Constructive Dismissal action, however, I also needed witnesses (one person had previously left under similar circumstances, but they had to withdraw their case) and although I had my notes (effectively a diary of events) it was my word against theirs. Universities close ranks to protect their own and anyone attempting action is wasting their time and making it worse for themselves as regards future employment. Supervisors and senior academics are seldom accountable to anyone.

I suggest options 2) (new post-doc elsewhere) or 3) (non-Uni. job) above and just move on. Don't do 1), you've already a PhD = overqualified tag.

My sympathies,

Ian

Huxley, Chickpea, my take on your parents is they wanted to see you in paid employment and thus looking after your financial security. That I can relate to as my mum told me a year into my PhD that she initially questioned my decision to give up a reasonably well paid and (what she saw as a) secure job to do the PhD - she admitted she lost sleep over it.

However, I was happy with my decision and that was most important to her - she couldn't have been more supportive. Besides, the place I was working at closed six months later, thus so much for security (and I'd seen it coming). This is typical of many parents, that financial security (i.e. job), marriage and grandchildren seem to be foremost on their agendas for their kids.

I think my decision to quit work to return caught a few people on the hop. I'd been talking about it on and off in parts for a while with two failed applications a year after I finished Masters, but I don't think anyone took me seriously until I did it.

I think with my friends, having a friend as a 30 something student whilst they were working didn't sit comfortably with them - they were in paid employment and expected the people they knew at that stage in their lives to be doing the same. The student thing is something you do whilst your young in many people's eyes before moving on as quickly as possible to settled domesticity.

I've been back in a salaried real world job for a while (research career plans went belly-up for reasons I've discussed elsewhere), so said friends are more relaxed now with their world consisting almost entirely of 9 to 5 salaried people. My mum knows if there was a chance to return to research or a development role I'd take it, however, the employment situation where I live somehow makes that impractical.

Ian

My mum actually was a massive support when I was writing up, to the point where she handled most of my personal and financial matters so I could be left free to work. So not everyone is like that.

I think you have to look at this as it being your choice as to what to do with your life and as it has no direct impact on anyone else, it's not their business. It only becomes an issue for them if it affects their day-to-day lives. I bet you if you mentioned marriage, they'd be all over you and pushing that as your priority - all of a sudden, big day followed by grandchildren as soon as possible after would be the be all and end all for them.

One example came whilst I was writing up. I had one friend who thought that I should halt my PhD in order to take driving lessons as that would do me more good than anything else in the world. In fact he became very, very pushy about it in that I should stop what I was doing and immediately learn to drive before I did anything else. The situation became bad enough for my mum (in the above described support role) to intervene without any prompting from me and basically tell him to shut up and back off until I was finished.

There were ulterior motives (visiting them on a weekend, cheap taxi for a night out with me as 'nominated driver' - "oh sorry, we can't afford a taxi" or "I'm not getting the bus, it takes too long" followed by "can you drive us there?") I'll not go into, but you find many people can be quite selfish or disinterested when it comes to others doing their own thing.

There was a classic on here a couple of years ago, where relatives expected a lad starting his PhD to prioritize care of an errant sister who'd previously criminally defrauded him over his own life and studies.

Ian

All the best in your decision!!!

Ian

Is there anyone who'll at least check the English for you, for grammar and punctuation (colleague, parent, friend or other relative)?

It's considered reasonable for students up to standard taught Masters level to take ownership of their dissertation / project as the people who supervise the project end up marking it. However, at PhD and MPhil / MRes the role of the supervisor is much more involved and they should at the very least be giving the draft a read through. It reflects badly on them if a PhD candidate suffers due to their perceived negligence.

Ian

:-)