Does a typo make your work any less valid? Unless there are literally hundreds, making the thesis illegible than I would say no. Even if there were 150 typos to sort out it would still be minor corrections in my book, just a lot of them. So don't worry.

Well done! I hope you enjoy the position and it lives up to expectations.

Don't worry about the viva for a couple of days if you can, most on here basically recommend having a short break between submission and viva anyway (not that I know, I am a long way from submitting my thesis...)

======= Date Modified 04 Aug 2011 09:30:23 =======
Hi Ady, I used to work for the careers service at my old uni. Here's some CV advice.

Assuming you are under about 40 it should be 2 pages. That is two sides total, not two pages double sided. You should be able to fit everything on there. If you absolutely have to (I mean really have to and you've tried every trick including increasing the page margins to avoid it) then use 3, but fill every page. Once you get to late thirties/40 you can have a third page, but even then keep to 2 if you can.

I would suggest a skills based CV in your case, as you have aquired lots of different skills but that may not be apparent from your job title.

A skills based CV tends to run along the lines of:

Skill title (e.g. Project Management)

Examples of skill in action/courses completed in skill

Next skill title (e.g. Team work)

Examples

Next skill etc

I also include a very brief job title history after the skills section with titles and dates and a paragraph about myself with contact details at the very beginning of the CV.

Never ever make the title "CV" or similar. They know it's a CV, make the title your name in large letters.

Just put how many GCSEs/O-Levels/A-Levels etc you got and maybe the A-level grades,

e.g. 10 GCSEs grades A*- C and 3 A-levels (Maths, Physics, Chemistry) A,B,B

Emphasise each aspect that is most important for the job you are applying for, a CV should be job specific as much as the covering letter. If they have harped on about project management in the job spec for example really blitz that section of your CV.

Apologies if you already know all this!



Edit: This is true in the UK. In other countries it can be different. In NZ for example they apparently like massive CVs. I don't know why!

======= Date Modified 03 Aug 2011 11:50:32 =======
======= Date Modified 03 Aug 2011 11:47:13 =======
Use an iphone. Yours or a friends if you don't have one. it has the option on the screen when you are in the call I think.(up)

Edit: It might not, I'll need to check it out. For some reason I remember it though... :$

Edit: Yep, it looks like I imagined it. Probably a crap dream or something. Sorry!

Are there any native English speakers in your office? I am one of just three in my office of about 20 so I often get asked questions about sentence structure. Obviously it helps if the person you ask is also good at English (some native speakers are fairly awful), but most would be able to point out where your writing sounds like it is written by someone with English as their second language, even when it's technically ok.

I've had a day off tomatoes today. Sometimes I find that tasks are not suited to tomatoing (to make it a verb...). It's still been a productive day however and I reckon I will tomato tomorrow!

A good idea in principle but I doubt it would work in practice as there are so many supervisors across the world! Even if you made a specific wobsite that was signed up to by 80% of PhD students (this alone would never happen) you would then get the problem of slander and other legal problems from supervisors who feel they have been misrepresented. After all, it is SOMETIMES the student at fault and not the supervisor, yet the student blames the sup.

For anything useful to happen there would need to be regulation brought in, probably at a national level, but certainly at a university level. The chances of this are, I reckon, pretty minimal.

Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but as annoying as the situation is, we are unlikely to make the blindest bit of difference unless someone seriously dedicates some time to it. None of us will because we kind of have the whole PhD thing to be getting on with.

It is nice to know though that I'm not the only one who thinks this is a problem!

Sorry, but the "I was teaching you to be an independent researcher" doesn't wash with me. We are adults, if that is the plan then it can be explained to us before hand. i.e. "I will only have x meetings with you. This may seem a low number of meetings but it is to help you learn to be a more independent researcher.". Just not giving much supervision then saying that at the end, whilst it may have been the genuine reason for doing it, is not the correct way to go about it.

I think the "we are adults" bit is what supervisors sometimes seem to forget (I should point out that mine is actually pretty good). Some, it would seem from this board, sometimes forget we are human...

Time management is the key. If you manage time badly then you spend a long time working and have no time to meet/talk to friends. If you make sure you work hard for say 8-9 hours a day then you have the rest of the day to meet friends/do other stuff.

Easily said I know, but true none the less. Volunteering sounds like a good idea to get you out and about. Good luck with the write up!

I fully agree and have said pretty much what you are saying in previous posts. I am amazed what people let their supervisors get up to and say/do, both with and about their work, and about themselves. I find it astounding that most universities seem to have little recourse for any assessment of supervisors whatsoever. None of my fellow PhDers (I am slightly different being an RA) have had any opportunity to assess or give official feedback anonymously about their supervisor. There basically appears to be little accountability beyond getting students (and their fees/funding) through the door.

This is not to say that all supervisors are bad, just that it is so easy for them to be bad! Do they get training in how to supervise? I don't know but I would suggest that from the stories on here many either do not or attend a day course that they instantly forget.

It is the one thing about the PhD process that needs to be sorted, but I'm not entirely sure how that would be done. The idea of contracts is a good one, but how would that go from being a PhD student's idea to being actually done?

Woo, 11 done today. That only translates as 5.5 hours work though doesn't it. I suppose we should all do at least 15 per day. I may have trouble tomorrow because I'm not sure what to do. Just finished a report I was writing and I sure won't get feedback from my sup for a few days!

My advice would be to join clubs/societies. If you enjoy sports then a local sports team is instant new friends. Aside from sport how about joining the photography society or something? My friend and I started a science communication society at our uni and I've made lots of friends that way. All unis have societies and stuff and it's not just for the undergrads!

Hey y'all, I've got 4 done so far today, another one and then I'll have a long break for lunch. Mine tend to go down in number per hour through the day as I often forget I'm running one (I have no sound!) and so I work for too long!

Microsoft Office
Matlab
Simulink
GH Bladed
Mendeley

These are my main ones.

Anyone else use Simulink or am I alone on this forum?