You should be fine. I know that at least British Passports do not have the option to put Doctor on them anyway.

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Yes you should. Everyone in academia knows that the first author is the one that did the work. Others just contributed a bit here and there, much like your sup.

Well done Catalin, you should be very proud!

I still don't get this whole "academia is so different" thing. It's as if people here think that if you work in the private sector you don't have targets to meet and you don't work overtime.

How much time you put into a job depends on you. The academics you are comparing yourselves to tend to be professors yes? That's like comparing yourselves to a very highly paid executive. They also are stressed a lot etc.

Most jobs can be stressful, I would say that the only difference in academia is that the type of person who goes into academia *tends* to be fairly driven and focussed. Basically the type of person that gets stressed anyway. The question is basically why would anyone want to work really hard to get to the top of their field when they could take an easier option. Personally, I would take the easier option because I think there is more to life than my work. For many people their work is their passion, so they want to get to the top, which requires very hard work and is stressful. An easier option in academia is to become a lecturer or just a research fellow (though preferably on a permanent contract) and then not really aim to move any higher. Sure it'd be stressful to start with, but you'd soon get into the swing of doing enough to keep your job and having time off.

I guess I enjoyed school, mainly because I played rugby 6 days a week and the work was easy enough that I didn't have to try. Towards the end of A-levels I suddenly reached the stage at which I couldn't just breeze through though and so my marks dropped off and I had to learn how to actually apply myself. I then went to uni, studying engineering because I didn't know what I wanted to do and heard Engineers are pretty employable. First year was relatively easy as I had done further maths before and so I breezed through again, until 3/4 of the way through the year when I had to apply myself and didn't. I then drank heavily and had an awesome time for my second year and just scraped the passing mark for the year. That made third year hard as I essentially had to learn 2 years of stuff in one year due to not learning it the year before. By fourth year (I did an MEng) I finally actually applied myself and worked a bit and so I finished with a decent 2:1. I sometimes wonder how well I'd have done if I had tried throughout, but meh, I passed and had a great time. A few years in industry and I'm now back at Uni, working properly at academic stuff. It's definitely a lot easier when you try (not to say it is easy as such, just EASIER than it would be without the effort!). I always fancied doing a PhD but I kind of fell into it in the end as a means to an end.

So, in short:

- I liked school and was indifferent to learning (it was easy)
- When I was actually pushed I tended to just do badly
- I eventually learnt study skills and found it all a lot easier again

Pivotal thing that turned it round was that I actually HAD to try in my fourth year or I would have got a 2:2, which I would've found unacceptable.

Yeah, I agree with the others who have commented. The most important thing by far is "who is the first author". People know that the first author is pretty much always the one who really did the work. Being a third or fourth author usually just means they supplied some data or something like that.

You've answered your own question really. You love netbooks, you don't like touch screens and your only reservation is that they might not be as fast as an iPad? You can get them faster than an iPad. The only reason for getting an iPad is that it's a bit more shiny. Shiny thing make better?

I laughed when I saw the keyboard adaptor you can get for iPad style devices. That's basically a massively expensive net book with limited functionality that ties you to apple for the life of the product...

In summary: Get a netbook :-)

I see no reason to not go for it except fear of the unknown. That's not a great reason to turn it down in my opinion. Take the job. If you don't like it after a few months you are allowed to quit and go home. I bet that doesn't happen though.

It's understandable to be apprehensive of it, but you'll really regret it if you don't go. It's better to regret something you did than something that you didn't do. Plus Oz is a great place!

The uni is closed for nearly 2 weeks so I am taking 2 weeks off. I won't be doing any uni work because I don't ever do any outside of working hours. In general I use all of my 30 days off a year. Hell, they're there to use and there's way more to life than working.

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After the PhD i have found that Post doc positions tend to be called "Research Associate" as opposed to "Research Assistant" which is someone like me, doing research as full time employment before/during a PhD.

Edit: It doesn't help that they both abbreviate to RA!

Have some faith! Go for gold!

I'd put 2012 personally as that is the year you will actually get your "dr" awarded.

I started my PhD last year in a field slightly removed from my original degree. The first thing I did was spend two months working from cover to cover through a text book about the new topic. It really helped me, so I'd suggest trying something similar. Find a book like "introductory whatever you want to learn" and go through it doing all the examples and everything. It's really boring, you feel like your wasting time, but when you've finished you realise how useful it actually was.

Judging from these boards 7 months of looking is not a surprisingly long time, so don't get too down beat. People often struggle to find work after a PhD and if you haven't been well then this will have compounded the problem. Keep applying, remember you only need one yes!

As for interview tips, it sounds like you're already doing pretty well in the interviews - you've just been unlucky that someone they deem more experienced has been available.

You will sometimes (often!) find that jobs in universities are advertised when they already know who they want to work in that position - in some cases someone is already doing it. They have a legal obligation to advertise the position however. I know this because it was meant to happen for my job, which I was already doing. I was told they would have to interview people, but I was guaranteed the job. As it happens, for complicated reasons this didn't happen in this case, but I understand it is fairly common.

Maybe try to get some voluntary work experience in a relevant area whilst you look to try to make sure the gap on your CV doesn't grow too large. Other than that, good luck and try not to get too down about it.