I did a poster for a postgrad-only conference in my area (the best I find, because you're all in the same boat and there's less pressure when you can network with someone who has a sense of humopur, rather than a stuffy old professor!) after 6 months, a poster at an international conference after 1 year, then two oral presentations at postgrad-only conferences at the start of my third year, and an oral presentation at an international conference close to the end of 3 years. Good to go to one early, even if you don't present, because its great experience and you'll learn a lot. Funding might be an issue though.

I think if I'd done my big presentation any sooner then my results wouldn't have been quite as good, or my ideas as well formulated. In your 3rd year its scary how quickly things and ideas change! I was also in a better position to talk about jobs, collaborations etc.

I hear about most conferences through societies, so join as many mailing lists in your field as you can find! Try www.conferencealerts.com too, but to be honest i haven't found it as useful.

Can your supervisor write me a reference too please!!!

If you're studying in the UK and are a UK/EU student then check the Natural Environment Research Council's website (www.nerc.ac.uk). They are the major funding body for the environmental sciences. Hope that helps.

Ask them again on January the 6th. No way will most academics be writing references now if the deadline is 3 weeks off! Doing a Masters or PhD, you'll soon find out that they are not the most organised of people, and whilst it'll (95% of the time) get done in the end and on time, they'll still give you a heart attack. I get the same, and I'm applying for Fellowships and post-docs. I remember my references for PhD being exactly the same.

You're right that from first impressions your CV won't look too hot - how about another Masters (perhaps one by research, such as an MPhil to get some research experience). Or try and get some work experience in a lab - anything to show you're committed to your field of work. Hope that helps.

Oooops sorry, I should have mentioned that!

Re. data - yep, in the Sciences at least you'll work really hard for no reward, then all of a sudden you'll have an avalanche of data (to analyse though, which takes another 3 months). Those days are worth waiting for! A lot of it is testing and refining, or spotting the errant . or / in a long piece of computer code.

Re time management - I have a small white board I write all my tasks on with deadlines, then wipe them off. On the other side of my monitor I've got my chapter deadlines in big font, just within my eye view so I feel guilty when checking facebook...

www.higheredjobs.com

Quite hard to find one for post-doc positions etc though, you're better off going to a subject-specific/organisation/society website...

Isn't it on the same bar as the Quote and PM buttons on the person's post that you think was useful. Isn't it called Useful? or something....

Congratulations to you both, smartypants! :-)

Depends on institution and subject. Most science people have lab space and perhaps a desk (I share an office with one other person, some share up to 10 but still have their own desk and PC), I have friends in the Humanities who have to hot desk and don't have a PC, or work all the time in the library.

Re. funding for conferences, if you're research council funded then there should be some sort of scheme (NERC for example pay £150 per year for conference funding, and some recognised courses are free for NERC students), or it could be written into your proposal. This is probably preferable. If you're at a Collegiate University then most Colleges can help you out with travel funds, and I'm sure most Departments have some sort of fund or prizes (though it might not be much).

Everyone wants to go to glamorous conferences in Australia or the US, but remember that flights, accomodation, transfers, conference fees, the gala dinner, expenses etc soon add up to a whole lot, even for a European conference.

Hope that helps?

I suppose saying well done all the time (though it would be nice at least some of the time!) will make you feel good but won't benefit the thesis in the long run. But its impossible not to take it personally when you invest so much time and energy into it. I just keep thinking of the day when I pass and they say "that was a really good thesis you put out there. Good job."

I'm sure this Neena character is much too smart to fall for it.

No harm in applying now - it'll be experience for the next application round if nothing else.

It means how helpful a user is. There's a button that says recommend user or something. If you press it on mine you'll see what happens ;-)