Hi all, another ranting session so bear with me!

My PhD is relatively simiar to another PhD students. I'm in my final year and she's in the second year. It really bugs me that one of the first things she says to me (ie after hello) when I see her is how many contacts she's got hold off and how well she things she is doing! Perhaps she's really proud of her acheivements, but it's coming off as 'I've got more contacts than you so there!'. (It's completely relative to the actual PhD I guess and area of interest!- but still it was like she wanted me to give her praise for it or perhaps to make me feel uncomfortable!?!). I could have turned round and said well I've done this and I actually have more than contacts/participants than you but I didn't ,) lol. It's interesting that I helped her massively in sending her loads of my material (our projects are very similar) and I seriously suspect that she has being using my material and 'borrowing' my questions for her methodological toolkit. grrrrrrrrrrrrr (perhaps I should have known better!).

How do other people deal with seemingly competitive PhD students?

:-(

Slap them with a wet fish.

I remember I had this late night conversation with some of my friends back when I was a PhDer (oh, so long ago now). We thrashed out the optimal anti-competitive PhD student defensive manouvers which included:

- Having a mock up of an acceptance letter for "Nature" casually lying around on the desk. Ask the rival to pass you something from the desk, ideally under the letter and when they reach over and hold the letter casually ask them "Just bin that would you, don't you get tired of so many of these things."

- Phone up the rival explaining you have a huge problem. Your supervisor has asked you to be a prominant author on a paper, and you feel wracked with guilt because you really didnt do too much and its embarrassing after the sixth time. Extra points awarded if you actually have the nerve to suggest he intends you to be the only author.

- When bumping into the corridor have a puzzled look on your face. When asked about it say "I wonder if Princeton or Yale have better conditions for their tenured lecturers posts?", when asked to elaborate remain enigmatically silent but complain about the prices of airplane tickets.

- Drop into conversation completely made up plausible, but deniable political goings on in the department. New professor, so and so has a grudge, someone or other just got a grant. Try to give the impression that this is common knowledge to the "elite circle" -that they aren't in.

God, I love being evil.

Slap her with two wet fish!!! sorry coastman, but your concept was so damned good... maybe the second year feels she has something to live up to with you, stealing your framework is a mighty a compliment.

My grandmother did slap my grandfather with a wet fish once, in her youth. It was a haddock. Then she divorced him.

I keep my ideas to myself when I'm around really competitive students if they're in my subject area. Or competitive staff too, for that matter. You can't really avoid working with them, but as long as you pursue your own career path and don't let your work get ripped off, they might even become a mild source of amusement. I quite like watching them in action at networking events, especially when their work isn't generally regarded as outstanding in that field.

Sounds like a classic insecurity complex.

I recommend the wet fish. (up)