======= Date Modified 17 Sep 2010 18:15:28 =======
I had gone through one 5 months ago when I was in my 2nd year PhD. It was at the moment I had to visit the States for an international conference (I am from Hong Kong), so basically I had contacted the potential supervisor beforehand through natureJobs.com. Since the post-doc project involves 3 superivisors, I had individual meetings wth them one by one for 1.5 hour each (one at the conference venue, the other two at their labs in University), and had a jointed-lab presentation in front of all the colleagues and students of the labs from the last 2 sups, which was basically like a viva exam lasted for at least 2 hours.

Most of the questions involved:
A detailed description of your PhD project (if you have got publications, you have to explain to them in details)
How your knowledge in your curret PhD study can benifit the post-doc project (So you have to read some of their papers and think a bit before meeting up).

Other than these two are miner stuffs about your confidence in graduating on time..blah blah blah.

I guess the most powerful pre-requisits are: you have a handful of decent publications and clear undersanding of your project; afterall is all about your presenation skills on whether you can tell and teach your work to everyone as an intereting story.

It was a very tough 2-weeks time in the States but it was very rewarding since I got the job back then and my current PhD supervisor is very kind to get me graduate early and start the Job at coming Oct.

Good luck to you, mate.
(up)

======= Date Modified 11 Jan 2010 08:33:47 =======
I have a routine meeting on every tuesday, which lasts for 1-2 hours each time, even when there is a long holiday weekend within that week. My supervisor is a very straight woman and we all little PhD students are being pushed a lot to get data/ new ideas out every 7 days. Part of it I found it very stressful indeed because of that, and I know some of my labmates have been scolded when she found them starting to get slowdown and lag behind; yet so far (and lucky) I managed myself well and being good for the last 2 years and I already have published 2 co-first authored papers, a patent, and a press-highlight from them... I am walking through my final year now and hopefully i can stay afloat and get published another one :)

Wowho...calm down guys and girls, looks like i ve sparked up lotsa arguments and conversations here. Again, big cheers for you all for being so supportive for me, i m back onto the right track already, no worries, I am sure lotsa you had came accrossed with different mishaps and misfortune in the room of love I had a very hard time too, regarding to the facts that i am a homosexual (as mentioned in my previous post), living in a prettly conservative city, and gay issues are not something to be discussed at schools or at home...so as havent been being supported from the general society and other family members, i was raised up with other kids and folks whom also got abandoned by the main stream due to all sorts of other factors. That's why, to be honest, i really treasure camaraderie and friendship. What actually nerved me was the possibility that i might have lost a friend after voicing out my genuine feeling towards her, whom also happens to be a lesbian and a phd student in the medical field.

Luckily, she had replied me a long email, and explained to me the exact reasons of her decline and concerns in behind. I was very delighted as she was actually sharing me her deepest thoughts and histories of her life, she also mentioned she was truely flattered by my honestly and would love to hang out and be goodfriends as before. So, umm...i returned her back with another email and told her more about the deepest part of mine.

So i guess this is the best happy ending i wished to have afterall, not only i had my friendship secured, but also i started learning a couple of new hobbies (lacrosse and kendo) as myself enrichment. I think this is more like a blessing, from Heaven, from my folks, and from you all. And big hugs and kisses eachone of you.

As a girl, rubyw, timefortea, and Smilodon, i truely understand what it means "i just wanna be friends", its a girlie slang inherited in our genes right?

And for MH, and badhaircut, i have to thank you two wholeheartedly, in cheering up that little hidden manhood of myself to ring my mind the message "get over it, get the shit done, get more data, more paper, better job and eventually a better girl! yay! (five-five). And yeh, we know it deep down it wasnt actually about sex...lol.

Once again, cheers for all. I feel life to be more cheerful since than. I dun feel like I am being isolated/abandoned anymore. :-) (and i actually came out to another colleague from moaning about this incident, and she said "its perfectly okey", yeh!)

Talking about authorship, it really reminded me a very bad experience. I am personally from a huge group and there are always like 8-10 ppl's name on the authorship list. Remember in the last time, I had like a manuscript written out, with 80% of the work done by myself for almost 15 months, 24/7-barely-no-rest, its my project stuffs, and exactly the contents i had reported to the progress assessment board, so i had no doubt about this fact. The 80% part included most the cellular mechanism stuffs which i thought was core of the subject, and there included also a couple of novel points i integrated from different fields...so i was genuinely expecting to throw a celebration party after having it published as my first-authorship manuscript. Yet....the problem wasnt being realized (not even i had amended stuffs for rebuttal) until the pub date that instead of being the leading name of the list, i ended up as the second (though its still titled as a co-first author). My supervisor had made her final adjustment to the name orders without notifying anyone, she had made the one who contributed that 20% as the leading name of the list...whom honestly was my Dr. Advisor (a.k.a. Dr. not-interested-in-research-and-long-working-hours). I sorta consoled myself by telling my mind constantly she was the one who deserved this as she taught me heaps of techniques and crossbred the animal model out (which was important as my signaling study was done with primary tissues from her transgenic mice for attaining sufficient physiological relevance)...but honestly i was still a bit pissed about this fact (even my supervisor explained to me why, and i wouldnt like to mention it here) and yet no complains were to be made as this was definitely not a wise move for the rest of my study (i truely believed)

I really hope that no one here has experienced this as i did, my second first-authorship paper is gonna be submitted soon, i hope nothing like this is gonna happen again.:-s

To MH, I am sorry to learn your experience about girls...i can say, sometimes same sex relationships do cause lotsa hurts too.

Anyways, thanks for comment. Good luck, dude.

Right guys and gals. I full-heartedly thank all of you first for being supportive around the corner. Yeh, today, I ve been into the sun the entire afternoon for lacrosse and the evening for kendo. All of them are brand new activities to me yet i finally realized there are lotsa fun and joy around, and was having a wonderful day with my nerves working on and learning these new hobbies (guess what, the coaches from both sports said i played amazingly good and wanted me to be into their squd immediately [honestly i have a very strong sports background despite i am studying a PhD in medicine, which in layman's eye it is dominated by book-addicts)...!!!!!!] I instantly remembered how joyful my life used to be before i met her, which is awesome...ummmm,one thing i have to clarify is, again despite trivial...i am a lesbian..lol.

I will be back to my lab tomorrow and work freakingly focused on my second first-authored manuscript, after getting a round of supports and being recharged.

Cheers,
looie

Sure everyone of us knows how tight the schedule and tough a life of a PhD student is, i do, thats why i ve been always working incredibly hard, dreaming about getting a decent job in the future, as if strapping a huge sweet carrot over a donkey's head...same as many out here, there were lotsa ups-and-downs (more downs) during my previous 1.5 years (i m in the mid-way now), and had my youthful soul gradually eroded, leaving behind is a very cynical, depressed, and lonely piece of flesh.

Not until a couple of months ago, i met this special person, who has brought me in joy and laughter to my lonely days. She was like my oasis during this long desert journey and i felt as if shes the biggest blessing in my life. Yet, she is not talking to me anymore now after confessing to her i had a very strong feeling towards her...she politely declined my feeling, which was fine, yet she also stopped replying my calls, messages, as if the friendship in between has also disappeared. It feels like riding a roller-coaster, or like being pushed from the pinnacle to the nadir of the universe...im really upset, and i felt its my fault in putting myself into this situation, i cant forgive myself....

Right now, after spending a day and two plain staring the ceiling in my room, shedding tears in pain, i have no choice but to move on, i know this is the only option on my plate, know that I cant just get stuck like a piece of corpse, and nothing can be rewinded...but my heart is still in deep pain...

I know this may look trivial while compared to other tough situations many of the folks here are facing. I hope you guys don mind that, I need to vent my feelings out...:-(