Overview of AOE26

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PhD and marriage
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It is a bit unusual to go from single to married in a couple of months but it will not affect the admission.


Took me about 15mins to go from single to married.

how to title a research
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'A critical assessment of the conception and implementation of rice projects'.. tbh - I'd change it to be a bit more descriptive of what you are researching but this is for starters :)

Feel bullied in Postdoc
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Take the new job. Move on. As for the complaint? I honestly feel it's too late once you have left. It will not get the attention it deserves.

I know a lot of people won't agree with me over the complaint part but you will not be around to follow it up, the HR team will feel it's too much work - at best it will go on record. I would have had a discussion prior to taking the new job but I do know how hard that is.

Years ago I had a job that was a living nightmare due to my boss, I always felt I'd stick the knife in when I left but I found out after I left multiple complaints had been made and one more meant formal proceedings.. I regretted not doing what I should have at the right time.

Masters dissertation supervisor help
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Hi T_89 - in short - no.
If you want you can complete your dissertation and hand it in - in September without speaking to her again. She is there to guide you. It's rare that a student does not want that guidance normally they complain of their supervisor being unresponsive.

ergonomic mouse
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OS? Windows/OSX/Linux etc I really like my mouse trackpad on my MacBook Air.

not submitted thesis - PhD withdrawal
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Hey Zoya - counselling seems your best route.
If you were a friend of mine telling me these things I'd say "If you want to get a job that is not academia simply put on your cv 6years of being a mother while studying for a PhD".
It's highly unlikely not getting the PhD (in industry) will make any difference to your chances of landing the role.
In time you will feel better and look back at this and wonder what all the fuss was about.
AOE26
P.S I have had a very ill child and nothing compares to that. No matter what struggles I have I know they are not remotely close to how bad watching your child suffer is. In a weird way it has given me a resolve I never knew I had.

Windows 10
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I went from w7 to w10 (as I hated w8). I like w10 - it's clean and fast but doesn't feel like a huge leap from w7.. as has been alluded to - make sure you turn off all logging it does.

What probably swayed me was not wanting to pay for it in the future! Not wanting to give a lecture but everything should be backed up in multiple locations (backed up and storage such as dropbox/google drive) - it's free now - so no excuse. Even an upgrade that wipes your machine utterly clean should not be a disaster... in fact... it's a good idea to upgrade to a clean install.

Masters in Professional Accountancy
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As a rule of thumb a credit is about 10 hours work, so each course is 300 hours. You'll be doing 600 hours in 6 months - can you find 100 hours per month?

I went over 10 hours per credit for my MSc - think my 60 credits came in at about 700-750 hours... but maybe I am just slow.

Should I do a PhD?
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Is a PhD an obstacle in industry? I'll address this as a hiring manager in IT.
No.



But... it is not uncommon for people to feel threatened by having someone work for them who appears to be more intelligent than them purely based on a single academic qualification. Experience/qualifications/attitude are the 3 attributes I evaluate in a candidate - the qualifications are beneficial if relevant to the role otherwise it demonstrates a level of intelligence/perseverance.
The problem you may find is if you have no experience then you must start at the bottom and then there are two possible problems 1. You feel your years of studying make you too good for the role 2. The hiring manager thinks you would be bored in such a lowly role with such impressive qualifications.
I think a BSc gets your cv in.. once in the role with some experience a MSc sets you apart. A PhD once at C Suite level is a nice to have but will not get you there - more completed as a personal challenge.

Granted this is purely my opinion and solely anecdotal but for transparency - I have a MSc (but am considering a PhD) and am on the leadership team of the company I work for (one away from being a director) and I work at C Suite level in consultancy with other large global companies.

So after all I have said and how little I think a PhD geniunely helps in industry - why am I considering one? 1. I like a challenge and feel it would be mentally stimulating 2. An opportunity to publish my work as industry articles to raise my profile. I am just deciding if no. 2 would actually happen!

Advice with Word
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If you work in an older version then as it is saved is how it will appear on any version... but... you won't have all the functionality in older versions so best to test and see what it drops and see if you can live with it.

IMO .doc seems to work better between different versions than .docx

Advice with Word
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File, Save As.. and then select an older version of Word i.e. 2004.

Or convert to pdf when sending to someone else... but.. take my advice and get used to writing your Word doc with "show non printing characters" enabled. This will save you a ton of formatting head aches.

Oxbridge Masters application from lower tier university
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I agree with TreeofLife - if you are paying you'll most likely get in. A friend of mine did his Masters at Cambridge and did not have a Bachelors.

Masters Dissertation in 3 months?
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1500 words a week - only you will know if that is achievable. But it doesn't give you much wriggle room. I assume you have done all your research and literature reviews?

3 months is doable but it will be a huge amount of pressure and I recommend you give it your full attention and get the mark you deserve as you won't want to do another!

Resume HELP! Applying for the role of "Project Consultant" Adding Project Section to Resume?
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Demonstrate major achievements - ideally what you think the company would look at think "we would like that here". Try and show how you worked very hard, led research etc
If your academic training is not relevant yet they are not looking for someone with previous consulting experience then your MSc ticks one of the boxes they want. Without knowing the role it's very tough to help further.
I can give you my opinion from an IT consultancy / hiring perspective - it is the norm for a an academic level to be included on a job but very rare that the hiring manager pays much attention to it. I do actually like to focus on it in an interview to see that the candidate enjoyed their research, what motivated them to do it, what they gained from it etc it is my way of gauging if a candidate has the attitude I am looking for.

PhD thesis evaluation
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Fantastic news.. Can stop smoking now and relax. Having kids puts things into perspective!