Overview of pm133

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Business cards (PhD fresh grad)
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Quote From Tudor_Queen:
I think you should. I always find it quite impressive when someone hands me one, and I remember them and normally put the card on my noticeboard in the hallway for a good while. If for any reason I wanted to contact that person, it would be very easy to do so - as I'd have their full name and contact details (rather than some scrap of paper with several addys scribbled on that I can't remember who they belong to).

(excuse the grammar of that last part - I am really tired and I know that sounds wrong but can't think of the right way to say it).


Dont get me wrong, when I started out I used to like them as well but what do you do when you get to more than 100 business cards?
When I ran my first business I was at over 100 after the first three networking nights. After 6 months I had enough to carpet every room in our house. Within a year I was starting to feel guilty about how many trees had died to make the voluminous pile now taking up half my living room. My wife threatened to move out and the children kept losing their toys in the forest of cards. After two year I relented, stopped accepting new cards and had a bonfire of the lot of them. We cooked sausages on sticks and had many beers. The pile was still smouldering the next morning. I dont have any now.

I might have exaggerated a little......

Business cards (PhD fresh grad)
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Quote From LeslieM:
Hi,

I've recently finished my PhD. I plan to print some business cards for attending conferences/seminars before successfully landing a full-time job (which I understand that it may take up to several years!). I have three burning questions and I'd love to know what other early career researchers think:

(1) I don't really have a job title, since I don't have a full-time job. I may have a three-month temporary part-time teaching contract but I won't put that institution as my ''affiliation''. I find the title ''independent scholar'' odd because it simply means I am jobless. If I do not put any job title on my card, it automatically means that I am looking for jobs/on part-time contracts. Therefore, titles such as ''independent scholar'' or ''independent researcher'' would be redundant. Or would you still put "independent scholar" as your title on your card?

(2) Will you include information about your previous education? In my case, my PhD is an interdisciplinary programme (media studies) and my MA is in political science. I am wondering if it would be a nice idea to list out my MA degree as well, so as to indicate that I have a background in social sciences instead of humanities, since both have quite distinctive training and approaches to media studies I suppose. So my card might look like this:

Name
PhD (Media Studies, A University)
MA (Political Science, B University)
Email:
Website:

(3) The last question is about card design. I am looking at websites that provide templates. I am deciding between fancy designs (https://www.moo.com/uk/design-templates/business-cards/pack/monogram.html) or conventional plain designs (https://www.moo.com/uk/design-templates/business-cards/pack/profile-power.html).

Colourful or fancy design may be eye-catching/impressive, but as a female researcher I want to be taken seriously. My male colleagues designed fancy cards but I hesitate if I want to do the same.

Many thanks x


Personally i think you are wasting your time and money.
I only ever work with and recommend people I personally know because getting it wrong can be absolutely ruinous to my career.
I have also only been contacted with work offers by people with whom I have built up a relationship over time.
If I want to establish contact post-conference then I would email them.
Networking is very much a long game. Think in terms of several years and be very selective. They dont warn you about that at uni or on job advice sites.

Too ambitious?
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Quote From statictraveller:
Hello,
Just curious - with a couple of papers under your belt (2 from PhD, 2 from undergrad) how likely is it to find a teaching academic position in science/genetics in UK universities?

My personal circumstances makes it difficult for me to stay down south (London/Cambridge/Oxford is where genomics is flourishing right now) and so I may have to relocate back to Midlands where I can be with my family.
Having worked so hard for my PhD (still half way through :-) ) and enjoying my subject so much, I do not want relocation from where the 'hub' is to mean an end to a potential good career I can have in the field.

So after lots of thinking, I feel the best option would be to find a relevant teaching position at a university in East/West Midlands and then maybe after a couple of years when my family situation settles a bit more, move down south or overseas for better opportunities with my family.

So my question is - is it impossible for a recently graduated PhD to find an academic position directly? What if I can introduce a new module at a prospective university for the undergrads/Masters? Would that work or am I dreaming and need at least 1-2 post-docs under my belt before aiming so high?

Thanks in advance!


There is no such thing as too much ambition.
If you feel strnogly about this you should have a go at applying. You only need one uni to say Yes.
In the meantime i would consider the postdoc route followed by fellowships in case your first approach doesnt work out.

PhD rejections
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Quote From statictraveller:
If I had the chance I would go to a "low ranking university". Why? because it's not about the name - it's about you, your research and the environment that is going to help you flourish.
I don't know about Kings, but I am currently feeling suffocated at Imperial, but I can't leave because I'm half way through a PhD I genuinely enjoy but in the most toxic environment I could have ever imagined.

In regards to how many applications, I was really fussy as I refused to do a PhD in something that I knew I wasn't going to love. I can't remember clearly anymore but I think I applied to two or three - but only got 1 interview and got accepted.


Your last oaragraph is exactly the right approach in my opinion.
The original poster could have completed a successful PhD by now, be finishing their first postdoc and could be applying for fellowships or permanent posts as we speak. It is absolutely crazy to still be trying the same approach after all these years.

PhD rejections
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Quote From Snowey:
So I’m re opening a topic here.

How many rejections did it take to get your PhD? I have been applying for 6 years now and must have amounted to over 40 rejections. I have over the specifications with a 2.1 in a BSc at from King’s College London, 5 years work expirence as a researcher at kings where I’ve amounted to 8 publications and a MSc at Imperial. The struggle is real as people just want more and more from me as the years go by and I’m just not sure what I can do! I’m in no financial situation to volunteer working in another lab or pay for my own PhD in anyway. I also am sticking to Russel group unis in my applications- I don’t want to aim low as I’ve been trying so hard over the last few years. Any advice will be amazing, thank you x


I dont understand what you mean by "I dont want to aim low". The university is largely irrelevant. The research will be done by you and you alone so I dont understand your attitude here. I am particularly baffled by your comment in light of the fact that you only have a 2:1 and 6 years of failed applications behind you. Unless you are applying to non-competitive posts as described by Tol above, you are going to be well down the list. I think you need to seriously re-evaluate your approach.

To answer your question, I had no rejections at all after getting my non-Russell group masters degree. I wrote to 20 supervisors at a variety of universities, visited around 12 of the supervisors for a chat, including several at Russell Groups unis, and was offered all of them. The rest I rejected myself as not being what I was after.
There is a very unhealthy delusion amongst way too many undergrads and graduates that being at a RG uni matters. It doesnt. What matters is your education and your attitude.

How much reading did you do in your first year?
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Quote From Meep:
You are right. I did. My apologies.


No problem.

Networking is a Must
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I agree that networking is very important but it must be done face to face.
You cannot successfully network over any online app wothout face to face contact.
Successful networking is built on a trust and can take years to build up properly.
I wouldnt risk my own professional reputation by recommending someone unless I knew them exttremely well for example.
If it is your plan to try and ultimately organise meetups for people then that might be worth considering.

Relation Between Thesis Chapters
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A reasonable viva question would be for you to be asked to describe the overarching point of your PhD.
Your thesis should tell a story and therefore you need to find a way of tying down why you did all the things you talk about. You dont have to include everything in your thesis anyway. I ended up leaving out a couple of things. When I mentioned that during the viva the external examiner seemed to think that was very creditworthy although I am not sure why.

How much reading did you do in your first year?
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Quote From Meep:
Thank you for your reply, pm133.

If pages per hour were the only way I measured progress, I might agree with you, however, if I am trying to walk from Cape Town to Cairo and only have 3 years full time to do so, then there will be a minimum number of paces I need to take each day. I find that the best way of getting a rough idea of this is to speak to people who have walked there. This does not discard the notion that I may have to divert because it is flooded in a certain area or that I like the view from Mount Kilimanjaro and decide to enjoy the view for a few days...

If I learn that I have to walk 30 miles a day and I know that I am only capable of walking 5, then at this current point in time when I am still in the Cape Town suburbs, I may then need to come up with some aids to get to Cairo on time. Had I not compared or at least enquired about other people's experiences, how would I have known that at the end of 3 years, I would only have gotten to Tanzania. I would rather know that now instead of having to try to cram 1/2 PhD into the last 10 percent of the time available.

I don't find that brutal. It is just time management and planning.

Why do you think it is damaging to try to get an idea of these things?


You asked for opinions and you have been given several. You are under no obligation to accept any of them but you appear to be getting a bit defensive over my answer which was a genuine attempt to help you so I shall bale out of the discussion. Good luck.

How much reading did you do in your first year?
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There are two issues I can see here.

Firstly, it's about quality not quantity. Setting targets of pages per hour doesn't seem like a sustainable way to approach your PhD or any other aspect of life. To be honest it sounds a really brutal way to work.

Secondly, Comparing yourself to anyone else is going to drive you insane. This is your PhD, there isn't another one like it. Therefore it is irrelevamt how many papers other people get through.

It might be worth taking a moment to step back here and re-evaluate your thought process because what you are doing sounds damaging to your mental health.

Is it worth including literature that isn’t very good in literature review?
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Quote From chickpea:
As someone who has worked with groups of people who are socially excluded for reasons including mental health issues and learning disabilities, I believe it's very important to challenge incidences like the inappropriate use of 'retarded'. The language we use about vulnerable groups does affect their perception and treatment in society, and I am glad Jane92 reflected on this after posting.


The problem with this sort of politically correct thinking is that it doesn't tackle the root problem. It attacks the symptom and ignores the underlying cause, breeding resentment in the wider population and what you end up with is someone like Trump becoming President as a way of people fighting back.

It also regards and treats people who are socially isolated in the manner you describe above as victims.

I don't see how this helps anyone. How can it possibly make any difference if someone uses the word "retarded" or simply thinks someone is "retarded"? You are simply not going to stop people thinking in this way by challenging their words. Discrimination comes from actions not words. You don't discriminate against a disabled person by calling them a retard. You discriminate against them by refusing to include them in your social group or denying them work opportunities etc. You don't discriminate against a woman by talking about how she dresses. You discriminate by denying her jobs. By conflating words with action you deny anyone the chance to properly solve the problem because you deny the chance to have an open conversation about it through an exchange of ideas (however intolerant or repugnant those ideas may be). In my opinion, denying people the right to openly talk about whatever they want and teating people like victims, is worse than actual discrimination because it actively prevents a solution. Who put you or anyone else in charge of what are acceptable words?

In my opinion you have no right to be offended on behalf of someone else or another group. None whatsoever. Regardless of whether you work with them or not. It really is not your place.

unconscious bias in academia
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I am not persuaded that any of this "unconscious" bias is anything of the sort. I think it is systematic and deliberate.

I think when a CV arrives from a female in her 20's, many hirers will immediately and willingly form an image in their heads of a woman caked in makeup and fake tan, wearing revealing or tight clothes, with a head full of "girly pish", lacking in confidence and needing constant "nurturing", full of gossip, lacking in work ethic and consumed by her appearance and how she is perceived by others. Most damagingly, hirers will ask themselves about whether she will be a pregnancy risk or already have a kid. Will she be phoning in every third week because her childminder has called out or her kid has a cold. Men simply don't have to fight against any of this crap. The assumption will be that the man will walk in and be no hassle whatsoever.

Why are women biased against other women?

In my opinion it is because they have fought very hard to be accepted themselves and they want to dissociate themselves from those who might damage their reputation. They will only favour women who are like themselves and will kick hard against those who follow the female stereotype.

It's the same reason why some of the most virulent anti-gay protestors turned out to be gay themselves. They try to distance themselves from others like them. Same reason again why the people who hate those on the dole are those who have been there in the past. Humans are very odd.

Is it worth including literature that isn’t very good in literature review?
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Quote From Jane92:
Apologies, I meant no offence - I wasn't in a very good frame of mind yesterday. On reflection, I know I shouldn't have written that.

Englishlit92 - thank you for your advice, i'm going to follow it as I don't want to waste my time reading poor texts.


An apology isn't needed and it's very frustrating that we live in times where people waste time and energy on such nonsense. Just speak your mind and be prepared to be challenged.

What is more important to point out though is that regardless of the words you used (which are completely irrelevant), you demonstrated the depressingly and increasingly common problem of taking offence at the words of others - in this case the academics.
By calling them "retarded" you simply become as bad as the people you are critiquing.
This is a maturity thing. In my opinion, it is a far worse "sin" to take offence at people's words than it is to utter those words in the first place regardless of what those words were. Offence cannot be given. It can only be taken. And those who take really need to get a life :-D

My advice would be more generally to stop getting offended by the words of others and either challenge their views or ignore them. I like to discourage screaming and ranting amongst fellow academics as a way of responding to viewpoints :-D

Making a complaint
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Quote From helebon:
Intermitting means the same as intercalating - suspending studies for a period of time but keeping your place as a student, (normally 1 to 2 years) then returning.
I intermitted for two years and the course leader refused to see me when I returned. I requested a meeting by email but the response was 'does not merit a meeting'. Of course, it did merit a meeting, I was off for two years.


That is an incredible response from the course leader. "Does not merit a meeting"? This is why I cannot work with people. My response to that would be pretty blunt to be honest. Did you specifcally ask via email about your obligations on the course including deadlines?

unconscious bias in academia
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Quote From TreeofLife:
Quote From pm133:


Anyway, I am waffling. For grading at university, bias has no place and there are easy ways to prevent it.


For general student work yes, but not for project students or masters students when you know whose work you are marking because you know the project.


Yes of course, I forgot about those scenarios.