Overview of pm133 on PostgraduateForum.com

Overview of pm133

Signup date: 08 Jan 2016 at 12:02am

Last login: 30 Mar 2021 at 8:40pm

Post count: 1246

Recent Posts

What is the difference between MSc in Management and Masters in Engineering Management?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From ShantanuJ:
I am a Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering Graduate. I want to do a post-graduate with a degree that would minorly support my science background and majorly expose me to the management field.

I have been reading over the internet and found 2 courses that I thought would be perfect.
1. Masters of Science (MSc) in Management and
2. Masters in Engineering Management.

Although I am inclined to believe that both the courses are the same. Just the name is varying with country.
In Canada it is known as MSc in Management and in Australia it is known as Masters in Engineering Management. But still, I need to be absolutely sure.

Could anyone tell me if these both courses are different or the same in their subjects and teachings?

Contact the university and ask them for curriculum details for both.

TA woes

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From Tudor_Queen:
Does anyone else find it challenging delivering tutorials that someone else has prepared? Especially when there are seemingly objective questions with (presumably) right/wrong answers and you can't be sure about them in the same way as if you'd come up with them yourself. Or maybe it's just me. On the plus side, it is great not to have to spend time preparing them. But I seem to spend more time preparing for them than if I were actually being paid for preparing and doing it from scratch!

I like to use their answers, which they submit to me two days earlier and produce a set of tutorial question or discussion points based on their shortcomings. I don't step through entire questions which they have already demonstrated they can do and have full worked solutions for as that would be wasting my time and theirs. So ultimately I end up designing my own tutorials. Of course it's up to me to be certain I have a good background in the tutorial subject matter.

Post-Phd... No post! Advice appreciated

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

I would be absolutely astonished if anyone was able to secure a full time permanent academic position straight after a PhD without a postdoc track record.
You will be up against hundreds of candidates for each post and all of them will probably have a PhD, several years of postdoc and the successful ones probably have a track record of securing funding themselves.

Getting to grips with conferences/papers/call for papers!

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

To be honest I am a bit confused about what you are talking about here. I may be misreading but you appear to be confusing "paper" with "journal" sometimes and I don't know what you mean by "venue" either.

Can you clarify? Do you have a paper which you want to submit somewhere?

I am really anxious

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

I am not too sure what relevance publishing from your Masters is.
I would forget all about that and focus purely on your PhD.
I would have thought it highly unlikely that PhD students are working on lab stuff as a pair.
They are presumably working on their own stuff.
You should, in my opinion, want it that way.
A PhD is a lonely pursuit.

A more interesting PhD has come along

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From Meniscus:
Hi there,

I posted on here some time back to gather opinions on whether a PhD would be right for me (http://www.postgraduateforum.com/thread-47384/). Thanks again to those who helped me out.

I was formerly a member of university staff and had been encouraged to pursue a PhD for some time. Against my better judgement (and the consensus in the thread) I accepted, and am coming to the end of month four. Still early days but it’s not been too bad on the whole; I’m not enjoying having to jump through the hoops put in place by the PhD system and the project isn’t entirely up my street, but I seem to have the freedom to take it in a direction that could better suit my skills and interests. I’m worried I’m already losing touch with it by being distracted by the (more interesting) projects that I was involved with previously, but I knew what I was signing up for.

However, I have a shiny new dilemma – a PhD has come along that is much more interesting. While I eventually accepted my current PhD after a bit of persuasion and a lot of soul searching, had this one been on offer I would have accepted in a heartbeat. It’s a topic that plays to my strengths and, more importantly, I am passionate about. I’m not exaggerating when I say the passion has been lifelong – in fact, (and I’m not making this up) the project title is almost word for word what an eight year old me replied when asked what I wanted to do when I grow up!

Conveniently, the project has been proposed by my current supervisor. Rather less conveniently, there’s someone lined up for it. I know the only course of action is to talk things through with my supervisor, but the fact that he’s already earmarked someone makes it difficult to broach. Anyone been in a similar position or have any thoughts on how to approach it?

Thanks :-)

This is easy. Talk to your supervisor and ask if it would be possible to transfer.

Should I do a PhD?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

I can't agree that a PhD is a hindrance in the job market.
Neither is the comment from Dunham about age correct.
And I say that as someone who has spent many years in industry, recruitment and running my own business before taking on this PhD.
As AOE26 states, employers look for experience and attitude more than qualifications though.
In the software industry for example a PhD might provide easier access to research software jobs.
Companies like IBM still routinely hire PhD qualified people for the most exciting blue sky work and they are not alone.

One semester into a PhD and offered a job

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

I agree with tru. I think you already know what feels like the best option for you.
In my opinion this is not an incredibly difficult situation at all but in fact a very easy one to make.
You just need to actually go ahead with the decision you probably have already made.
My advice here would be to care less about what people think of your decision. This is your life. Let those affected by your decision work out for themselves how to deal with it.

How does one become more efficient?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From Tudor_Queen:
Beginning to think how the heck am I gonna get all this done (and that is without the writing up)!

Any tips from those who came to this spot before me and made it through?

When I had this problem I made a realistic list of what I expected to be enough to get a PhD and then broke it down into manageable tasks.
For me it helped to stop putting the PhD on a pedestal and to focus on doing enough to feel I had earned the award. I stopped worrying about how many papers I was producing and focussed on the one specific thing I wanted to resolve. Once I had done that, it was a simple case of writing the thesis. For that I broke the thesis in chapters, sub chapters and a range of headings and then started to write stuff in each block. As I finished one block I ticked off the item on the contents page in bright yellow marker so I could see visually that I was getting closer and closer to completion. I stopped setting time deadlines and instead focussed on delivering tasks one at a time. It helped hugely that I had papers already published and that I had started the theory chapter 12 months before the end of my PhD.
I submitted the complete thesis to my supervisor this week after 3.5 months of work and I will apparently be getting his feedback on Monday or Tuesday. I honestly don't think I could have worked on this thesis for much more than I did before it broke me mentally which is why I deliberately started writing up last year on the weekends at home.
If you can start the theory stuff now I would strongly urge you to start writing that up now.
You will be thankful for it at writeup time.

How blunt should you be with your supervisor?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From MaxS:

Quote From pm133:
I will back out from giving further advice on this

... and then proceeds to give more advice ;)

It wasnt advice. It was an opinion. Thats my line of defence ;-)

Sick of 2.2 haunting me. Please read and help me understand what I have to do!

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From csonm:
I am 32 years old. And that's all I seem to think of these days when I think of making a PhD application. Here's the deal.

I graduated with a 2.2 in Biomedical Sciences (but actually it is a 2.1, because I simply had to resit for 1 class out of 3 years because of personal circumstances and no matter what my grade is for that class, they just put the lowest passing grade of 40 there, which actually made all the difference between a 2.1 and 2.2- what a ridiculous educational system is it that no matter what grade you get it has to be 40 because you resit). Anyway, with this 2.2, certainly I could not apply for a PhD so I did an MSc. But I was so smart, that I just did an MSc. by research instead of a taught MSc., and there was no course requirement, just a year of research. Therefore, despite it was no problem for me to finish this MSc. at all, still I have no grades to show so everything goes back to undergraduate grades. Of course, I didn't stop there, I have acquired some research experience but sadly only one second author publication that is under review for Nature communications (and frankly i lost hope as it has been under review for 1 year now).

Still, it is my damn undergraduate grades I have to upload every time I send a PhD application and I have no more grades to show. It is simply disgusting that despite I have great references from a Professor and 2 post-docs in a top research institute in the world, I still can't get a PhD position. I once remember someone said a 2.2 and an MSc. is equivalent to a 2.1. Is that right? And what on earth does one have to do to get a PhD position? I really need some advice here guys because I am losing it.

I think the reason you got the 40% is because you had to resit the exam. Otherwise it would be unfair on your colleagues who passed it first time if you beat their score having had two opportunities to do so. So its a 2:2. Not sure why you are talking about a 2:1 under these circumstances.
The fact that you appear to be afraid of rejection and as a direct result have applied to very few PhD posts is a serious red flag. Having resilience is a core component of a successful PhD and you appear to have some issues there unless I have misunderstood. You need to really think hard about whether you are suited to a PhD in the first place.

How blunt should you be with your supervisor?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Blimey. I think that after being accused of being psychotic, angry, vitriolic and threatening I will back out from giving further advice on this. hollis, you have been given a range of advice. Personally I think your poor attitude is the root of your problems and until you sort that out nothing is likely to improve. I dont think you came on here for advice, you came on to gain validation for your rage. Good luck with moving forwards in any case.

plagiarism clarification

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

I have just been through this myself.
I just rephrased the text of all of my published work and asked for permission from the journal for diagrams I have used. I did not copy blocks of text because I want to avoid any hassle whatsoever.

How blunt should you be with your supervisor?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

One can also be honest without needlessly and deliberately sabotaging a colleague..

MREs or MSc??

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From Lea509:
Hi everyone. I'm having trouble deciding between two universities. I've gotten offers to one MSc and one MREs. At this time I'm unsure if I want to do a PhD in the future so does doing the MREs put me at a disadvantage for non-research careers? The MSc uni is very good but the MREs one is a top 5 uni, so it's making my decision very hard! I don't want to be stuck in research if I choose the MREs but I also don't want to pass up the opportunity to go to such a great uni.
So I guess I'm really asking if I could get the same non-PhD jobs with both?
(PS the degree is in wildlife conservation)

I would add that it is unlikely the name of your university will make much difference to your job hunting prospects.
Most companies dont seem to care too much about that sort of thing and rightly so.