Overview of Jamie_Wizard

Congratulations. Well done!

I do, however, recall blowing up the contents of my savoury rice in the microwave at work recently. I put the sachet in for 3 mins without making the outlet slit to let the steam out. I heard a pop and the inside was rice covered. I had sufficient yield leftover for my lunch.

oh dear.

I don't recall breaking anything, but I once curiously sniffed conc. TFA (Trifluoracetic acid), reasoning that it must be like Salt 'n Vinegar crisps but quite a bit stronger as the 3x F atoms are very electronegative making it a very strong acid - actually it has an acid ionisation constant 34,000 that of Acetic acid, lol. On catching me do this, my supervisor exclaimed "Stupid idiot" as I almost took out all my nasal hair.

Dogged determination and persistence is a great attitude to have. I agree, not using negative labels would be a better way forward.

When I was a PhD student, one of the post-docs, a Belarusian statistician was telling me of his 10 year ordeal through 4 different attempts to start and progress a PhD. It involved Europe, Australia, Nova Scotia in Canada, financial constraints etc...Apart from amusement at all his travel (which he was recounting in detail in a thick Belarusian accent), I was really impressed at his determination and that he completed it. He is talented in his field, I read many of his papers, and it was clear that it wasn't his fault but life circumstances that got in the way.

So, good luck and I wish you all the best.

Congratulations on your new Postdoc. Sorry to hear you had to leave your role in the US. But, as you say, you can go back there in the future, when the timing is better for you. I can empathise with having circumstances, whatever they may be. Life can be a challenge.

The other week at my tennis club, one of our members had a cardiac arrest and I had to administer CPR. He's fine now thankfully, and just the other day I was able to tease him in hospital saying "well, that's one way of getting out of buying your round". So on this occasion we had a good outcome, but it really did make me realise how precious life is and how things can go very differently at pretty much every stage of our lives. All we can do is try our best and hope for the best.

Thank you again for your good wishes :-)

I think I should move to a country like Germany, Switzerland or Austria where day-to-day things seem to be handled more efficiently (and their chocolate is pretty good too :-)

Thanks Tudor! I'm waiting on the paperwork now and so it will hopefully be a positive start to the upcoming new year!

How's things with you and your post-doc?

Thanks Eng, Tudor, you were right. It was just HR being slow and I kept hounding them this morning and it's all sorted.

I don't know why I get myself into such a frenzy of catastrophising, oh dear.

Thanks Tudor.

I called a HR manager at the close of play today, but they manage the second HR team. He did say he would chase it but it is worrying as tomorrow it'll have been 5 working days!

I have an offer for a post-doc subject to references. The new institute has obtained academic/employment references from my previous roles, but also need one from my current role.

HR at my current institute is organised into two teams. Last week, I emailed my team requesting this reference and was told to get the new institute to contact them directly. The HR lady replying to the team email assured me she would handle it and wouldn't give out any confidential information other than my role and employment dates.

It has been a week and the new institute inform me that they haven't received the reference despite contacting them. It appears they are delaying providing this. Given the institute I'm applying to is highly competitive, I worry that this will jeopardise my chances of formalising the job. What can I do in this situation? I've contacted my HR team again this afternoon but still haven't heard back. I also worry this makes me look bad to the new employer :-(

What does one do in this sort of situation?

I agree with Rewt and pm133, it would have been more appropriate to go to your supervisor with a nearly completed, or even completed draft to ask for his opinion, especially since it doesn't involve him directly. In your words: I presented a paper I had started working on to my supervisor looking for feedback such as "do you think these are good questions to begin with?". Also, it is true, being defensive will be an obstacle to your relationship.

I say this because during my PhD, one of the things that I am grateful I gained from my supervisor was developing my paper writing skills -- essentially in my first year I had all the material for an important review paper. I wrote this and then gave him the draft and we discussed not only the results but the narrative. The narrative was important as it led me to develop some final checks to really back-up the results. This wouldn't have worked well had my work not been complete (i.e. final draft) or with such defensiveness on my part. Defensiveness is the opposite to openness to other's suggestions. I had the review paper submitted by the end of my first year and it was accepted in a high profile journal (OK not Nature, but still). He likewise helped me fine tune my later papers too for which I am very grateful.

I appreciated this because my supervisor was trained in hard science (Nuclear Physics) and my background is in Chemistry, although we were both working in Computer Science at the time. I valued his time and insight. It wouldn't be good etiquette to go to him with something half-baked.

I think on one occasion, I too was eager for his opinion on another paper that I was progressing with and he just said OK let me have the final draft when it's ready. I remember thinking to myself "fair play" and just got on with it.

You have an opportunity here, just lose the attitude (no offence) :-)

I was typing when you responded so didn't see your last message.

I'm sure it'll be fine.

I think this sort of thing happens all the time and examiners know this. The involvement of technology adds another layer for something to go wrong.

At worst it could be minor corrections. I agree with Tudor Queen, it would be a good idea to list them and take this list into the Viva. This would reflect well on you if you did this.

You could also try contacting the admin who are communicating with the examiners and ask them if they can forward your list.

Good luck!

What is the university like with respect to your particular chosen field? That's an important question, notwithstanding that there often is bias in terms of valuing ranking, especially as eng says in academic appointments.

In this case, yes, tuition fees are paid. It's rather silly in my opinion, but this is the way it works in most universities. However, the fees for the final year are greatly reduced. For instance, a typical research PhD degree fees can be about 5k/yr (much less than undergraduate), but then it becomes something like 400/yr in the final year 4th year.