Overview of ub40 on PostgraduateForum.com

Overview of ub40

Signup date: 28 Jan 2014 at 8:09pm

Last login: 11 Apr 2014 at 1:05pm

Post count: 8

Recent Posts

When to send email to potential postdoc PI?

ub40 8 posts
10 years ago

Call them in the morning or the afternoon, any day of the week. If they are busy, ask them when is a good time to call back. Honestly.

When to send email to potential postdoc PI?

ub40 8 posts
10 years ago

Call them.

How long should I wait after PhD interview until I get a responce?

ub40 8 posts
10 years ago

Don't wait. Just continue going about your life and looking for jobs. Who knows, maybe you will find something better in the meantime and you can tell them to get stuffed when they eventually reply after ten weeks.

All three degrees from SAME uni, BAD or OK??

ub40 8 posts
10 years ago

I have a Bachelor, Master and PhD from three different universities in two different countries. Other people with degrees all from the same department, with lesser qualifications, get jobs ahead of me. They have been in the system in the same university for so long that they know how to play the political game.

No Job 5 months after graduating.

ub40 8 posts
10 years ago

Quote From UKPhDStudent:

Quote From ub40:

Yep. This is it. If you read the terms of most postdoc funding calls in academia, you can only apply for them up to X amount of years after you have finished your PhD. Heaven forbid, you should go work in industry for a couple of years, learn loads of new knowledge and gain work experience. No more research career for you - academia doesn't want people with dirty real world experience.

Dear ub40.

I find your statement "academia doesn't want people with dirty real world experience" quote curious. I would request some elaboration on that conclusion that you have arrived at. Loads of new knowledge and work experience you gain in the industry can better be applied in academics as well. I bet you have never worked in the industry! Forgive me, if I am wrong. I am only human to make mistakes in my judgement.

As far as I have seen at my current university here in the UK, people with blend of experience from industry and academics fare quite good and sometimes even far better. I have seen such people holding positions of responsibility at my institution and they have broad and practical view point towards solving real life problems, if that is what research is about.

Thank You!

I worked at a number of companies in industry before starting a PhD at age 27.

Your university is wise then, that's not the case at my (ex)university. Working in the "real world" doesn't produce papers. They're not going to hire a senior researcher or professor who hasn't been producing papers.

And the typical funding calls for postdocs allow you to apply up to 2-4 years after your PhD has been completed. So if you go work for a company for a few years after your PhD, and then decided to apply for postdoc funding, you no longer qualify. You can always apply for young researcher funding, but you won't get that unless... you've been producing papers.

The situation might be different in the UK, but I doubt it.

No Job 5 months after graduating.

ub40 8 posts
10 years ago

Quote From Fled:
To me, the most cruel caveat about being an aspiring research university professor is that if you step away from academia and go work in the industry (UN, NGO or Consultancy firm in my case) it seems like that's a big no-no and unless you stick it out, being a charity publishing machine until you get lucky, then forget about academia.

Yep. This is it. If you read the terms of most postdoc funding calls in academia, you can only apply for them up to X amount of years after you have finished your PhD. Heaven forbid, you should go work in industry for a couple of years, learn loads of new knowledge and gain work experience. No more research career for you - academia doesn't want people with dirty real world experience.

No Job 5 months after graduating.

ub40 8 posts
10 years ago

Yup, they warned me it would be competitive when I started my PhD, and that only the top 20% proceed to further research at universities. So I took their advice seriously, worked my arse off, published in the top journals in my field, got great teaching evaluations... made sure I was in the top 20% of my PhD peers.

But their advice was bullshit, I just have to have been born in the right country. I was born in a country with a basket case economy that has no money for research.

No Job 5 months after graduating.

ub40 8 posts
10 years ago

I am in the same position, finished in June 2013.

I look around the department I am in, and I have much better credentials than any of the permanent staff did at my age. Yet no job for me.

I came very close to landing a job in Germany, I was at the final two, but they hired the less qualified other person, who happened to be a German. Last I heard it wasn't working out with that person. What do they expect...

Same everywhere in Europe, massive bias towards the professor's former PhD students of the same nationality. I have already lived in five different countries and then you have these inbreds who spend their whole career at the same university, consistently underperforming and getting "taken care of" by their peers. The whole system is totally bent, they can hire whoever they want if the make the job description as ridiculously specific as they possibly can.

Lately I can't even get an interview... with people who had nowhere near the CV I have now when they were my age. Sometimes I feel like I should be interviewing them, and asking them what right they have to their permanent jobs when there are all these unemployed people out there who could do a better job.

I'm wasting my time, seriously.

Part of me loves doing research and teaching, the other part of me doesn't want to work in such a corrupt, nepotist, BS-filled system.