New answers tagged career-path
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Keep yourself open to the odd, interesting, strange, and wonderful opportunities that come your way...and say yes to them. Indeed, seek them out. Even those that appear to be off the "critical path" can be life enriching, life changing, and can be the spark of inspiration that launches the rest of your career.
Find mentors in your field. People who see ...
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I am of the opinion that there are two “personality traits” which are more useful for researchers than “intelligence” (whatever that means to you) or “hard work”. The first is perseverance; the second is decisiveness. One must be willing to endure the ups and downs of research and the PhD life – seeing boring projects to the end, doing the nitty-gritty ...
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Postdoc in math here (I used to be a grad student). I just try to put in 4 hours per day while leaving some time off. That is already a lot when balancing other obligations like self-care. At some point you just have to adopt a sort of fatalistic attitude. Connections matter a lot and working on topics that appeal to potential employers matters a lot. I ...
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Is success due to hard work sustainable in academic research?
Yes. In fact, it's the only kind of success that is sustainable for any difficult activity.
It's not necessary to work 10 hours per day. Most people who think they are working very long hours are not working efficiently. Figure out the hours that are most efficient and stick to that.
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I can't say whether 10-12 hours per day is right for you, but caution you to consider your health. If it suffers, then everything will suffer.
But "intelligence" alone is overrated. The path to Intelligence, actually, runs through Hard Work.
I once got the results of an IQ test (I hope they don't do this any more). The printed results said that I was a ...
3
Well, any public speaking helps you develop your lecturing skills. Thankfully, as a PhD student, you will usually have more than enough chances to train this specific skill - though teaching, but also through giving research talks, speaking at seminars, and possibly at public events. Additional speaking experience outside of a university setting may of ...
2
Yes and no. It could even be a terrible hindrance
Personally it will help you develop communication skills and give you experience reading the public and to modulate your voice. BUT it could hinder your career and damage your reputation.
As @GrotesqueSI mentioned, mentioning that sort of experience would, at best, not be relevant. But at worst it would be ...
4
I don't think that a generic answer would be valid for every European continental country as University careers are already quite different from country to country.
As you are mentioning CSIC I am going to focus in Spain.
Short answer: Making your career at CSIC or any other Spanish research institution means that you have the opportunity of focusing on ...
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What are the key differences between...research at a university and...research at a...research institution?
At a university, researchers may have teaching duties (as in the OP's case), whereas researchers may not have such duties at a research institute (albeit, institutes may vary), hence, a research institution (without teaching) provides a more focused ...
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Would preaching at a church help you to become a better lecturer? Almost certainly, as would any similar experience. During the later stages of my PhD I worked in a very popular small museum giving tours and answering questions from the public. I always tell my students that it was the best way for me to hone my speaking abilities: I really learned how to ...
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Beware of the "Sunk Cost Fallacy."
Individuals commit the sunk cost fallacy when they continue a behavior
or endeavor as a result of previously invested resources.
https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/resources/mini-encyclopedia-of-be/sunk-cost-fallacy/
My Story
I was pursuing a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology and had completed the coursework, but still ...
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As good as the current answers are, they miss something, which is natural.
Are you able to pivot your thesis into an area you are interested in? It doesn't have to be a large move, just enough for it to be more interesting. My mom got a Masters in Art History (not the same as a PhD, I know), and she wrote a paper not on the "classics", but rather historical ...
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The other answers already provide you with excellent advice, I'll just add a couple points along the same lines:
You're not alone: it's very common to feel depressed towards the end of the PhD. Talk to fellow PhD students if you can, you'll be surprised to discover that even among the ones who seem to be doing very well many go through this. This can help ...
5
I am very sorry that you are going through this.
It is a very disheartening and difficult time for you. I am not trying to minimize your agony, but I think you should take the time and celebrate how much and how far you have done. You have a few publications, that is brilliant work. You are only a year away from completion and it sounds like you just need ...
3
I haven’t completed a PhD, but every single person I’ve spoken to who has, reports feeling the exact same way you do, and it is often the case that you will continue to feel like your thesis is subpar until the moment you are completely done with it. This is the nature of large projects; they suck until they don’t, and most times you just have to stick it ...
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Your mental health is the most important factor in this equation. PhD's are hard, and demotivating, and exhausting. But the best PhD is a completed PhD! It sounds like you've got everything you need to finish, you just need to full together the threads that make up a thesis.
Often people get most of the way through a PhD and have not taken a holiday in ...
2
I am an American who did a PhD in the UK where they are very short. My colleagues in America who did a similar, biomedical engineering type PhD often took seven years whereas I was in and out in less than 4.
My experience was that the UK system has somewhat adapted to this and a one or two year post-doc in the UK, in the same department you graduated from ...
2
The purpose of a PhD is to advance scholarship through the production of original research, usually embodied in a thesis. Every PhD research project is unique, and some take longer than others, especially if the researcher needs to acquire new skills for the project. Ultimately, achievement is measured according to the thesis itself, as well as other outputs ...
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It is relevant, but only to second order. Your degree is your degree, what matters in academia is your publications, what matters in industry is your skills.
Say you want to go further in academia. You will be judged primarily on the amount and quality of your publications. Clearly, if you did a 4-5 year PhD, you would have more time for research, and in my ...
2
Disclaimer: I am not in a PhD program, but my wife is and she has brought this issue up before. I can only speak from what she's told me and from what I heard from my advisor when I was in my Master's program. (We are from the U.S.)
There doesn't appear to be any hard and fast rule that shorter PhDs are worse, other than maybe less time to publish works and ...
4
I suspect that the intent of the question is to have you explain things that you did completely unrelated to your career and to your field. As such, the things you describe don't seem to qualify. I don't think they are necessarily asking about breaks in your academic progress (time between degrees), but they might be interested in that.
But the sorts of ...
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No, it should be valued equally through all the countries, especially in the Europe.In 1999 in Bologna the Ministers of Education of 29 have signed an act for European Higher Education Area. The main keys of it:
European students and graduates would be able to move easily from one country to another with full recognition of qualifications and periods of ...
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As far as I have ever seen, the length of your PhD program is irrelevant as far as considerations of future employers, etc. People (in academia) will mostly look at your publications, and possibly reference letters and reputation of your supervisor(s)/university. In particular, in all cases I know of seniority/age limits for grants count from date that your ...
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I used to work in academic publishing. In the following answer, job titles are very variable; the word "editor" can mean one of a multitude of jobs.
Q1. What kind of full-time career paths can be envisaged in the publishing industry?
At the bottom tier there's the proofreader. You read the paper and make sure everything is in the right format, e.g. ...
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I'm a former academic publisher, and assume you're looking to join an academic publisher full-time. Do note that absent a very few elite journals like Nature and Physical Review Letters, you are not likely to be handling only journals (or be directly involved in choosing the papers to publish). You will also be doing books.
How many years' experience (...
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I would say that it is unlikely that you will. The reason is that even for graduates/PhD's of well known institutes like the University of Toronto, it is very hard to get an academic position in Canada. Therefore, if you come from a not well known institute, and you have not published in the top places in your field, and you have no strong connections to the ...
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Via @mkennedy in a comment:
Nontenured, approximately assistant professor in the US system.
Expands out to Akademischer Oberrat.
See: Academic ranks in Germany
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