For three hours a week, I work in the Careers Service. I provide feedback on CVs and application advise to students in one-to-one sessions. Fun. I'm telling you this because sometimes there isn't anyone booked in for a session and I'm left to browse the resources of the Careers Service....
Last time I did this I stumbled upon a book titled: How to get a PhD. WIN! I thought to myself. I'm being paid to find out how to get that Dr. before my very own Ainsworth! I then stumbled across the following chapter:
How to survive in a predominantly British, White, Male, Full-Time, Heterosexual, Academic Environment.
This sounds like something worth at least a scan through so I settled down in my student free moment to have a read ... really wish I hadn't. I photocopied one particular section because I was baffled by what I read...have a see what you think for yourselves:
"Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans-gender Students
Increasingly, gay and lesbian people wish to be frank with their friends and colleagues but this honesty opens up greater possibilities for discrimination. Gay or lesbian students who come out may find that their supervisors are nonplussed or antagonistic and this will complicate the relationship. Alternatively, if they remain silent but are subsequently outed they can become targets for harassment. They thus have a risky decision to make.
One way to avoid these problems is to ensure that you keep your emotional life and your professional life apart as far as possible, especially so far as members of academic staff are concerned. You might also try to discover some others in a similar situation for mutual support, and, if necessary, get together to influence your university to take these issues seriously. Don't forget that the student union is there to help all students and that includes you."
What the chuff were they thinking?????
So this book was first published in 1987 (and like any good academic I will provide the reference at the end of my rant!) but the edition that I was reading was a 2010 5th Edition....didn't anyone, anywhere along the publication line think that this was on the offensive side of things and in fact should be updated or, in fact, removed altogether? Seriously?!
I'll stop my little rant there, as my blood starts to boil.
Ciao for now :)
*horrific reference as promised: How to get a PhD: a handbook for students and their supervisors. Estelle Phillips & Derik Pugh, Open University Press
Monday, 23 January 2012
Monday, 16 January 2012
Merry Mondays
Yet another Monday has turned up in the diary, interupting those relaxing couple of days off I was having and dragging me back into the office to get on with the thesis. Like many others, I cursed my alarm this morning and begrudgingly got out of bed and ready for the office. But are Mondays really all that bad?
I'd have to say no.
Without the structure of a working week, which happens to kick off with Monday, there would be no real sense of when I should really be doing some work. I wouldn't have that guilty feeling that I should be at my desk, and there would be one more hurdle for my motivation to overcome. Monday's are also a nice reminder that I'm not the only one working and crucially, there are times in my week when it's ok to not be working. I can close the documents, turn off the computer, and walk away from the desk and think about something else altogether during out of office hours and when the working week is over. Just, nobody tell my supervisor!!
As the months tick by, the concept of a working-week will become alien to me through sheer necessity and in its place will be an ugly, 24/7, caffeine fuelled marathon to the submission deadline. This is going to be awful and I'm scared of it already.
But until then, I think it's nice to feel the same dread towards a Monday morning like the rest of the world, a sense of normality. Besides, where would that Friday Feeling be without a Moody Monday to balance it out?
Ciao for now!
I'd have to say no.
Without the structure of a working week, which happens to kick off with Monday, there would be no real sense of when I should really be doing some work. I wouldn't have that guilty feeling that I should be at my desk, and there would be one more hurdle for my motivation to overcome. Monday's are also a nice reminder that I'm not the only one working and crucially, there are times in my week when it's ok to not be working. I can close the documents, turn off the computer, and walk away from the desk and think about something else altogether during out of office hours and when the working week is over. Just, nobody tell my supervisor!!
As the months tick by, the concept of a working-week will become alien to me through sheer necessity and in its place will be an ugly, 24/7, caffeine fuelled marathon to the submission deadline. This is going to be awful and I'm scared of it already.
But until then, I think it's nice to feel the same dread towards a Monday morning like the rest of the world, a sense of normality. Besides, where would that Friday Feeling be without a Moody Monday to balance it out?
Ciao for now!
Friday, 13 January 2012
PhD: Procrastination Helps Degree...Honest!
It's just typical. No-one ever pops into the office when I'm head down in a journal article or wading my way through a sticky statistical analysis or trying to write a chapter.
The only time someone does appear unannounced is during those precious few minutes when I've allowed myself to catch up on the latest Facebook posts or I'm watching the latest, hilarious, You Tube clip (usually sent to me by a fellow PhD!).
The more you protest that you're just taking a short break, the less they believe you and they leave the office with the firm belief that you're a slacker who's never going to complete their thesis on time.
Typical.
In my defence, I find a quick browse of Facebook is crucial to keeping me vaguely productive throughout the day when I have no immediate deadline on the horizon. At the moment, any deadline is set by me and I can choose to move it/ignore it/laugh at it. Granted, I have a lot of work to do, and shoud really crack on with it, but those few minutes distraction allow me a moment to relax, after which I can refocus and start another burst of activity. It's necessary. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or not trying to write a thesis.
So, yes, if you decide to pop by my office I am probably going to be caught minimising Facebook with a guilty look on my face. Judge me all you wish but it's all part of the process of Becoming Dr Ainsworth!
Ciao for now!
The only time someone does appear unannounced is during those precious few minutes when I've allowed myself to catch up on the latest Facebook posts or I'm watching the latest, hilarious, You Tube clip (usually sent to me by a fellow PhD!).
The more you protest that you're just taking a short break, the less they believe you and they leave the office with the firm belief that you're a slacker who's never going to complete their thesis on time.
Typical.
In my defence, I find a quick browse of Facebook is crucial to keeping me vaguely productive throughout the day when I have no immediate deadline on the horizon. At the moment, any deadline is set by me and I can choose to move it/ignore it/laugh at it. Granted, I have a lot of work to do, and shoud really crack on with it, but those few minutes distraction allow me a moment to relax, after which I can refocus and start another burst of activity. It's necessary. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or not trying to write a thesis.
So, yes, if you decide to pop by my office I am probably going to be caught minimising Facebook with a guilty look on my face. Judge me all you wish but it's all part of the process of Becoming Dr Ainsworth!
Ciao for now!
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Walking the Line Between Being Inspired, Demoralised and Bored
Postgraduate training courses can be simply categorised on the basis of four either/or questions. The answers to these questions allow any PhD student to determine A) whether a particular course is going to be of any use or just a collassal waste of time, and B) What mood you will arrive back at your desk in when it's over.
The upshot of "those" kinds of training course? You feel positively chipper about your career prospects, everything they said was so painfully obvious that you feel assured that you're ready for life in the real world. You can rush back to your desk or the lab, get on with your thesis and forget about it for a few more years. Hooray!!! You haven't learnt anything but you feel great about it!!!
Then we come to the flip side of the training coin.... If a course is A) provided by the department, B) specific and/or technical, C) focussed on progressing your academic career, and, D) voluntary then you're in for a whole different experience. It's 'in-house' so you're likely to know everyone, there'll be some jokes, a few laughs, someone might even bring cake! A friendly face from the lecturing staff will impart great wisdom to you and you'll lap up every word, making notes and reflecting on what they're saying. The course will end, you'll pause for a moment, thinking to yourself what a really valuable use of your time that was and then....
BAM!
I had one of these moments today. An Introduction to Academic Writing. Completely Voluntary. In the department. Really detailed, really useful advice. I was just pondering how much I'd gotten from those 2 hours and then BAM! I started to realise that the really useful system she talked about was far superior to what I've been doing. I realised just how much work I'd been making for myself and now how much work was going to be required to fix the mess I'd made of my chapters. I haven't even started an academic paper yet and you're telling me I need to publish before my viva....BAM BAM BAM BAM one after the other. Then you realise your brain is oozing our your ears and you don't want to be back at your desk, but in a dark room, with a duvet, a jar of nutella and a spoon...
Forewarned is forearmed. The compulsory University level courses are unavoidable, but go prepared with a good amount of doodle material or a few academic papers to read on the sly. If you're brave enough to sign up to a voluntary 'in-house' course....have a large bar of chocolate ready and waiting on your desk when you get back!
Ciao for now!
- Is the course provided at University level or by your own Department?
- Is the course topic referring to general life skills or specific/technical skills?
- Is the course trying to make you employable anywhere or improve your chance of an academic career?
- Is the course compulsory or voluntary?
The upshot of "those" kinds of training course? You feel positively chipper about your career prospects, everything they said was so painfully obvious that you feel assured that you're ready for life in the real world. You can rush back to your desk or the lab, get on with your thesis and forget about it for a few more years. Hooray!!! You haven't learnt anything but you feel great about it!!!
Then we come to the flip side of the training coin.... If a course is A) provided by the department, B) specific and/or technical, C) focussed on progressing your academic career, and, D) voluntary then you're in for a whole different experience. It's 'in-house' so you're likely to know everyone, there'll be some jokes, a few laughs, someone might even bring cake! A friendly face from the lecturing staff will impart great wisdom to you and you'll lap up every word, making notes and reflecting on what they're saying. The course will end, you'll pause for a moment, thinking to yourself what a really valuable use of your time that was and then....
BAM!
I had one of these moments today. An Introduction to Academic Writing. Completely Voluntary. In the department. Really detailed, really useful advice. I was just pondering how much I'd gotten from those 2 hours and then BAM! I started to realise that the really useful system she talked about was far superior to what I've been doing. I realised just how much work I'd been making for myself and now how much work was going to be required to fix the mess I'd made of my chapters. I haven't even started an academic paper yet and you're telling me I need to publish before my viva....BAM BAM BAM BAM one after the other. Then you realise your brain is oozing our your ears and you don't want to be back at your desk, but in a dark room, with a duvet, a jar of nutella and a spoon...
Forewarned is forearmed. The compulsory University level courses are unavoidable, but go prepared with a good amount of doodle material or a few academic papers to read on the sly. If you're brave enough to sign up to a voluntary 'in-house' course....have a large bar of chocolate ready and waiting on your desk when you get back!
Ciao for now!
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Thesis Antidote
Hello World!
It crossed my mind this morning that having a 100,000 word book and a few academic papers to churn out before that rapidly approaching final deadline just might not be enough...and hey presto - a blog was born! I thought that a cheeky wee blog on the side might be a nice cathartic way to rant about the joys and sorrows of being a PhD student, giving my endlessly supportive friends and family time off for good behaviour.
Those close to me have shouldered the burden of my enthusiasm/disappointment/stress/ambivelance (delete as appropriate several times a day) for the fifteen months since I signed my soul away, committing myself to produce a doctoral thesis in three short years! Yikes!
As I make a good start into my second year (yep...reaching the halfway mark now) I find it hard to describe what kind of rollercoaster ride this experience is. From the highs of giving your first international conference presentation, to the lows of no-show participants, a lack of a significant result, hours spent transcribing and coding and any number of obstacles and frustrations that set you back along the way.
Why do I do it, you may ask? Well...as it says on the tin...it's all about Becoming Dr Ainsworth (and a few other more fulfilling and important reasons along the way!).
I won't bore you with the details of what I'm actually studying - maybe another post - but for now I'd just like to say thank you for reading (even if I'm the only one that reads this!)
Ciao for now!
It crossed my mind this morning that having a 100,000 word book and a few academic papers to churn out before that rapidly approaching final deadline just might not be enough...and hey presto - a blog was born! I thought that a cheeky wee blog on the side might be a nice cathartic way to rant about the joys and sorrows of being a PhD student, giving my endlessly supportive friends and family time off for good behaviour.
Those close to me have shouldered the burden of my enthusiasm/disappointment/stress/ambivelance (delete as appropriate several times a day) for the fifteen months since I signed my soul away, committing myself to produce a doctoral thesis in three short years! Yikes!
As I make a good start into my second year (yep...reaching the halfway mark now) I find it hard to describe what kind of rollercoaster ride this experience is. From the highs of giving your first international conference presentation, to the lows of no-show participants, a lack of a significant result, hours spent transcribing and coding and any number of obstacles and frustrations that set you back along the way.
Why do I do it, you may ask? Well...as it says on the tin...it's all about Becoming Dr Ainsworth (and a few other more fulfilling and important reasons along the way!).
I won't bore you with the details of what I'm actually studying - maybe another post - but for now I'd just like to say thank you for reading (even if I'm the only one that reads this!)
Ciao for now!
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