Navigating the challenge of making new friends in a new place -well, thanks to academia…- can be as complex as decoding the Earth’s geological history. This time Bob is demanding our knowledge for: New academic job. New town. New life. It was fairly easy to make friends when I was young but how do I make friends as an adult? Dear Bob, Bob. Bob. Oh, Bob… Thanks for interrupting m ...[Read More]
Well, well, well, what do we have in here? Is that another fellow geoscientist going after a fund? Yes, seems like it. First of all good luck mate, a tough journey is ahead of you. I hope you have a lucky item with you to keep you alive during this period. So this time we have Boris asking: How do I secure funding? Dear Boris, Now, let’s get real. Securing funding for your research is like f ...[Read More]
Who doesn’t want to make themselves more at home at the office? We spend a lot of time there and there is nothing wrong in making it more homey for ourselves. But you wouldn’t want your colleagues to make themselves too much at home at the office. My office mates wouldn’t want me to keep my pet tarantula at the office. That’s why I had a sweet and short answer to Bob’ ...[Read More]
The amount of work required to apply for grants and jobs in academia seems unnecessarily endless. Both for permanent and (even worse) short-term positions one needs to prepare a bunch of hogwash that really makes you wonder: does anybody have the time to actually read this? Out in the real world, a CV and a cover letter are quite enough most of the times, but in academia? Nope! Let’s have ev ...[Read More]
