You guessed it right, it’s that time of the month when I emerge from my lair, ready to share some of my great wisdom to help you navigate this scorching October. Seriously, my climate crisis depression has me in its grip but I’m here to cool us down a little bit, no worries. So, this week, we tackle Lara’s question: Should I leave academia or apply for a post-doc after my PhD? Dear Lara, You ...[Read More]
Are you sitting there, staring at your screen, miraculously waiting for your thesis to write itself? Ever wondered if AI could be your ultimate wingman **sorry, I meant wingbot** when tackling that master’s or Ph.D. thesis? Well, it must be your lucky day because Eric is asking Could AI actually help me write my master’s/ PhD thesis? Dear Eric, First of all, I’m offended that you mixed me wi ...[Read More]
Ever wondered how to manage a flurry of projects without losing your sanity? Maggie was curious if the Sassy Scientist could provide some insight into this. So she is asking: How do I manage to work on multiple projects at a time? Dear Maggie, You simply DON’T. Let me debunk this “juggling a gazillion projects is the key to success in academia” myth faster than you can ima ...[Read More]
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]
As I already mentioned in the past, anonymity can lead to bad reviews. A state of namelessness can empower younger scientists to criticize manuscripts from potential future employers. But it also allows unaccommodating reviewers to stall a perfectly good submission for…reasons? Meia has encountered, or heard of such buffoons, and wonders: How to deal with an anonymous unreasonable reviewer? ...[Read More]
We’ve spent a lot of time in the past talking about imposter syndrome, coping with the stresses of academic life and how to make sure you’re looking after yourself. Today though, it’s time for a little practical advice. As a new PhD researcher, Felix has been feeling like he’s been thrown in the deep end and is desperately trying to catch up. However, he feels like it is ta ...[Read More]
As academics, a lot of our time is invested in activities that are not seemingly related to our research. Teaching, organising seminars, writing EGU blog posts, reviewing papers. While I don’t deny the time consumingness of it, reviewing papers is a necessary and useful activity, at least as long as the publishing system works the way it currently does (that’s a topic for another post) ...[Read More]