Ruggero has travelled a tough PhD journey. Foraging for his last bits of energy to continue onward on the treacherous odyssey of academia, he murmurs: How can I (re)gain some confidence after it has been shattered during my PhD? Dear Ruggero, Ciao bello. Does that help? Never mind. Just kidding. I cannot imagine how badly …[Read More]
There are no stupid questions. How many times have we heard that from colleagues and in classrooms? Obviously an exceedingly sizeable chunk of our community does not receive stupid questions often enough. Even silly questions have their merits though, and obviously they deserve an answer, at least to avoid them being asked in the future. …[Read More]
Angela is one to stress out just a wee bit every time a conference is right around the corner. It’s almost like she consistently doesn’t prepare in time. Ever so slightly concerned, her office mate asks: How last minute is too last minute when preparing for a conference? Dear Angela, Just take a breather and …[Read More]
`Segmentation fault’. One of the most annoying things ever to appear on our screens. Right up there with `fftw.h not found’. Compilation errors are the (rock-hard) bread and (rancid) butter of any of us that need to debug write codes. Tahina is deeply down the rabbit hole and asks: Why does my code not compile? …[Read More]
Enzo submitted his manuscript for review at one of those well-known, Earth science-niche journals. However, shortly thereafter he received an email by his editor that it was rejected. Reason being that not enough research was added in the manuscript. Furious, he bellows: When is my research open enough to be published? Dear Enzo, I know, …[Read More]
To leave or not to leave (academia)? If I had a penny for every time I heard the various declinations of this question…I would have left academia. Gisele has thoughts about a specific aspect of this topic and joins the choir: How do you leave academia without feeling like a failure? Dear Gisele, You cannot. …[Read More]
We are all underpaid and underappreciated. That is almost the dictionary definition of academic jobs. We bounce from one barely acceptable contract to the next, hoping to finally land a tenure-track position that allows us to swim in money like Scrooge McDuck. But before that, science itself should be its own reward and sustenance. Sometimes …[Read More]
Mabi has seen a smattering of presentations at conferences. Some of those had the annotation “invited talk”. She wonders: How do you get invited to give a talk? Dear Mabi, Easy: get noticed. I don’t just mean that you should write a stellar paper. There might just be a chance that people miss it. Out …[Read More]
Abasi really is in the final stretches of his PhD voyage. It’s time to pick the external member of his panel. This role is always a wild card: it could make your viva experience either a 1-hour short ego booster, or a 5-hours long living hell of questioning. He ponders: Who to choose as your …[Read More]
Onnem is a big fan of a certain movie franchise about intergalactic space travel, heroism and self-development (with scenes that are depicted not very close by, and which did not occur recently *wink *wink). He smirks: Is there a dark side to obtaining a PhD? Dear Onnem, I think you’ve been spacing out a little …[Read More]
