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Special Feature: Getting Published in Scientific Journals |
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Without good publications, you stand little chance of winning the fellowship, research grant, faculty job, or other scientific prize you're competing for. Link (Science Careers, 06/2007) |
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Mastering Your Ph.D.: Countdown to Your Thesis Defence |
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For a couple of years, you have been doing research, research, and more research. But now the final deadline for your Ph.D. is in sight, and it's time to transfer your research results into a thesis. Where do you even begin? Link (Science Careers, 11/2007) |
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Mastering Your Ph.D.: Better Communication With Your Supervisor |
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Is poor communication with your supervisor getting in the way of your progress in the lab? Perhaps you’ve reached an impasse in your research and can’t see a way through. Or maybe it seems that--from your supervisor’s point of view--nothing you do is good enough. Link (Science Careers, 06/2008) |
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Should I stay or should I go? |
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Gut check time: should you stay in academia, on the bench or even quit science? Do you have a nagging feeling that academic research might not be the place for you? Listening to your intuition and trying your hand at new things could place you in your dream career. Link (Nature Jobs, 12/2006) |
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Internships Offer Ph.D.s Early Leap Into Job Market |
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Work placements can offer Ph.D. students some experience applying their skills in the real world and give them extra credibility and insight when they go on the job market. Link (Science Careers, 12/2007) |
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Mastering Your Ph.D.: Giving a Great Presentation |
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Ask most people what their greatest fear is, and chances are they'll say that speaking in public makes their knees knock and their hands sweat. Lots of people, maybe even you, quake at the thought of talking in front of a roomful of strangers. Now that you're in graduate school, there is no avoiding the inevitable. Link (Science Careers, 10/2006) |
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PhD in Europe: More Than a Long Holiday? |
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When I told my parents I had decided to do a PhD in the Netherlands, they fell silent. After a little while they expressed their worries about my decision to leave Mexico, where I was born and had spent all my life. "Don't you think there are easier ways to go on holidays in Europe?" was my mother's only question. Link (Science Careers, 2004) |
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Why you'd want to pursue a doctoral degree (Ph.D.)? |
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Lots of articles from inside writers, addressing the question why or why not to pursue a PhD. Link (at Helium.com) |
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Home Stretch to Graduation |
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For months, even years, your work has been driven by the anticipation of that magical moment when you realize that your dissertation is ready for submission to your examiners' committee. Link (Science Careers, 04/2008) |
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Mastering Your Ph.D.: Dealing With Difficult Colleagues |
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In an ideal world, your lab would contain only bright, capable people working harmoniously together in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. If this describes your lab, count yourself lucky, because most scientists work in close quarters with at least one person who tries your patience or is difficult to get along with. Link (Science Careers, 01/2008) |
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The Real Science Crisis: Bleak Prospects for Young Researchers |
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Tight budgets, scarce jobs, and stalled reforms push students away from scientific careers. Link (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 09/2007) |
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The Wild World of Doctoral Funding |
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Acceptance into a doctoral program is only the first step in getting a degree; the next pressing issue is how to pay for it. Although many students receive funding from their graduate department or their supervisor's grant, some must find other sources of financial support. Link (Science Careers, 04/2006) |
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Positions Available: No Ph.D. Required? |
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Upon completing college, many science undergraduates who don't want to go on to medical school think only one other option exists: pursuing a Ph.D. A Ph.D, however, is not one-size-fits-all. While personally and financially rewarding in the end, those who choose this path should do so upon serious introspection. Long hours with low pay and dry spells in data are often the norm. Add to this the varied completion time which, depending on the program, ranges from four to eight years. Link (Science Careers, 08/2008) |
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Mastering Your Ph.D.: A Career in Management Consulting |
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Assisting corporate executives with their toughest decisions may not seem the most obvious career move for someone who has just finished or is in the process of finishing a science Ph.D. But many consultancies hire Ph.D.s to join multidisciplinary teams to do exactly that, and new Ph.D.s are often thrilled to work in such a novel and exciting environment, in which facts and analysis play an important role. Link (Science Careers, 05/2008) |
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Straight Talk about Graduate School |
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This is a must-read for potential PhD students. The essential tag-lines are listed below, but be sure to read the full article. Misconception 1: Anyone who starts a graduate degree and does not finish it lives the rest of his or her life permanently embittered, resentful, and with a sense of personal inferiority.
Misconception 2: All academics are smart people, and all smart people are academics.
Misconception 3: Everyone who deserves a Ph.D gets one.
Axiom 1: There are plenty of jackasses with Ph.D's, and plenty of brilliant people without them.
Axiom 2: Most people without graduate degrees live perfectly contented, fulfilling, and successful lives.
Axiom 3: Graduate school is not fair. It does not necessarily reward intelligence, preparation, perseverance, and ambition with the hoped-for degree.
Corollary 2.1: A Ph.D doesn't necessarily make its holder happy.
Tip 1: Before you sign your first graduate school application, decide how much you are willing to give up for your Ph.D.
Tip 2: Always have an escape route from graduate school planned. Link (Webpage Dorothea Salo) |
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