Academics Chat Thread

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I believe the old Chat thread has fallen off the front page of this section, and I thought it might be time to reinstate it. I know it's only sporadically useful, but sometimes it's nice, right?

I am a lowly postdoctoral English Lit type. Finished my PhD in 2014, teaching associate for a couple of years, and now part-time while DD is a baby. I'm currently working frantically to get my book manuscript to the publisher by my deadline (October), and also trying to regain enthusiasm for the job market.

Who else is lurking around here?

Ha ha.

This particular student has lost the Amazon rainforest.

Having supervised a few PhD and MSc students I'm beginning to think that the crucial skill of being able to see the wood is somehow missing. How is that to be taught?

Does anyone have any experience of attitudes changing towards you when you reveal you are pregnant?

I'm on a research only contract (STEM). Told my line manager (also the PI on my grant) that I'm pregnant about a month ago. We are at a point in the grant where the workload is being divided and studies are being allocated. I've been given a rubbishy systematic review that isn't in my area ( qualitative! ) and someone else has been given an extra (exciting) role that I was meant to be doing.

I'm so disheartened. General anxiety about having a baby to deal with isn't helping. Water has started pissing in through some walls in my house over the last week. I've had a headache for four days. Dragged myself into my office today for a meeting with a student and they haven't turned up.

I just need a moan. What happened to you at work when you told them you were pregnant? What helped?

I think there was no negative reaction to my announcement. Of course, what happened after a baby turned up is quite different - no one was actively nasty but I was more or less treated as someone not taking work very seriously. Which was fine for a while but I'm a bit sick of it now.

But it sounds like you have a fair bit on your plate! Hope the walls stop leaking soon.

Students not turning up really pisses me off too.

I've put up a few more Dr Jones posts.
Please do share if you like them!

www.facebook.com/drjonessl/

Hi all. I'm struggling with my to do list at the moment. It's so large and the pressure is so high and everyone else is doing so well. I'm jumping from thing to thing and not focusing at all.

I don't have much to offer except sympathy I'm afraid - I feel the same at the moment. Is it worth taking a little extra time now to go through your list and work out priorities, so that you can think about what needs to happen when and avoid the jumping around problem? Have you got a mentor or a friend you can talk through your work schedule with, or is there anything at work which can be done to shift some tasks?

Thank you. It is overwhelming at times but you're right that some is 'important but not urgent' and can be pushed. I've emailed my mentor too and asked to meet up.

No wise words from me either bigkids as I am also struggling. Good call re the mentor and prioritising. I am working now (only this eve) and have to switch off else it is too easy to just do a bit more. It's never enough!

No, it's not. I went in 7-9am this morning and cleared some loose ends from my desk which was good - I had a good day with the children after that as I was stressing a bit less.

Hi all, I'm in the midst of a massively heavy teaching period and got norovirus part-way through! I had to get someone to cover my teaching - only the second time I've ever had to do that (first was during the big snow some 7-8 years ago and I was unable to get in). Felt really bad about it, but so, so so glad DD didn't catch it, as I was alone with her, and if I'd also had to stay home with her for the 48-hr period people would have really thought I was taking the piss.

And I'm looking forward to the teaching to be done, but also aware that all the things I'm not doing these weeks will be 'urgent important' issues as I've put them off as soon as I return, so it won't let up for a while yet. Had to work through the weekend, which is very bad for me - I twice collapsed in the evening unable to walk. Hopefully I can make it through the week without anything horrendously embarrassing like collapsing in front of a lecture-theatre full of students...

Will take a look at your Dr Jones, worst.

Hope you feel better murmur, that sounds awful. Are you really okay to be back?

Oh murmur that does sound awful.

If anyone fancies adding some Staff Meeting Bingo items please do comment on my latest post:

www.facebook.com/drjonessl/posts/551019371899893

(Note that to protect the guilty the final item was not actually said about a junior colleague but about me - whose research our Research Star jolly well knows all about. HoD's flabber was ghasted to give them credit!)

Hi folks, I wanted some advice please.

I completed my PhD in summer from a university in the top 10 ranking. I have 3 journal paper publications and plenty of other experiences inside and outside academia. I've just been offered a post-doc at a university that is around 90 in the ranking. The research project interests me hence why I applied.

I've been getting mixed advice, with some suggesting I should turn it down? Personally I have some personal barriers that others do not have (along the lines of racism/being different), so I am not keen on turning down an opportunity (and plus I wouldn't turn my nose on a lower ranking institution). I suppose my only reservations are that a) I may not make as much professional development as I would like b) it may be harder to get another research post once this has ended at a higher ranking university and c) there may not be opportunities/support to apply for further funding. I'm not sure if any of the above is true to be honest? What would you advise?

Take the post-doc. They are like hens' teeth in the Humanities.

@HouseholdWords Thank you for your advice. I am in the sciences.

Do you think you'll publish from this postdoc/publish more from your PhD while you are in it? Do you think you can work well with your mentor?
In my STEM field you'd be looking at a lectureship after one postdoc though.
And all that really matters TBH is your publication record.

So equivalent of eg PhD from UCL and postdoc at Portsmouth?

I'm sciences. Really, it depends on you tiny field. In ours you would struggle to either come back into top notch research intensive uni or win individual fellowship funding, as my field is dependent really on very expensive equipment that lower ranked unis do not have. Plus our work is phenomenally expensive And generally we are all research only.

But your field may be different. Do people from your proposed new place speak at prestigious conferences? Do they publish in top notch journals? Have any of the recent post docs got a RC fellowship?

Less clear cut, but I gather (from here and elsewhere) that postdocs are still rare enough that you have to think hard about turning something down.

But have your parachutes ready. Non-research intensive universities are just that, although according to REF2014, there are "pockets of excellence." It may be a matter of publishing your way out, though.

And I suppose it depends on how long you can go without a job to pay the rent. I've never had anyone to support me (partner, husband) so I've always had to take whatever jobs have been available (several while doing my PhD in fact).

I've just been offered a post-doc at a university that is around 90 in the ranking.

The university ranking is not necessarily relevant here, though.

Portsmouth was mentioned above as an example of a lowish ranking university - but in certain areas Portsmouth is one of the top places in the country. As pp wrote, this is unlikely to be true in fields that require extremely expensive equipment but it is possible in scientific fields that don't require labs at the university. I believe that Portsmouth is very strong in cosmology, for example.

Yes, that is exactly my point - only the PP can actually decide, as only she knows which field it is.

(I love Portsmouth btw - it was my example of a brilliant place that isn't so strong in some areas 😀)

Thanks everyone.

@bigkidsdidit the answer is probably no. All the people I'll be working with are on lectureships, so not a research intensive place at all.

Journals from my PhD have already been published so that's not really consideration. Tbh it comes down to practicality, as I've been looking for work for about a year now, and haven't had much luck. This one is also a much easier commute than three or four other neighbouring universities, but I suppose how long do you keep trying and applying (and the whole process is so demoralizing)!

Hmmm. If you don't have a job after a year of looking I would say take the bird in the hand!