You Got a Job! Or Did You?
(Based on a true story)
Fast forward a few years. It is 6:30 in the morning, and time to go to work. You are excited as you get up and envision the challenges of your new job. After breakfast, you kiss your spouse, your 2-year old son and your infant daughter goodbye as you head out the door. On your way to work, you think about your finances and how you will afford your upcoming family vacation. After the birth of your daughter, your spouse decided to stay home, since the cost of day care for two children was nearly as much as their salary. You are now a one-income family, and you can pay the bills, but there is little left for other expenses. As you pull into the parking lot, you take a deep breath and make a promise to yourself, to work your way up the ladder and secure financial stability for your family.
As soon as you walk into the building, however, you notice that something is wrong. Your colleagues are quiet. You brush your premonition aside as you turn on your computer and see several new emails from your boss. You open the emails, but even before you can read them, your boss walks in and closes the door behind him. "Look", he says, "I am sorry to have to be blunt, but as of today, your position has been eliminated. We are going through a restructuring, and several positions have been terminated, including yours. It is not personal, believe me, it was a decision from higher management. You have until the end of today to pack your belongings. I know you have only been with us for a few months, but you have done good work. I'll be happy to give you a good recommendation. I am truly sorry, I know you have a family, but there was nothing I could do."
This is the true story Leslie, (not his real name), the father of two young children. Fast forward another year. Leslie is now settled into a new job, but the previous 12 months were no picnic. He was laid off in the middle of a terrible job market and there were no positions in the area. In order to pay the bills, he took a temporary position in another state and visited his family on weekends. After six months of a grueling long-distance marriage, he finally received an offer from a company just 30 minutes from his home. What is the lesson from his story? How does one recover from a sudden layoff?
First, remember that there is no shame in being laid off. Companies let go of hundreds or even thousands of employees at once and being laid off does not look bad on your resume. Employers are interested in the skills that you bring to their organization, rather than whether you survived a layoff. Second, you have to keep a current "Rolodex", which today translates primarily to an updated LinkedIn profile. Leslie got his temporary position through one of his professional contacts. The job was not ideal because it was far from his family, but it gave him the opportunity to keep networking and look for a more convenient job.
These temporary long-distance solutions are becoming frequent as companies have waves of layoffs, and bread-winners need to find jobs fast. Another father of three young children found a position half-way across the country from his family after his company declared bankruptcy. Since there were no other employers in the area, he had to move his family to his new location over a 6 month period. Yet another mother of two teens lost her position just a few months before she had to start paying college tuition for her older child. There are thousands of these stories, and it is almost becoming a way of life in certain industries. Complacency is no longer possible. You always need to be ready to leap for new positions. Keep your professional network and resume current, and you will have a world of opportunities at hand.
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
Now Available in Kindle and Softcover!
Snow Day: Blessing or Curse in Disguise?
If you are from the Northeast, you probably have your own repertoire of inside jokes about snow days already, even though it is only January. My favorite, "If it snows anymore, I'll have to shovel it inside my house, because there is no more room to put it." (It did snow another 8 inches.) Another one: "I hope it will be a snow day tomorrow, because it is my birthday." (It was a snow day, with lots of shoveling involved. Careful what you wish for, perhaps?)
In elementary school, snow days were the best. They were an unexpected break from school, a time for sleeping, TV and playing in the snow. If you are in graduate school or have a job, a snow day can be either a blessing or a big inconvenience. I am using the term "snow day" is a relaxed manner, referring to any event that keeps you at home, but that does incapacitate you. Examples would include minor injuries, your children being ill, school closings, and waiting for the plumber to fix your sink. In a fast-paced world where many deadlines are "yesterday" at best, how do keep your progress up in spite of unforeseen "snow days"?
In graduate school you may or may not have strict deadlines. But you will have deadlines once you get close to graduation, and you will certainly have them in your job. One of the most important components of continuous productivity is be able to use "down-time" effectively. If a class or meeting gets cancelled, are you prepared to use that time wisely, or are you more likely to spend that time on Facebook or surfing the net?
Now that I have a job in industry, I always bring my laptop home. Sometimes it is just symbolic, but it gives me reassurance that a snow storm will not prevent me from falling behind on my deadlines (lately that has been quite useful). But, having a laptop at home does not necessarily translate into measurable progress, if one does not know exactly what they need to do. Another habit I picked up in graduate school (when I literally had 3 weeks between my last committee meeting and my defense) was a running to-do list. I had a small spiral notebook with a long list of small tasks that I could do anytime I had a free 5-10 minutes. Examples included proofreading parts of my thesis, submitting paperwork for graduation, and taking care of personal errands. Whenever I had some free time (like waiting for a slow computer to start up, or when I finished something earlier than expected), I had a list to turn to so I could use my time wisely.
Sitting in the comfort of my home in the midst of this furious snowstorm, I glance at my to-do list. Yes, the January newsletter about strategic goal setting is scheduled to go out at the end of the last week this month, and now would be a good time to write it. (Hint: If you have not signed up for my newsletters yet, visit my website www.phdnet.org).
Of course, work is not the only option on snow days (although it feels like it when deadlines loom by.) What do you do when you get stuck at home? Do you try to catch up on work, or do you take this opportunity to play? We would love to hear your stories. Simply click on the orange "Reply" button to share (you need to be logged in to see the "Reply" button). We look forward to your ideas.
Wishing you the best,
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
Now Available in Kindle and Softcover!
Thinking Like Scientists: Clarity is Power
I always smile when kids ask me what scientists do. My answer is usually something like "I do research to find answers to interesting questions." One little girl asked "Do you look for clues to solves puzzles?" Indeed I do, and these simple conversations remind me of the basic scientific method that is taught in high school and even middle school, yet so few scientists actually follow the steps in the right order.
While I was interviewing for graduate schools, a professor gave me the following advice, "Always remember what question you are trying to answer. I cannot tell you how many fifth yea students I meet who do not even know what question they are asking." At the time, I did not understand the depth of this advice, but in hindsight it makes perfect sense. When we start graduate school, we usually shadow an older student or start working independently on a small "starter" project. Our first results will be exciting as we start mapping out our graduate school journey. But, invariably, we will encounter roadblocks. The obstacles could be reseatch-related or personal, but either way they will throw us off track. Most students need to redefine the scope of their dissertatins several times, and it is not suprising that by the fifth years many students lose sight of the actual thesis question (particularly as the question changes wih time).
It is easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind and forget the big picture. So many students get bogged down by troubles with their experiments, computer or advisor that it is not suprising they lose of the overall purpose of their dissertations. Yet, if we stop to think about why we applied to graduate school, and why we were excited about our projects, we might begin to feel a tinge of motivation again, which will set into motion new ideas and creativity. (By the way, these are often common job interview questions: Why decide to pursue a PhD? How did you choose your thesis project? Sometimes practicing answers to these questions can help to make us feel proud of ourselves).
"Clarity is power" is a common inspirational quote from life coaches, and it is just as true in graduate school as it is in the corporate world. The onyl way to achieve your goal (e.g. to finish your thesis), is to know what your goal is (e.g. what question your thesis is trying to answer). If you have spent several years in graduate school and you do not have a clear vision of what your thesis will be about, rest assured that it can take many years for the right question to crystallize. (In my case it was five years). Once it does, however, the data collection part can be quick, lasting anywhere from a few months to 1-2 years. (The latter took only 6 months for me, just a fraction of the time it took to develop methods and a worthwhile research question!).
I was fortunate to see this pehnomenon many times in graduate school, and I was not discouraged by disappointing data. I kept reminding myself that many other students did not see their theses come together until just a few months before their defense. Keep your final goal always inf ront of you, devote time to it everyday, and you will find a way to get there.
Wishing you the best,
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
Now Available in Kindle Edition!
Online Research Tools
Happy New Year and welcome back! Now that the most people are back to work, it is time to start thinking about making progress on that thesis. What better way, than to stay cutting edge with online research tools?
When I was a first year graduate student, the primary way I did research was to highlight interesting references at the end of papers, go to the library, find the journals, and photocopy the articles. (Okay, I know I am dating myself here, but online research tools and journals were really beginning to pick up by my second year). Then, I would read the photocopied papers, circle more promising references, and make another trip to the library.
Fortunately, the flow of research has sped up significantly in the last few years, The wealth of resources available today makes it possible to stay on top of new developments in your field, find exciting job opportunities, and look for novel applications of your research. Many databases (e.g. PubMed, see below) have alert services, so the relevant information can be brought directly to your inbox. If you receive alerts from multiple news sources, you can centralize them through RSS feeds. (If you are not familiar with RSS feeds, go to www.whatisrss.com, and check out Google Reader as well).
Every field has specific databases, so I will just list a few of the free interdisciplinary databases:
Most of us use Google as a search engine, but few people know about all of the other free services offered by this company. Besides categorizing information, it also offers alert services at http://www.google.com/alerts
Here are a few other free tools from Google:
Google Scholar: http:// scholar.google.com indexes articles across an array of disciplines from the world's largest scientific publishers.
Google Patent: http://www.google.com/patents, indexes 7 million patents from the US
Google Government: http://www.google.com/unclesam allows you to search websites from local and federal governments, as well as agencies and news sources.
Google Directory: http://www.google.com/dirhp is a search engine organized by categories such as arts, business, health, and society.
Google News: http://news.google.com. Provides access to 4,500 news sources
Google Reader: An excellent, and free, RSS Reader to help you centralize your news feeds
Google Alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts is a service to alert you to relevant news articles, so you can stay on top of information without having to check multiple sites.
Medline
MEDLINE (pubmed.gov) is compiled by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), and includes abstracts in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and health care. A subset of this database, PubMedCentral, contains free access articles, which you can view without subscriptions. To learn how to set up alerts, view the tutorial: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/viewlet/myncbi/jourup.html
Subscription-based, multidisciplinary databases: (check if your library has them)
Academic Search Premier is the world's largest scholarly, multi-disciplinary database containing full-text articles for nearly 4,700 publications, and abstracts for nearly 8,200 journals.
MasterFILE Premier provides full text articles for more than 2,100 general periodicals in a a broad range of disciplines.
Do you know of online research tools you would like to share with other graduate students? How is your experience with online databases and alert services. We would love to hear from you. Simply click on the orange "reply" button. (You need to be logged in to see the button). Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates." Now Available in Kindle Edition!
WorldCat, the world's largest
Historical Newspapers is a service that allows users to browse The Times and the New York Times via archives to provide access to a complete list of articles.
Web of Science includes five major databases: (1)Science Citation Index (SCI), (2) Social Sciences Citation Index(SSCI), (3) Humanities Citation Index, (4) Index Chemicus, and (5) Current Chemical Reactions. These five databases cover about 8,700 leading journals of science,social sciences, arts, and humanities.
Your professor and librarian will probably know more about specific databases for your field. Also sign up for news service alerts so you can keep an eye out for practical (and possibly profitable) applications of your research!
Wishing you the best,