Tag: career

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When you’re worried about today’s experiments and tomorrow’s time points, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s really important for your career and your life.  Why not start the New Year with a new perspective?

Looking Back and Moving Forward

In this episode, we consider the advice of Robert J. Sternberg, PhD,  a self-described geezer and well-respected academic.  He’s Professor of Human Development at Cornell University, and has co-authored over 1,500 publications.  He wrote an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education laying out his career advice for other academics.

His tips range from simple (“Save as much money as you can”) to subtle (“Be true to yourself”), but all of them are worth a few moments of consideration as we enter 2016.  Here’s the list, with more detail included in the article:

Career Advice From an Oldish Not-Quite Geezer

1. Put your family first.
2. Make your health a close second.
3. Save as much money as you can.
4. If you’re in the wrong place, get out.
5. Stay away from jerks.
6. If you’re not having fun, something’s wrong.
7. Be true to yourself.
8. Don’t tie up too much of your self-esteem in someone else’s evaluation of your work.
9. Take stock periodically.
10. Have a hobby. See the world. Or both.
11. Help others.
12. Take some risks.

Pop a Cork

Also in this episode, Josh and Dan pop some bubbly to celebrate the New Year and some exciting milestones for the Hello PhD podcast.  Thanks to all of you joining us on this journey, and we can’t wait to make science a friendlier, happier place in 2016!

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If you wake up every morning excited to go to work, you’re ‘in-the-zone’ all day, and you come home refreshed and excited to start a new day, please stop reading now.  Everyone else, join me in paragraph two.

A story for the rest of us

Oh good, they’re gone.  It’s hard enough to work at a job you dislike, but it’s much worse when the people around you seem to love what they’re doing.  As they succeed, you feel like a failure.  They seem engaged with the work, while you watch the clock until closing.

But fear not: there are steps you can take today to find a career you’ll love.  Step one is to learn from other people’s mistakes and avoid their stupid choices!

This week on the show, Daniel shares his story of landing in graduate school and realizing too late that it wasn’t a good fit with his work style or abilities.  Experiments weren’t working, and he began to lose hope of ever finding a career he’d love.

Quitting was an option, but there’s such a stigma in the academic world for those who “leave with a Masters.”  In the end, he finished the degree, and took the time to understand which aspects of his work life made him happy.

Along with the harrowing tale of poor life choices, we discuss the red flags that indicate you might be on the wrong path.  We also identify a few of the components of a satisfying career and why it’s important to start seeking them today.

Reaching for the top shelf

To extract Daniel’s story, Josh bribed him with a special ethanol this week.  It’s Basil Hayden’s Bourbon with one ice cube.  If you’re in grad school, you may have to take out a loan in order to buy some!

Josh also shares some fun research linking bee foraging behavior to caffeine content in the nectar.  It makes the bees head out to the dance floor, and they seem to get addicted to the sweet tasting stimulants.  It’s like Red Bull for bees!