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I'm in academia in the UK and I don't mind helping.
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Apr 7, 2011 09:46
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chienism posted:I'd love to interview you too, but I can only use one person for my paper in the end. So I can definitely interview you both, but I can not say for sure who I will use for my paper. Thank you for volunteering your time! Send me an email (ScientasticSA@gmail.com). If you can get the questions to me over the weekend, I can probably have them answered by Monday.
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Apr 8, 2011 15:03
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When I interviewed for my PhD, I wore a suit and felt incredibly overdressed. I think it depends on how well you know the lab to which you're applying. If you are familiar with the people interviewing you, because you've met them at conferences, T-shirt and jeans should be fine. If not, I'd probably go with decent trousers and a shirt. I think a suit is way too overdressed. N.B. This is from the point of view of academia. I'd probably wear a suit to a pharma interview, if I ever wanted to go that route.
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Apr 21, 2011 14:19
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In my lab we have the exact opposite problem: Last year I was working on a project and managed to show that it was a dead end and that our hypothesis was flawed. It took months of repeating the same bloody Western blots until my supervisor agreed with me and let me go down a different line.
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Apr 21, 2011 18:36
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Sundae posted:Don't ever use a coin in a presentation as a size comparator. That is one of the most surreal exchanges I've ever heard.
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Apr 29, 2011 12:29
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: "Pardon me interrupting for a second. Can you tell me what coin that is?"
: "It's a dime."
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plasmoduck posted:Hello there! I'm glad to find this biotech/pharma thread, since I've been toying with the idea of joining "the dark side" after my Master's. Sadly, I have virtually no clue what "the industry" actually does, so I'd really appreciate some advice (even if it'll shatter my illusions of "I can do research, keep my dignity AND earn money!" v Don't do it. Stay in academia where it's awesome. There's more to life than money.
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May 5, 2011 17:53
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v).
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seacat posted:the beard-stroking ivory tower culture What? Is that similar to industry's money-grabbing, profiteering culture? Or could it be that both are stupid stereotypes?
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May 5, 2011 18:47
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My PIN is 4826 posted:What's the job market like for a PhD dropout? I have my BSc in microbiology, an MRes that I got for free with the PhD, and one out of three years of the PhD (UK russell group if it matters). Don't drop out. Talk to your supervisor about the direction of the project and where you feel it's going. An MRes is almost totally worthless.
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May 24, 2011 14:50
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My PIN is 4826 posted:I'll hang in there for the first year assessment and see where it goes. The assessment panel is after all here to help me, right? Absolutely. Your committee are there to help you get a good PhD. Remember that it makes supervisors look really terrible if their students drop out. It's in everyone's best interests to make sure you succeed in your PhD.
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May 24, 2011 18:14
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Because my supervisor didn't get his grant through, there's no discretionary funding for writing up my thesis. My local bar is advertising for a job, which would be perfect. Has anyone got any ideas for how to make "7 years of science" sound like "expert barman"?
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Aug 12, 2011 12:00
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Sundae posted:I'm gone. That sucks. Especially for a newly wed. At least you get some sort of severance pay, I guess.
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Aug 16, 2011 22:36
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Appachai posted:What an rear end in a top hat. Jesus Christ. I hate the idea that scientists should be expected to work ridiculous hours. I really enjoy doing science and I like working in a lab, but it's still a job. There are way more important things in life than work. And taking a cancer patient to lab meetings is just bad. Lab meetings should be an informal way of getting acquainted with your colleagues' work and a forum for asking naïve questions. Having a cancer patient present is definitely going to put a dampener on anyone asking questions for fear of looking stupid.
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Sep 1, 2011 12:25
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Yeah, I've met a few scientists like that. I think the worst thing is the way they suck up to their superiors, but treat everyone else like absolute shite. In other exciting news, today I got a bill from the university for £90, to pay to matriculate for my unfunded write-up year. I knew it was coming, but paying it did rather stick in my craw.
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Sep 1, 2011 16:37
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Ignore these people and do a PhD. Sure, the money's shite, but after three years, you'll be a DOCTOR!
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Sep 27, 2011 17:31
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I don't know how it works in America, but I got paid to do my PhD, it was tax-free and I didn't incur any debt from it. Admittedly, I now work in a bakery to pay my way through writing up, but that's TOTALLY IRRELEVANT.
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Oct 6, 2011 17:56
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I have a peculiar hatred of "interface" as a verb. I think it might be because "liaise" is a word of such obvious superiority which should be used more often.
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Nov 9, 2011 18:06
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polyfractal posted:Don't work for a university lab unless you want to be poor and plan to get a PhD. Nothing wrong with being a poor PhD student. The last three years have been amongst the funnest of my life. It's just this year that has sucked.
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Nov 11, 2011 16:13
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Gimperial posted:Anyone have any experience getting lab jobs in the UK with no experience per se? (Just graduated with an MSc) Just apply to be a research assistant in a lab you like. That's what I did after my BSc. They made me present some data from my undergraduate lab project and chatted to me about why I was interested in what they were doing. It's just like any other job interview, really. One important thing: If the lab specialises in something in particular, make sure you read up on it, know definitions for common words and have read at least one paper by the lab supervisor. One candidate for a PhD studentship in my lab couldn't define "epigenetics" in her interview and didn't know that the supervisor had written a book about DNA methylation.
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Jan 7, 2012 10:09
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Tommmmm posted:Don't expect any difference in pay with a Masters. This has not been my experience. In my lab, and all the labs in my institute, a masters gives you a slight pay boost.
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Jan 29, 2012 14:19
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gninjagnome posted:long term stability I don't understand.
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May 8, 2012 17:10
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I've applied for a post-doc job in the USA and the guy who interviewed me wants me to look into getting a visa; does anyone have any experience of this? Edit: I think it's a J-1 visa that I need. Scientastic fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Aug 28, 2012 |
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Aug 28, 2012 20:06
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Appachai posted:You've probably already read this, but the National Postdoctoral Association has a report on different visa types Yeah, that was the document that made me realise that I had spent an hour researching the wrong type of visa! Thanks Immigration Services! The state department website is really terrible: There's nothing there to tell you that H1B (of which there are few) isn't necessary for visiting scientists.
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Aug 29, 2012 07:39
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Sundae posted:My bad on the naming convention there. Turned?
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Aug 30, 2012 20:06
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I am a biologist turned waste-of-space, so I screwed up. 
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What experiments have you done? Western Blots? Tissue Culture? Basically, just put down what techniques you've learnt. It's a brief part of your CV, so keep it short: If the technique is relevant to your potential new job, they will know what it is, so don't go into detail. Here's mine: Technical Expertise: Molecular genetics: Genomic DNA isolation, bisulphite sequencing, PCR, mRNA isolation, qRT-PCR, mRNA expression arrays, cloning, caesium chloride purification, gene overexpression and knockdown, lentiviral transduction Immunology: Western blotting, immunoprecipitation Tissue culture: Mammalian adherent cell culture, SRB growth assays Statistical techniques: Array analysis in R and Excel
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Sep 11, 2012 22:49
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I got a post-doc position! Once visas go through, I will be moving to Florida to move up the academic ladder.
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Oct 31, 2012 12:52
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Sundae posted:Should I congratulate you on the post-doc, or offer condolences that you're going to be living in Florida? Haha, everyone seems to be saying the Florida is terrible. I've decided that it's an adventure and that Florida can't be as bad as everyone says...
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Oct 31, 2012 18:54
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Has anyone got any experience of using the Illumina HiSeq platform? Are there any resources anyone can recommend for getting a quick handle on the basics of analysing the data produced? Specifically, bisulphite sequencing data. I tried Illumina's website, but I found it rather difficult to penetrate to what I needed without reading a load of unnecessary bumf.
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Jan 21, 2013 17:00
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I was doing some cloning today, and as I was looking at my plates, I asked myself, "Why do I do a no ligase control?". I couldn't think of a reason, and I asked a few other people in the lab, and they said it controlled for the presence of uncut plasmid. But that's what the no insert control does, surely? Does anyone have an answer, or am I doing something out of habit that doesn't actually mean anything?
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Aug 6, 2013 22:26
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Appachai posted:You should just use LIC cloning instead and totally avoid the question. PIPE cloning and Gibson assembly work well and are fast, easy, and pretty cheap. Couldn't use LIC cloning because my insert was 3kb. And if the EcoRI and XhoI ends of my backbone anneal together, there's probably a higher power that didn't want me to do the experiment. I've just been wasting my time, I think. Well, the time of the undergraduate I've been teaching, anyway...
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Aug 7, 2013 01:51
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Suspicious Lump posted:I don't want to do a PhD. I feel like these days they have very limited economical value. That's not why you do a PhD. If economical value is what you're after, why are you in science in the first place? Also, I don't think you're right... People see that you have a PhD and they instantly know that you can be an independent researcher, capable of creating and managing your own projects. A masters says that you are slightly better than the average biologist with a bachelors. While there are lots of jobs you can't get if you only have a masters, there are no jobs that you can get with a masters that you can't get with a PhD. Scientastic fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Mar 8, 2014 |
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Mar 8, 2014 15:07
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seacat posted:for-profit sector Aromatic Stretch posted:only true in academia Fair enough. That is the limit of my experience, so perhaps I should have disclaimed that at the start. Edit: Although I would say that this: seacat posted:They typically want more money than the position pays and think they can twist it into a research position somehow because omg research Scientastic fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Mar 8, 2014 |
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Mar 8, 2014 18:48
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Who told you that? In my experience, most recent goes at the top.
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May 8, 2015 15:54
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Your boss is right
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Sep 26, 2015 12:25
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I thought the "Operational Excellence" things were just an excuse to fire people? Pay a consultant 200k to tell you to get rid of a 20k a year employee who is actually the one person who knows how the flange widget works. Efficiency!
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Jan 17, 2016 09:34
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That Works posted:when I get my own lab
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Feb 5, 2016 15:54
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I'm just bitter because I used to think like that and it didn't work out!
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Feb 5, 2016 17:05
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Wearing headphones in the lab is really bad. You're supposed to interact with your co-workers and talk to each other.
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Mar 24, 2016 22:24
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