Systematic Files

My supervisor has offered me some advice: keep your files in neat order, store them systematically and name them sensibly so you always know where files and documents are and can access them with ease when needed (i.e. when your supervisor is looking over your shoulder and asks to see something you have not actually used for months). Again, PhD comics has hit the nail on the head, for my files actually look pretty much exactly like this:

Alos, we use syntax when analysing data on SPSS, this means writing out commands in a programming format instead of going through the drop down lists like a normal person. Again, his advice to me was to keep all the syntax for a specific study in one file and add to that file. Have I done that? Not yet. I intend to...soon!

The Deep End

It has been a long radio silence.

This is what a PhD students life is like, it's busy and hard and leaves little time for other things. To be honest, I have been trying to "ease into" doing this PhD and got slapped in the face for doing so. I have had meetings with both of my supervisors and have felt unprepared for them, partly due to the fact that in all honesty, I haven't been working as hard as I could have. In addition to this my supervisors are hard core statistics boffins and expect me to keep up. And I have been scrambling to do so. The combination of the two have left me less than impressive to them and trying not to cry at most of our meetings.

As a PhD student, you are an apprentice to your supervisor. The PhD is your journey to learning about being an academic, doing research and being able to cope with the demanding publish or perish world of scientific research. You will be challenged, and you will need to prove your worth. I have so far only made a lackluster effort at this. I cried to my supervisor at our last meeting before Christmas. We both agreed that it cannot go on like this. I understand that I have to work harder and he understood that weekly meetings with both supervisors grilling me can be intimidating. So I shall go back with an effort to grow a pair and be more prepared and together, I hope we can come to an agreement on meetings that will prove both positive and productive.

Po: You're not my master. And I'm not the Dragon Warrior.

Shifu: Then why didn't you quit? You knew I was trying to get rid of you, yet you stayed!

Po: Yeah, I stayed. I stayed because every time you threw a brick at my head or said I smelled; it hurt, but it could never hurt more than every day of my life just being me. I stayed because I thought if anyone can change me, can make me not me, it was you! The greatest kung fu teacher in all of China!

Shifu: I can change you! I can turn you into the Dragon Warrior! And I will!

My Precious

My new computer has finally arrived! It is big, sleek, silver and beautiful. Thank you Steve Jobs (may he rest in peace), you have made this joyous day possible.

I have been waiting for my computer for weeks! I have been like a stubborn child, refusing to get any real work done until I got it. Also, it turned out that we had major teething problems with our first analyses anyway, so I was truly unable (or at least challenged to the absolute limits of my can-be-botheredness) to get on with data tampering... I mean analysing.

After installing statistical programs onto my home computer three times, then having to admit that despite repeated attempts the programs refused to open the relevant data files, I was defeated. I was also convinced that all my prayers would be answered and my problems solved by the arrival of my new imac. I can assure you, they have. Things work now!

This means I can happily go home an procrastinate for the rest of the day. Who in their right mind would start work at 4pm on a Friday? No one!

Why The Geek Gets the Girl

10 reasons you should date a geek:

1. They are smart, you can actually have conversations with them that don't revolve around their pectoral muscles or last nights football score.

2. They are actually good looking. With geek being the new chic, people are noticing the appeal of the smart guy with glasses. Personally I have always thought that a man with good looking glasses is sexy.

3. They are domestically useful. They will fix your computer, your printer and your car. (well, the geeky love of my life will at least). They will be able to iron their own shirt and buy toilet paper.

4. They're not douche bags. You know how women always fall for the bad guy, try to fix them and then get cheated on and scarred for life. Yeah, date a geek. They are considerate, will respect you and listen to you but still have a standard Y chromosome related male instinct to them. With some cases, you can still have some of that fixing project were you so inclined.

5. Geeks are great lovers. Their consideration for you extends to the bedroom...

6. They  have manners, not only does that pay off in social situations and dates but your parents will love them too. They will open doors and say please and thank you. They will get the bill but allow you to go halfsies if you insist on gender equality.

7. They are on their way to well paid jobs. Even if you are an independent woman who never wants to scrounge of their man, you can still appreciate the feel of a successful career man by your side.

8. Geeks will not envy you for having a career. If you want a career, you want to be well paid and successful, your geek will support you and not get penis envy over who earns more  money.

9. They can communicate with you. Not only do they listen, but they don't give up when you're sulking and they sometimes even manage to make you talk about stuff you didn't know you could talk about but in retrospect, really needed to.

10. They have the best toys, newest gadgets and tons of films. In addition, they will always have expert input on whether you should get the new htc smartphone or the iphone.

Scott Johnson has created a poster of 56 geek-types. Which one will you choose?

The Trench

By trench I don't mean a coat. I mean the researcher trench (or boffin trench). 

The researcher trench is what happens to people who pursue an academic career. You start with a PhD, which usually represents the first stage of researching a phenomenon you’re interested in. Then you go on to do further research on your area of interest, become an expert in it, favour certain research methods over others and settle in to your comfortable and academically exciting (to you) niche –voila, you have just dug yourself a trench.   

What then happens when academics get together is that each of them peers over the side of their own trench at the others and is critical and sceptical about the relevance, importance and reliability of the other scientists’ research.

I witnessed the academic trench syndrome first-hand the other day and watched in amazement. We have a reading group in which each week, a selected paper or some interesting research is presented by one of the attendees and then discussed by the group. This week we presented the article that we are publishing (the one related to my dissertation and PhD). Now, I raised a number of questions in the process of doing the research for this article, but after discussing them, I felt I may have misunderstood things as I am still taking my first unsteady steps in academia. To my surprise, most of these questions were also raised by other researchers at this presentation. Then they went on to raise a couple of other points as well. At the end of it all, my supervisor asked me if I thought the research had not been well received. I explained my trench theory:

Researcher 1 conducts research in his trench. It is specific, related to a specific topic, including only specific terminology and concepts and excluding everything else. All in all, very specific. He presents this research to his colleagues.

Researcher 2 looks up from his trench and wonders why the study didn’t use a methodology that he always uses. It is so useful and reliable. Also, he points out all possible limitations of the methodology that was used. His methodologies would also provide some interesting data for examining other aspects of the topic.

Researcher 3 peers over the side of his trench and questions the relevance of the study in general. Surely it should take into account a number of other concepts that are clearly related to the topic in question. For instance, this thing he has just researched is certainly something that would factor in to the study.

Each researcher thinks that the other researchers do not understand, are too narrow minded and cannot think beyond the perimeters of their own research.

And this continues in academic circles. Pun intended.

It is worth nothing that trenches occur in other contexts as well. A good example is politics. Each politician sits in their own trench and enthusiastically defends it by throwing verbal grenades at the other party’s trenches. Trenches may also occur with highly idealistic people, such as environmentalists, hipsters, health enthusiasts, and the religious.

I ambitiously intend to avoid digging myself into a researcher trench any time soon. I hope to retain a perhaps naive (I prefer “child-like”) ability to question and consider other factors, angles and also strive to make my research accessible and relatable to researchers and laymen who do not share my research interests. Here’s to hoping.

New Generations

I read an in-the-works article draft today about demands of leadership for the next decade. I was especially interested in the fact that many of the challenges people though would be facing the management of organisations in the future were to do with younger generations entering working life. I can’t tell you much about this article let alone reference it, as it is still in the process of being written and published, but the interview data was so interesting and thought provoking to me that I want to discuss it. After its publication I will reference it here.

In Summary: The interviewees felt that it would be challenging to get people to commit to work and specific organisations in the future. The so called generation Y was seen to want a work-life balance and not to commit to their jobs in organisations. Young people also do not want to fatten the shareholders wallets with their work efforts. Some interviewees even went as far as to say that younger people have weaker abilities in cooperating, do not have any manners and that employers end up having to do the upbringing that has not been done at home. Youth today was seen to refuse to do routine tasks and to want to secure significant titles (and pay checks) such as managerial and leadership positions immediately. In other words, generation Y has no patience to work up the ladder.

The definition for “generation Y” varies, but generally lands between 1970’s and mid 1990’s (i.e. my generation!).

The fact that my generation was under scrutiny in this article made it all the more interesting to me, I often have to read papers on organisational psychology and to be honest it really is not my cup of tea.

It was a gruelling read! It was ruthless and I felt interested, ashamed and defensive all at the same time. I recognise myself as one of those people who would very much like fame and fortune from the get go and don’t really feel I have the patience to work on the bottom rung for half my life. In addition to this, I happen to have a boyfriend whose biggest dream is to be rich by the time he is 30. Enough said.

So, we are guilty as charged. However, as a member of generation Y, I do have some thoughts on why we shouldn’t be shot down without a trial.

Firstly, I think each generation always frowns upon the ways of the next. Without this kind of development and change, history would not have happened and we would still be hanging from trees.

Secondly, I think we live in a time, where these new ideals held by generation Y are encouraged. The society we have grown up in surrounds us with several influences that make us the way we are. For one, higher education has become the norm. It is no longer a sign of dedication, brains and expertise to have done an undergraduate degree at university.  The same goes for masters degrees. In the UK, it feels, you have pretty much as good a chance in finding a job after an undergraduate degree as you would after your A-levels. You almost have to do a master’s degree. Even then you will struggle to find a job.  Exceptions are degrees that prepare you for the NHS. However, at the same time we are promised by university and other institution representatives that a degree will open all the doors wide open for our future.

Also, we are surrounded by role models of rich, successful and media-sexy young people. Professional poker players (something I find ridiculous), gifted investors, internet- and start-up entrepreneurs (Facebook, Angry Birds, Twitter, etc.). The internet is making entrepreneurship easier than ever, start-up culture thrives on ideas, not hard labour.

It is true that this generation may not be satisfied with getting their hands dirty on the first peg of the career ladder. But with almost two decades of education under our belts when we enter that career ladder, of course we feel undervalued and underpaid. By then we are at a point where we want to have a family too, so of course we want that work-life balance. And with the difficulty of even finding a decent job where we wouldn’t feel overqualified, why wouldn’t we look to entrepreneurship to make the kind of money we feel we deserve after putting all our (or our parents) money into education (or getting into heaps of debt to get an education).

I completely understand that with £9000 a year in tuition fees, students would like a nice pay check at the end of their education. I would. 

At the same time, I do think that just having a degree is not enough. I am one of thousands of psychology graduates in the country. If I had merely relied on having that undergraduate or master’s degree to get into a good job, I would probably be working… Well I wouldn’t because I would be considered overqualified for Burger King. I am not heaps better off, I’m still at uni, but I have a plan. And I am relying on my master plan to get me where I want to go. So the bottom line is that whereas my generation thinks differently to our predecessors, nothing is stopping us from getting what we want, if we just have the determination to go for it. That will require some work though.

Fresher's Flu

Following the examples of countless PhD students and other postgraduates before me, I declare that undergraduates have become the bane of my existence.

This declaration was brought to you by the annual bout of fresher's flu. Well, I think it may only be a cold, but any sniffles occurring mid September to mid October are categorised as the fresher's flu. Such conceptualisation implies several things. #1. Spread of germs increases exponentially when tens of thousands of students come together in one place.  #2. It is the fresher's fault. #3. It is an epic-demic rivalling bird flu and swine flu and the best strategy of avoiding it would be to avoid undergraduates (as you would birds or pigs).

If a smartphone app was to be made of the fresher's flu, I would be happy to catapult both birds and pigs at freshmen.

The arrival of undergraduates is a migratory pattern that you won't be able to miss. First, the streets fill with cars bursting at the seams with their belongings. Mums and dad's move their goslings into their student accommodation. As soon as they leave and the evening descends, the newly arrived undergraduates transform in a werewolf like manner into intoxicated clubbers. During the day time, they will fill the campus, dragging their hung over selves around like zombies in the morning and bursting with adorable excitement for the new uni experience in the afternoon.

They will continue to torment me as I will eventually have to teach them and worst of all, grade their work. I will also have to answer their e-mail queries with kind words and guidance, when all I want to do is get a rubber stamp and go around smacking "I have brain flatulence" onto their foreheads.

In summary: Undergraduates are germy and become annoying when you are no longer one of them.