Category Archives: career

Inbox fear-o!

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I <3 this cartoon: (There’s some decent advice about “How to email busy people” in the associated article, too). I had 486 unread emails in my inbox when I came back from my holiday last week… just one of many … Continue reading →

Posted in career, technology, whining | 10 Comments

Training FAIL

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I just spotted this, from last year’s form: Someone apparently got more traininf over the last 12 months: the typo has been corrected for this year’s form.

Posted in Canada, career, English language, silliness | 7 Comments

Repost: finding the alternatives within academia

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

This is a re-post of some career advice I wrote lo these many years ago for the Alternative Scientist blog, which is/was written by a group of bloggers for researchers considering careers other than traditional tenure-track research and/or teaching. The … Continue reading →

Posted in career, communication, personal, science | 17 Comments

Paging Doctor Clueless!

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

A story from way back in the mists of time… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A good friend of mine had an absolutely terrible time during her PhD, worse than anyone I know: her two co-supervisors had a fight and stopped talking to each … Continue reading →

Posted in career, communication, English language, idiocy, science | 11 Comments

Typo-chondria

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I received an interesting request last week from one of my colleagues: “Please provide an update on the [gene name] ozone OCD”. The email in question was sent to me, several other colleagues, and some of our external collaborators. The tell-tale … Continue reading →

Posted in career, communication, English language, technology | 8 Comments

Project management: go with the flow

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Both grants have been submitted, my desk and email inbox have been tidied, and sanity has been (partially) restored. That was one crazy round of CIHR grant applications, even more so than usual, but – as always – we pulled … Continue reading →

Posted in career, communication, grant wrangling, science, whining | 17 Comments

Normal service will be resumed in March

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

CIHR grant deadline time is such fun! Especially when half the PIs on the two grants you’re working on are out of the country, in timezones that severely hamper communication, and half of the rest are freaking out because their … Continue reading →

Posted in 2010 Olympics, career, drunkenness, idiocy, personal, photos, rants, silliness, snow, Vancouver, whining | 12 Comments

Why a three-year PhD is not necessarily shite

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting to a student in my department who’s just starting to write her thesis, and I mentioned that I wrote mine in three months, from start to finish. Several heads in the vicinity … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, career, education, personal, science, UK | 44 Comments

Friday funny

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I’ve been saving this for a miserable wet Friday just like this one! Recent conversation… New colleague: “How’s it going?” Me: “Meh” NC: “What’s up?” Me: “I’m having some issues with [PI’s] ethics” NC, eyes widening dramatically: “OMG! What did … Continue reading →

Posted in career, communication, grant wrangling, silliness | 7 Comments

How to impress your friendly local manuscript editor

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Treat them as an inferior until you need something from them. This will make them incredibly grateful for your sudden interest in them when you… …hand over a “close to final” manuscript that MUST be proofed and edited BY TOMORROW, … Continue reading →

Posted in career, English language, publishing, science | 30 Comments