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Friday, June 26, 2009

Conversation with my Advisors

I had a conversation with two of my advisers today. They kept telling me that the best thing to do in my situation is not to look for any job. Instead, I should live off my parents and work on papers with them. They said I should not look for ANY jobs until I have at least one paper published with 2 others in the pipeline. They told me that getting a job will distract me from my research.

The only thing they forgot to tell me was how to live on zero money. But they don't see this as a problem.

10 comments:

  1. What to do? I also have one friend in that situation...

    Maybe I should be humble and start to appreciate with what I am having now and no complain....

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  2. Irfan, only professors believe they have the right answer to any question. And only professors are irresponsible enough to give advice which can potentially screw someone over.

    So my answer is that I don't have an answer. Only you know what's right for you.

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  3. ok....I will let my prof says whatever he wants to say...as long as my scholarship continues...

    p/s: my professor is a not a listener...

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  4. yes, i have found my advisers to have little sense my limited-to-zero financial resources. not sure whether it's general lack of class consciousness in this country or inability to remember what life was like pre-full prof salary. very frustrating.

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  5. For me it's frustrating because they have no concern for my life. I've already invested 4 years into the profession - I've been working for less than minimum wage. I've published like 12 papers, taught classes, etc. Now they expect me to invest another 1-3 years of my life. They don't risk ANYTHING if I do invest - they will only benefit from me producing papers. But I'm putting possibly my whole life on the card. And they don't have any problem with this. If it works out - fine. If it doesn't work out - they will discard me and find another motivated, smart, yet naive doctoral student.

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  6. Thank you for putting this up here... it slightly makes my committee seem less annoying.

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  7. DocE

    I'm glad it helped you! Can you please help me by adding a link to my blog? :)

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  8. Jeez! does no one here have a good experience with their committee? / profs in general? My committee is very supportive and gives me plenty of practical advice in order to help me further my academic career as well as support myself and my family in the process. Not all professors are out-of-touch a*holes

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    ReplyDelete