One of the things that holds true for the vast majority of Early Career Researchers (Postdocs, Fellows etc.) is that life is transitory. You have a short time working on a project and then you move on to the next contract, maybe another institution, maybe another topic, maybe another field entirely.
This is a problem that has quite a lot of repercussions in Bioinformatics. I suspect it does in other fields too, but Bioinformatics is what I know.
The problem is this -
You're going along happily using a piece of software in your research, it's great software, it does exactly what you want and it saved you a lot of time and effort. But then, one day, it breaks. Maybe a server that it takes information from has changed it's file formats? Or it's just not updating properly any more. What ever the problem was, you find you can't fix it yourself, so you email the person who wrote it, seeing if they can help. Only to find that they were a Phd student who no longer works on the project. If you're lucky, they still work in research and they still care enough about their old software that they'll help you out. If you're not lucky, they probably work for a bank now and are completely un-contactable!
This is a problem that's endemic in Bioinformatics and it definitely feeds into the reinventing the wheel culture that we have. How can you trust that someone else's software will still be around in 5 years time?
Unfortunately, this isn't a problem that just exists in software development. Over the last year, I've been running an event called Ignite Sheffield. It's been pretty popular, particularly with undergrads / postgrads and postdocs. We've had lots of Phd students use it to help them gain confidence in speaking about their work, and I believe it's a fantastic tool for this. However, due to the transitory nature of ECRs, I'm off to New Jersey in 2 weeks time.
I tried my best to get someone to take over, but people have their own projects and don't really have time to take on someone else's - much like with software upkeep. So sadly Ignite Sheffield will be having to have some down time.
Maybe I'll be able to start it up again if I come back.
Thursday, 10 October 2013
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
USA J1 Visa process (from the UK)
There are quite a few blog posts and websites that talk about the process of getting an American Visa. Some of them are fairly full of doom and gloom, so I thought I'd give my much more positive take on it.
DS-2019
The DS-2019 is a document that your future employers have to generate before you can apply for a Visa.
This stage seemed to take the longest.
There was an on-line form I had to fill out first, I suspect that different universities/workplaces have different procedures at this point. I had to provide proof of medical insurance (provided by the department and an email seemed to count for this), a scan of my passport, my Phd certificate and a letter of invitation from the Dean. This whole process seemed a bit circular since the letter of invitation and the medical insurance were both coming from the department I had to send them to!
Once I'd fill the form out, it took 2 weeks for them to generate the form and fed-ex it to me.
SEVIS I-901
When you get your DS-2019 there will be information included about how to go about paying your SEVIS fee. I don't really know what this one is for, but you have to do it. Make sure you have a credit/debit card handy and that your printer is connected. You'll need to print out the receipt to show them at the embassy.
DS-160 Nonimmigrant Visa Application Form
This is the form that allows you to apply to go for a visa interview. It is very long.
Things you need to make sure you have:
Your DS-2019, you can't apply without it
A US Visa style photo. This has to be square, so a UK passport photo won't do. You can get more info from here: http://travel.state.gov/visa/visaphotoreq/visaphotoreq_5334.html
Your SEVIS I-901
Keep printing out everything, particularly your 'instructions page'.
Apply for a Visa interview
This was pretty easy, choose a time and a day. They don't make you stick to your time, but I'd suggest an early one anyway. If you go early you don't get a backlog of people.
Visa Interview
My interview was at 9.30 in London. I arrived at 8.20, there was already a queue, but only a small one. First you have to join the queue to say you're there. They'll check you don't have anything like a mobile phone/laptop/ipad/kindle etc. They'll also give you a plastic bag to put you watch and belt into for security. Try and only take in what you need, there is a pharmacy near by where you can store stuff, but I was lucky in that I could leave everything at someone's house. All I took was my debit card, my oyster card, the paperwork and a (hardcopy) book.
Once you've been checked in you join another queue. They'll check your paperwork again and then send you through to security. Security here is less scary than at the airport, and they don't make you take your shoes off.
Once inside, you'll be directed to a reception desk. Here they'll check your paperwork (sensing a pattern?) and give you a number (well it's a letter and a number, but you get the jist).
Now you just have to wait until your number is called. It'll blink up on the screen with the number window you have to go to. There are also hand instructions about exactly what you need to give them. They'll take everything off you. I felt quite naked sitting in the US embassy without my passport!
Then they'll send you back to wait to be called up again. The second time you're called is your actual Visa interview. I was asked what my job was and then she got me to explain what that meant. But it almost seemed like a friendly conversation. Also she enthused about Rutgers a bit. That was it. I was told I'd be given a Visa and that my documents would be returned in ~ 5 working days.
In all the visit to the embassy only took 45mins which wasn't bad considering some of the scare stories of waiting for 5 hours etc. that I heard!
DS-2019
The DS-2019 is a document that your future employers have to generate before you can apply for a Visa.
This stage seemed to take the longest.
There was an on-line form I had to fill out first, I suspect that different universities/workplaces have different procedures at this point. I had to provide proof of medical insurance (provided by the department and an email seemed to count for this), a scan of my passport, my Phd certificate and a letter of invitation from the Dean. This whole process seemed a bit circular since the letter of invitation and the medical insurance were both coming from the department I had to send them to!
Once I'd fill the form out, it took 2 weeks for them to generate the form and fed-ex it to me.
SEVIS I-901
When you get your DS-2019 there will be information included about how to go about paying your SEVIS fee. I don't really know what this one is for, but you have to do it. Make sure you have a credit/debit card handy and that your printer is connected. You'll need to print out the receipt to show them at the embassy.
DS-160 Nonimmigrant Visa Application Form
This is the form that allows you to apply to go for a visa interview. It is very long.
Things you need to make sure you have:
Your DS-2019, you can't apply without it
A US Visa style photo. This has to be square, so a UK passport photo won't do. You can get more info from here: http://travel.state.gov/visa/visaphotoreq/visaphotoreq_5334.html
Your SEVIS I-901
Keep printing out everything, particularly your 'instructions page'.
Apply for a Visa interview
This was pretty easy, choose a time and a day. They don't make you stick to your time, but I'd suggest an early one anyway. If you go early you don't get a backlog of people.
Visa Interview
My interview was at 9.30 in London. I arrived at 8.20, there was already a queue, but only a small one. First you have to join the queue to say you're there. They'll check you don't have anything like a mobile phone/laptop/ipad/kindle etc. They'll also give you a plastic bag to put you watch and belt into for security. Try and only take in what you need, there is a pharmacy near by where you can store stuff, but I was lucky in that I could leave everything at someone's house. All I took was my debit card, my oyster card, the paperwork and a (hardcopy) book.
Once you've been checked in you join another queue. They'll check your paperwork again and then send you through to security. Security here is less scary than at the airport, and they don't make you take your shoes off.
Once inside, you'll be directed to a reception desk. Here they'll check your paperwork (sensing a pattern?) and give you a number (well it's a letter and a number, but you get the jist).
Now you just have to wait until your number is called. It'll blink up on the screen with the number window you have to go to. There are also hand instructions about exactly what you need to give them. They'll take everything off you. I felt quite naked sitting in the US embassy without my passport!
Then they'll send you back to wait to be called up again. The second time you're called is your actual Visa interview. I was asked what my job was and then she got me to explain what that meant. But it almost seemed like a friendly conversation. Also she enthused about Rutgers a bit. That was it. I was told I'd be given a Visa and that my documents would be returned in ~ 5 working days.
In all the visit to the embassy only took 45mins which wasn't bad considering some of the scare stories of waiting for 5 hours etc. that I heard!
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
Right Time, Right Place
As regular readers of this blog will know, I've spend the majority of 2013 (and a little bit of 2012) looking for a second postdoc position.
One of the things I've been thinking about recently is just how stressful most of these interviews were, until the last one, the one I got. Don't get me wrong, I still did quite a lot of preparation, but in the end I didn't even need most of it. My future boss had been seriously interested in me from the moment he saw my CV, and then we just really clicked. So I'm coming to the conclusion that when applying for postdocs the really important thing is to just get into as many interviews as possible, eventually you'll find one where you just click (provided you are actually applying for the right sort of thing).
When I've talked to some other postdoc job hunters, they've been saying they found it hard to get interviews, that they were sending out their CV to hundreds of jobs and only getting a handful of responses. This didn't happen to me, I got about a 3/4 interview rate. So I just thought I'd put down a few approaches I take to applying for jobs in the hope that it might help someone else out. N.B I'm am definitely not an expert in this area, so don't take it as gospel!
1. Don't apply to hundreds of jobs.
I applied for 12 jobs in total. It seems like a lot at the time, because in order to actually have a got chance of getting to the interview, you've got to tailor you CV and cover letter to each one.
I was also really picky about what I applied for. Each job (at least in the UK) should have a person criteria attached to it, with a list of essential and desirable criteria. If you don't have the essential criteria, don't apply for this job. You should probably have most of the desirable criteria too. If you really feel like you would be great in the job, but don't fit the criteria, I suggest sending the PI an informal email to find out why that aspect is essential. It's possible you might be able to persuade them around, but you're unlikely to do this through a CV & cover letter. By then its too late.
2. Write a very specific cover letter for each job
I had a template that I worked from, but for each job I very carefully went though the person criteria and showed that I fit the specs. Make it really obvious that you're worth meeting. Even if it says "judged at interview in the criteria", get a head start on it in the cover letter.
3. Don't big yourself up too much on your CV
By making your CV self seem more experienced etc. than you really are, you're just wasting everyone's time. You can probably get yourself to a lot more interviews this way, but when they meet you, if you can't measure up in person, they're unlikely to give you the position.
4. Don't do yourself down on your CV
Although you shouldn't big yourself up more than you deserve, don't do yourself down either. It's really important to put everything in that you think might be worthwhile. Although by now you probably shouldn't be putting your school swimming badges on...
5. Don't worry too much about your CV format, as long as its clear
There are so many blog posts on the internet giving advice on how your CV should look.
Mine has :
Contact Info
Education
Research Experience
Teaching Experience
Admin Experience (including running societies as a student)
Computational Skills
Awards
Public Engagement
Presentations
Publications
References
I don't think by any means this is the 'best' way of doing it. But it got me a lot of interviews, and I think that was mostly just because it was clear and easy to see the info.
One of the things I've been thinking about recently is just how stressful most of these interviews were, until the last one, the one I got. Don't get me wrong, I still did quite a lot of preparation, but in the end I didn't even need most of it. My future boss had been seriously interested in me from the moment he saw my CV, and then we just really clicked. So I'm coming to the conclusion that when applying for postdocs the really important thing is to just get into as many interviews as possible, eventually you'll find one where you just click (provided you are actually applying for the right sort of thing).
When I've talked to some other postdoc job hunters, they've been saying they found it hard to get interviews, that they were sending out their CV to hundreds of jobs and only getting a handful of responses. This didn't happen to me, I got about a 3/4 interview rate. So I just thought I'd put down a few approaches I take to applying for jobs in the hope that it might help someone else out. N.B I'm am definitely not an expert in this area, so don't take it as gospel!
1. Don't apply to hundreds of jobs.
I applied for 12 jobs in total. It seems like a lot at the time, because in order to actually have a got chance of getting to the interview, you've got to tailor you CV and cover letter to each one.
I was also really picky about what I applied for. Each job (at least in the UK) should have a person criteria attached to it, with a list of essential and desirable criteria. If you don't have the essential criteria, don't apply for this job. You should probably have most of the desirable criteria too. If you really feel like you would be great in the job, but don't fit the criteria, I suggest sending the PI an informal email to find out why that aspect is essential. It's possible you might be able to persuade them around, but you're unlikely to do this through a CV & cover letter. By then its too late.
2. Write a very specific cover letter for each job
I had a template that I worked from, but for each job I very carefully went though the person criteria and showed that I fit the specs. Make it really obvious that you're worth meeting. Even if it says "judged at interview in the criteria", get a head start on it in the cover letter.
3. Don't big yourself up too much on your CV
By making your CV self seem more experienced etc. than you really are, you're just wasting everyone's time. You can probably get yourself to a lot more interviews this way, but when they meet you, if you can't measure up in person, they're unlikely to give you the position.
4. Don't do yourself down on your CV
Although you shouldn't big yourself up more than you deserve, don't do yourself down either. It's really important to put everything in that you think might be worthwhile. Although by now you probably shouldn't be putting your school swimming badges on...
5. Don't worry too much about your CV format, as long as its clear
There are so many blog posts on the internet giving advice on how your CV should look.
Mine has :
Contact Info
Education
Research Experience
Teaching Experience
Admin Experience (including running societies as a student)
Computational Skills
Awards
Public Engagement
Presentations
Publications
References
I don't think by any means this is the 'best' way of doing it. But it got me a lot of interviews, and I think that was mostly just because it was clear and easy to see the info.
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Moving on
I've been waiting until things were a bit more secure to write this post, but now I've had some official confirmation I can finally write it.
I've been offered a postdoc at Rutger University, New Jersey, USA.
It's an enormous move, and my wife can't come with me, her job is going too well at the moment, so it'll mean doing a long distance marriage thing.
But in general it's very exciting.
I'll try and write updates to the blog as things happen, not least because it might help other postdocs who are about to make a big move.
I've been offered a postdoc at Rutger University, New Jersey, USA.
It's an enormous move, and my wife can't come with me, her job is going too well at the moment, so it'll mean doing a long distance marriage thing.
But in general it's very exciting.
I'll try and write updates to the blog as things happen, not least because it might help other postdocs who are about to make a big move.
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Reflections on my 1st Postdoc
As regular readers of this (or followers of me on twitter - @phdgeek) will know, I've spent the last three years working as a postdoc at the University of Nottingham. This is my penultimate day here as the grant we were hoping for wasn't funded (this wasn't a huge shock, it seemed hit or miss from the reviews). So, I thought I'd take some time to review the things that went well and the things that I might have done differently.
Great Stuff
Supervisor - I really landed on my feet here, my PI's been great. He's let me follow my own direction in the research but still been really interested in what's going on. Also he's a pretty big name in the field (at least in europe) and I think that's been helping in the job search.
Papers - I only got one paper out of my Phd (there is another one floating around in the ether, but whether that ever get published is anyone's guess), so I really needed to get a few out from this postdoc. Which I did - 3 research articles and a commentary piece. I'm also still working on a further two articles, which when published will make a fairly respectable haul.
Conferences - I love conferences, I come back really buzzed about the work. Plus, it's really important to get known and to talk about your work if you're ever going to get a permanent position! So it was really nice that the grant that I've been funded on had funding for three designated conferences a year, Popgroup, SMBE and a further one which I decided I wasn't interested. This was great because it meant that there was no persuading needed, I could just go.
Travel Award - As well as the already funded conferences, I managed to get a travel award to go to Basel to the ECCB meeting. Getting any money is great, it's not much, but it shows an independent attitude and that someone else thought your research was interesting enough to fund you talking about it!
Less Good Stuff
All the other things - My PI has done a remarkable job of shielding me from all the other things academics have to do and just letting me get on with research, and it's been really productive. But sometimes what you actually need is for someone to send all the other stuff your way - paper reviews, admin stuff, project students, teaching - just so that you can get the experience of doing those things and having a huge work load. I'm happy I didn't have to do all that in this postdoc, but where ever I end I next I really need to start doing it.
Money - One of the things about being a computational biologist, who doesn't tend to even work with big datasets, is that it's hard to find things to spend money on. In my next job I've definitely got to start ramping up the rate at which I ask for small grants, travel grants etc.
Learning about my new field - I've been allowed to take my research in the direction I wanted, as mentioned before. The problem with this is that I was new to the field of evolutionary genetics and had several big gaps in my knowledge. I haven't felt the need to fill these in order to get on with my research and now I feel like I have a huge amount of reading to do to catch up.
So those are my thoughts on the postdoc. Anyone else got any postdoc/phd regrets, things you'd do differently or things that were awesome and you'd like to persuade everyone else to do them to?
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
Looming Unemployment
One week today will be my last day at the University of Nottingham. I've loved my time at Nottingham, but this is the nature of ECR research isn't it?
Unfortunately, although I've applied for a number of jobs, and had interviews for most of them, I've yet to secure my next position. It's a little bit daunting, but I know I'm not alone in being in this between research jobs limbo. So I thought I'd talk a bit about how I'm going to deal with the time off. If anyone has any experience or advice I'd love to hear your comments.
1. Get up at the normal time
Actually I'm not quite going to do this. I normally get up at 5.20am so that I can have left the house by 6am. However, now that my day won't include a ridiculous commute I'm going to let myself stay in bed until 6am. Ooh, the luxury!
2. Continue Research
I've got a number of research questions that I've been working on over the last few months which still need some work. The advantage of being a computational biologist (who isn't even working with massive data files) is that it's relatively easy to continue with the research. The hope will be to continue to publish even though I'm unemployed.
3. Sign up to the Elsevier Postdoc Free Access Passport
I just discovered that if you got your Phd within the last 5 years and your last job finished between 31st Dec 2012 and 31st Aug 2013 you can get free access to science direct. So this should help a bit in the wasteland.
4. Do some other projects
I'm keen to use the time to start some projects that I wouldn't normally be able to fit in. Firstly, I'm hoping to write a popular science book (aiming to self publish on the Kindle) and secondly I'd like to make a documentary about being LGBT in academic STEMM departments and try and get this funded by Kickstarter (There will be more about this here in the coming weeks).
5. Exercise
I'm always complaining that I can't go for a run first thing in the morning because the commute gets in the way. Well, there's no excuse any more. Plus, I think getting out of the house and getting the endorphins going everyday will probably help my mood.
6. Job Search
I'm not going to let this take over my life and I'm not going to apply for jobs I know I'd be unhappy in. We can survive for a while on my wife's salary and my savings/redundancy money. However, I am going to spend about an hour a day checking for jobs etc.
So it seems to me that if I stick to this I'll have a pretty busy, productive schedule. Not sure how I'd have time for a job!
Unfortunately, although I've applied for a number of jobs, and had interviews for most of them, I've yet to secure my next position. It's a little bit daunting, but I know I'm not alone in being in this between research jobs limbo. So I thought I'd talk a bit about how I'm going to deal with the time off. If anyone has any experience or advice I'd love to hear your comments.
1. Get up at the normal time
Actually I'm not quite going to do this. I normally get up at 5.20am so that I can have left the house by 6am. However, now that my day won't include a ridiculous commute I'm going to let myself stay in bed until 6am. Ooh, the luxury!
2. Continue Research
I've got a number of research questions that I've been working on over the last few months which still need some work. The advantage of being a computational biologist (who isn't even working with massive data files) is that it's relatively easy to continue with the research. The hope will be to continue to publish even though I'm unemployed.
3. Sign up to the Elsevier Postdoc Free Access Passport
I just discovered that if you got your Phd within the last 5 years and your last job finished between 31st Dec 2012 and 31st Aug 2013 you can get free access to science direct. So this should help a bit in the wasteland.
4. Do some other projects
I'm keen to use the time to start some projects that I wouldn't normally be able to fit in. Firstly, I'm hoping to write a popular science book (aiming to self publish on the Kindle) and secondly I'd like to make a documentary about being LGBT in academic STEMM departments and try and get this funded by Kickstarter (There will be more about this here in the coming weeks).
5. Exercise
I'm always complaining that I can't go for a run first thing in the morning because the commute gets in the way. Well, there's no excuse any more. Plus, I think getting out of the house and getting the endorphins going everyday will probably help my mood.
6. Job Search
I'm not going to let this take over my life and I'm not going to apply for jobs I know I'd be unhappy in. We can survive for a while on my wife's salary and my savings/redundancy money. However, I am going to spend about an hour a day checking for jobs etc.
So it seems to me that if I stick to this I'll have a pretty busy, productive schedule. Not sure how I'd have time for a job!
Monday, 22 July 2013
Difficulties in Conference Socialising
I recently went to a conference in Chicago. I had an excellent time and met lots of great people, but as at every conference I had a bit of a dilemma every time I met someone new - do I come out, when do I come out, how do I come out?
As anyone who knows me personally, and some people who only know me online will know, I'm very out. In every aspect of life, home, work, the hairdressers etc. I just can't be bothered with the whole hiding who I am thing. Plus I've got a wife, I spend a lot of time socialising with her, and I'm not going to play the pronoun game every time someone asks me what I did at the weekend.
However, I know lots of people who like to keep their private lives out of work. They might be out in a general way, but they tend to keep quite about it. But when you go to a conference the world of work merges with your social world. You're often meeting people in a social way, but it's still work. The people you're talking to after a number of drinks in the bar might be a possible future colleague or collaborator or boss. So there's always that split second of decisions, which camp does this new interaction fall into. Future friend, future colleague, both, neither?
Then there's the heteronormitivity of conferences (maybe of science in general?) which I find a bit overwhelming. I tend to think that people go away from conferences remembering me as the lesbian who talks about transposons (possibly without remembering the bit about transposons). This is probably not even true, but the fact that I find myself having to come out over and over (particularly if my wife has come along to take advantage of a tagged on holiday) to people who assume everyone, including me, is straight (and I don't look straight), makes me hyper aware of it.
Although I've talked about conferences here, I think it extends quite a bit into more general areas of academic life. We're expected to spend so much of our time and energy trying to make it in this career that there is often little room for friends outside of work, forcing people to mix social and work yet again.
I'm thinking of putting a project together to see how other LGBT people find this work socialising issue. It's only in a concept stage, but stay tuned for more info.
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