Mong

[gnommi]

Am now officially fed up with academia and trying to find a job therein. Have handed in first chapter, it bounced back instantly for me to make into a paper. Whilst this is a Good Idea and very flattering and all, I do kinda wonder how in hell I am supposed to write another 4 thesis chapters and this paper before the end of December... and that would still be cutting it extremely fine for a graduate-by-Feb-or-else deadline. Today's beetle in honour of hobbit_dave re-reading Uzumaki and the fact that I am going in ever-decreasing circles.



Am probably going to apply for a bunch of jobs back in Histology. At least I'm qualified for pretty much top level now and should get paid pretty well. I quit in the first place on the grounds that Clinical Scientist grade is just never gonna happen outside of Haematol/Micro/Cytology as the consultants are never gonna give an inch to anything that means they might lose income from their private work. Am going to apply for a couple of jobs in London tomorrow.

Have also started viewing houses to buy (well, the other half, obviously). Wonder if it's even worth writing up the rest of the thesis if I'm not going to work in academia? Papers I think would still be good, but the actual PhD? Still not so sure. Maybe if Clinical Scientist EVER came to pass in Histo, being a Dr of pathology would help. Hrm.

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for mount cutting equipment? Seems to me you can pay anything from £15-£300 and no idea what is just useless and what is pro quality. Wanna matt my beetles.

Comments

[amberuk.livejournal.com]

I know the write up can be the most painful thing ever. But it seems a shame after all of your time and work to not get the letters after your name. After all, later on it would be a pain to redo. Good luck!

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I have lots already! :D
and yeah, if I quit now, I'll never go back

[theno23.livejournal.com]

Writing up is horrible.

So horrible that I never managed to do it.

My (ex-)supervisor said "all you need to do is stable a bunch of your papers together", where staple = write about 300 pages. No chance. I do kind of regret not submitting, but it's just not in my nature to write that much prose, and my english is bloody awful.

Interestingly I read a report on salaries in the tech industry on Friday. On average PhD earn 10k/year less the BSc graduates of the same age, which is a bit of an eye opener. Probably not true in other industries though, tech salaries are heavily biased by the financial services industry, where qualifications are pretty useless.

That said, you're much closer to finishing that I ever was, go for it!

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

I'm good at writing, I just don't think I care enough to want to spend another 6 months of pain wading through my disorganised, and as I feel, pointless and inconclusive data ;)

I have noticed too, that my salary as a professionally qualified MSc now is around £45k (if I go back to diagnostic Histopath), if I get an academic post-doc, that drops to £21k. HAHA! If I made senior scientist (after 3 post-docs over 6 years, usually), that goes up to about £35k. If I made NHS lab manager, which I'm qualified to do already, I'd be looking at around £45-60k. My old lab didn't even interview PhDs for anything less than Pathology Services Manager (which there's no way I'd want to do). Just don't want to end up doomed if I do and damned if I don't.

It's lose/lose! I was hoping I'd love research, but actually, I'm a doer, not a thinker.

[theno23.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it, the compsci PhD's get less money thing makes sense. You could maybe negotiate you salary up by 5k/year on the basis of the qualification, but the 3-4 years of industry experience you lost is worth more like 15-20k/year.

I need some thinking in my job, but I really need doing. Which is mostly why I got out. The academia thing was fun though, for a while.

[elseware.livejournal.com]

I faced the fact that I'm not an academic, either. I am, however, very suited to academic support & JISC projects. I like getting something to work, not writing a paper about why it didn't.

Also, I never actually completed the literature review. I've STILL got a valid student card, though, which was the key thing of value from starting a part time phd.

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

Quite. I like being at the oars or the engine room, not at the helm, so to speak...

[amberuk.livejournal.com]

Wow lab work has gone up in pay a lot since I did my degree! When I first finished the pay was scary £6-8K maybe with London weighting. You couldn't pay rent on that. £45k is a nice wad of cash. If its only going to hold u back then just leave it. Maybe worth looking into if this is really the case - there are some web pages for people doing PhD's I think, esp ones struggling with the write up. They should pay those people more (who do the write up) it shows a stubborn and determined streak!

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

ye when i graduated i was a trainee on £6k! starting trainee salary is about £16k now, you need post-grad quals that you get on the job to qualify, when it goes up to about £19k for Grade 1 BMS. I'm at Grade 3-4 now! Feels odd!

[amberuk.livejournal.com]

Wow 16k? with a normal degree? Things have changed. You could pay rent AND eat with that ;-)
odd?

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

well grade 3-4, that's *responsible* and that's a quality I don't really associate with me ;D

[amberuk.livejournal.com]

Like a grown up! Hey you were talking about buying a house. Thats responsible!

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

ha no, not me, I don't have any money... Dave's doing it ;)

[amberuk.livejournal.com]

daves rich? I thought he was a student or something?

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

nah... not rich nor a student! but at least he has a job

[amberuk.livejournal.com]

My chocobo has several jobs. His just get cute outfits and different spells. No money or house ;-(