Survival Skills for Scientists

ophiolite
Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:26:45 +0000

I think that book, from the small excerpt available, is too broad…

It says that true scientists don’t work 9 to 5. Well, I may not right now, but there are plenty that do work 9 to 5 and make a decent living at it. The book seems to suggest that if you aren’t a research scientist you aren’t a true scientist. That is not true by any stretch of the imagination. I would certainly hope that if I don’t end up finishing up my PhD that I would still be taken seriously as a scientist!

The best tactic in my opinion is to talk to a professor emeritus in your department and just listen. Ask them about their stories and insights about the academia system. That will be of much greater help than an expensive book that is too broad to be of use to most. I learned more from my mentor (a professor emeriti) about the world of academia than any silly book could tell me.