Taking stock of my anxiety re academics

[kaberett]

Cut for those with no interest in the thing!

• K, who's a year ahead of me, hasn't presented a poster at a conference as part of her PhD yet
  
• I'm presenting my first poster on Monday, at a conference I identified as relevant to my research and a good opportunity to get practice in at something local (I have to go a whole five stops on the Picadilly line!)
  
• there's a Research in Progress conference for postgrad students in my field, which is held in the first half of the year; I attended without presenting last year, and this year I'm going to request a talk
  
• publications: two co-authorships this year, with a third (as second author) forthcoming once J gets off the boat; I have my sights on submitting a first-author write-up of my first year's work to a relevant Special Publication of American Mineralogist; and I have another journal in mind for a small technical paper that I expect to be able to bang out by the end of the year (again, first author)
  
• I have enormous swathes of data and am fundamentally good at labwork
  
• my technical writing is basically sound
  
• my poster design is basically sound! Neither of my supervisors had anything to criticise in that.
  
• I'm getting lots of teaching experience and seriously enjoying it
  
• I'm beginning to get my head around the concept of plotting graphs

I need to Do Something about my anxiety around extended technical writing - I appear to have developed a block around it that seems to be related to winter 2011 - but that's something I can work on, and for all I have impostor syndrome I think I'm actually doing an objectively good job of this, for being at the end of my first year. Stick "writing" on list for counsellor, but -- yes. Pln.

Comments

[rysmiel]

For what it may be worth, you have achieved a lot more than I had at the end of my first postgraduate year, and I am impressed.

*hugs*

[kaberett]

Thank you :-) I do feel the need to note that I'm in a field where running a single sample can get me a co-authorship, and that my research group is extremely generous with offering me the opportunity to make contributions, but -- thank you.

[quartzpebble]

Wait wait wait, this is the end of your first year? You are doing fine. Better than fine. Really well, actually.

PS. That is a fabulous icon.

[swaldman]

Yes, to both of these things!

And being good at poster design is something that most academics of whatever seniority have never managed :-P
(yeah, there is a special torment in being somebody from a design background now working in science)

[kaberett]

oh it's not necessarily good in any sense other than "academics won't complain about it" :-) it's certainly very dense! Give us a shout if you're interested in having a look at it.

[swaldman]

Happy to have a look if you'd like me to. I may grouch about design if it's very dense, though ;-)

On a more helpful note, IMHO this page has excellent advice: http://colinpurrington.com/tips/academic/posterdesign

(not that my supervisor agreed with it...)

[kaberett]

Remember that UK versus US PhDs are weird! But thank you. :-)

[kaberett]

also icon is via chiasmata, who is one of my role models and introduced as such in that one meme :-)

[sidheag]

Yes! I could, but won't, name people with PhDs who couldn't match that.

[kaberett]

Thank you for saying! Trying to shake myself out of my fear that I utterly lack independence. I think finding a conference and two journals to submit to counts, at least for something :-)

[davidgillon]

And it isn't just that you're publishing and acquiring the relevant skills, look at the percentage of this that is self-started - that's something 1) valid in any area of work, not just academia, and 2) something many otherwise completely competent and highly-skilled people can't claim even after years of experience. In my entire 22 year software career (which okay was primarily big project stuff) I probably only had half-a-dozen self-started projects, but they were the ones that got me noticed.

[khronos_keeper]

This sounds fantastic!

Also, I keep hearing about these posters. Can I inquire as to what these posters are? Like, actual adverts for your data, or is it jargon?

[kaberett]

It's essentially an extended summary of research to date! swaldman provides an excellent link above; you can find the current draft of mine as a huge PDF (actually only huge space-wise, it's about 2MB size-wise).

[davidgillon]

Possibly worth mentioning that I can follow most of this, even though A level chemistry is a looong time ago! So clarity++ ;)

[kaberett]

\o/ Thank you for letting me know!

[nanila]

*waves pom-poms* You're doing fantastically well. Having publications in your first year (whatever position on the author list) is a great position to be in.

[kaberett]

I keep reminding myself that it's not "cheating" just because my MSci project was (with adjustments) publishable and I work in a field where running one sample counts as a significant contribution and my group are magnificent about giving me opportunities! I mean, I did apply at least in part because my impression during interviews etc was overwhelmingly positive in terms of the amount of support and collaboration that's available.

Thank you lots. <3

[quartzpebble]

Pshhh. Not cheating in the slightest.

*readies the impostor-syndrome-weasel-traps*

[jjhunter]

*academia fanning you*

<3

[kaberett]

<333!

[silveradept]

This sounds like a first year of excellence.

[kaberett]

Thank you :-)