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By CaleD, on March 8th, 2010
This is more of an informative post than anything. As graduate students, I would assume that most of us are life long learners and pride ourselves in our capacity to understand new things. Unfortunately for us, our education has been expensive. Even as graduate students, we somehow find $3500 a term disappearing from our bank accounts for tuition.
Luckily enough for future generations, I think there may be a trend towards cheaper (or free), less formal education with the evolution of Web 2.0. For example, I recently came across a resource on the web, offering an entire Webinar on Technology Transfer for free. For those of you also interested in this career (or if you’re just interested in intellectual property and/or business for that matter) I would recommend checking it out.
You can find it here: http://bit.ly/axxIMa
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By CaleD, on March 5th, 2010
I hope that I have been able to help some people discover a few more potential careers out there that don’t involve lab work. I’m going to discuss a few more that I have come across today and probably leave it up to you to find out the rest. I’m just here to wet your appetite, ultimately you’ll need to discover your own path – I can only help push you in the right direction.
Technical Writer
These individuals design, write and edit product manuals, handbooks or application notes. There isn’t as much creativity involved here as some people may like, but this career will challenge you to communicate effectively in writing. If the protocol for doing something isn’t clear, it is the problem of the technical writer. For more information about this type of job check out this link. http://bit.ly/aBlb3D
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By Sam O, on March 5th, 2010
I just read an interesting article on Globe campus about the lackluster performance of Canada in educating and graduating PhDs:
“Canada’s graduation rate of doctoral students is strikingly low compared with its performance on other measures of education completion (high school, college, and university) and compared with its peers,” the report states.
And if that wasn’t enough to drive you to deep depression, here’s more from the article:
“There’s also less pay and employment incentive for Canadian students to pursue doctoral education … Compared to firms in the U.S., Canadian firms across most industries hire fewer Ph.D. graduates and pay them less.”
Do not despair PhD candidates across the country, we shall overcome!
You can read the rest of the article here.
By Sam O, on February 23rd, 2010
GRADupdate (from UWO) has always had very useful tips for the everyday graduate student. Even though some of the tips may not be groundbreaking discoveries, they act as reminders and they are always welcome. This past issue was dedicated on the dreadful final step: the thesis and defense preparation. I remember when I started writing my Master’s thesis; I must have read tens of ‘how to…’ articles. But the most useful tips of all I applied at that time was to “start writing early and to write for an hour or 30 minutes every single day”. Writing for blocks of hours can be very exhausting, but writing in small stints may actually be more productive. But here’s the GRADupdate article….
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By Greg Anderson, on February 18th, 2010
How do you examine others’ faces? Do you find it easy, difficult, or downright impossible to gauge the emotions of others in your daily interactions? You might be surprised to learn that your ability to perform these tasks is largely influenced by the culture that you grew up in, according to new research conducted by Caroline Blais at the Université de Montréal.
In two recent articles (PLoS One 3(8): e3022 (2008), Current Biology 19: 1543 (2009)), Blais argues that Caucasians and Asians do not examine faces in the same way, and thus will often gather differing emotional information from those they are interacting with. Specifically, Eastern cultures have a lower tendency to recognize negative facial expressions than Western cultures do. Why is that? And how is it even possible to quantify such a thing?
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By CaleD, on February 13th, 2010
I thought I’d take a break from divulging information about the various career paths available to life science/medical physics graduate students and talk a little bit about some of things you might consider doing to land that dream job of yours.
In the past, I always believed I was special in some way – that the jobs I coveted would somehow fall into my lap. This “dream” has come crashing down as rejection letters or silence are the two responses I get most often. I’m sure we’ve all heard the old adage, “It’s not WHAT you know, but WHO you know.” Unfortunately, even for graduate students – it is a saying that I think needs to be taken seriously.
Typically graduate students are terrible at networking and really who can blame us? We rarely see anyone outside of our immediate circle of friends or labmates because we are slaving away writing computer programs or pipetting furiously. We don’t have much time to think about our future and how to get there and generally assume that it will “all work out”.
Looking back, I think this is a mistake. Sure, some people will get that job they’ve always wanted and not ever actively try to build a network of contacts. But for most of us, the earlier we prepare for our eventual job hunt the more likely we are to land that interview.
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By CaleD, on January 30th, 2010
Welcome back!
My last blog just scratched the surface of the many career options available to graduate students in the department of Medical Biophysics (or most graduate departments for that matter). So I’m going to discuss with you three more options today. Someone mentioned they’d be interested in hearing what a radiation physicist does, so I’ll try my best to answer that question.
Medical Radiation Physicist (Radiation Oncology Physics)
These advanced degree holders (typically a Ph.D. in medical physics) work in the hospital setting. Medical Radiation Physicists are involved in all aspects of radiation therapy. Their day to day responsibilities include ensuring that radiation emitting devices within the hospital are functioning properly, monitoring emissions and recommending safe dosages and treatment parameters. Radiation Physicists verify that the hospital is following established guidelines for the use of radiation. This career will expose individuals to radiation equipment design and enable them to research particular medical devices in order to make policy recommendations based on the findings.
Becoming a Radiation Physicist unfortunately requires more training. The program lasts 2 years and includes both a classroom portion (typically in the first year) and a clinical rotation portion (typically in the second year). Does this sound interesting? Here are some links to get you started.
The Toronto Residency Program in Radiation Oncology Physics http://bit.ly/aXOtTD
Radiation Oncology Physics: An in depth look (text book) http://bit.ly/9kVwcj
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By MBPGSU, on January 27th, 2010
Jorge Cham, the author of Piled higher and Deeper (PhD) comics, is coming to speak!
His comics are hilarious and continually reflect grad school life – if you haven’t read them, then you’ve been missing out: phdcomics.com.
And I’ve heard he gives a great talk as well, so get your ticket to check it out!
He’ll be here on Monday March 8 at 3pm (at MacLeod auditorium, Med Science Building)
Tickets are limited so get them in advance – bring your $10 to either Megan in mars (4-601H) or Vanessa in PMH (10-126), or bring it to seminar and get your ticket there.
He’s also going to be available during the day, so if you’re interested in showing him around the lab/hospital, and maybe getting to be IN one of his comics, then email the organizers: phdcomics.toronto@gmail.com.
Thanks all!
Megan
By Sam O, on January 23rd, 2010
 … that was a title of recent article on the Toronto Star.
Although, the article mainly addressed the growing fraud trends in standardized entry tests to professional schools (GMAT, MCAT, LSAT, GRE and so on…), I would love to see a spouse (boyfriend or girlfriend) attempt to give a public lecture or undertake a Master or PhD defense wearing a wig, mustache or lipstick (read the third paragraph of the article and you’ll know understand what I’m talking about).
By the way, I do not agree with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada ruling people complaining that requiring digital thumbprints is an invasion of privacy; yes, obtaining fingerprints it’s synonymous of criminal activity, but the goal here is to maintain the integrity of these standardized and deter cheaters.
Palm Scanning for Grad Students Raises Fear [The Toronto Star]
By CaleD, on January 13th, 2010
A lot of my early blogs will probably be related to this topic – that’s because it has been on my mind a lot lately (shocking I know). I hope to be able to share with you some of what I have learned during my current career search. My main focus will be on jobs outside of the academic realm because that’s where my own interests lie. Although, I am not opposed to the idea of doing a little research regarding the academic job search if it is what some of you want (leave me a message or a comment). Graduate students are extremely busy doing experiments, attending conferences or helping their supervisor by getting those last few experiments completed for a grant proposal due tomorrow. Typically thinking about our eventual career is not really a priority and we put reflecting about it off. I would be the first person to admit to doing this but I think it is a mistake. Looking back, the sooner you address this question the better (unless you are 100% that academia is for that is).
So I guess the first pertinent question to ask would be, “What kind of careers are there for life scientist/physicist outside academia?” Let me give you a few examples:
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