spectastic

Congrats on your baby, Good luck with your phd. You should be happy about this.

The LOR writers usually have to fill out a questionaire. What kind of questions do they ask? Anyone have any examples?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL8e2ujXe8g

That article is from 2009, one of the worst years for entry level employment in a long time. The engineering job market in Southeast Texas is through the roof, with the expansion of various chemical plants and refinaries, as well as new opportunities being created by the XL Keystone. In addition, in college, you may have heard that the baby boomer engineers are retiring, and the void needs to be filled NOW. I didn't believe it back when I was in Iowa, but now that I'm working, it's true. There are several people on site who are supposed to be retired, but losing their many years of expertise would be like cutting off the arms of a quarterback. The companies here need engineers now so that they can be developed and mentored to make sure the baton gets passed on properly. And looking around, a lot of them have like 30+ years of experience. Not only do they possess valuable knowledge that has to be inhereted, that kind of knowledge can lead to complacency and disregard for morals and ethics "They're not going to fire me, I'm too valuable". At my company in particular, we are having trouble retaining people, because apparently they are all able to find better, more lucrative opportunities (also due to a variety of other reasons). Back in Iowa, it was great to have even one internship. Down here, it's normal to have at least 3 internship/co-ops for a graduating senior. If you follow where the oil money is, you'd be in Texas. Also fun fact well known around here but maybe not elsewhere: the operators usually hold some sort of two year technical degree. Their base pay matches the engineers' starting salary. With full overtime, which consists mostly of sitting on their butts chitchatting or watching youtube (especially night shifts), they probably get paid up to 150k if not more. I find that pretty ridiculous

brother, we can't ALL be wrong.

<--- this scene from LOTR scared the absolute shit out of me when I first saw it, and turned the whole series into a horror film franchise. And it also illustrates drive and motivation lol. he kinda looks like Einstein too.

I enjoy teaching to a certain extent. However, it's also easy to pass that off as an afterthought, when your higher priority is research. When I TA'ed general chemistry, I found myself barging into the help room 15 minutes before class to pick up a textbook and learn what we were supposed to be talking about, and sometimes relearning what I've forgotten. That routine more/less worked for general chemistry, but would definitely not fly in a more serious course. I feel kind of guilty, because I did not take the time to really get organized for the course. And I didn't take any time to interact with my students such that some would have taken a greater interest in my course, instead of falling asleep. As for academia. I have no idea. I've heard of good/bad in academia and industry alike. In academia, you get a more laid back atmosphere, more freedom in choosing your research thrusts, but it also requires tons of time and dedication to grants and papers. It pretty much consumes your life. On the other hand, in industry, you're free after you clock out, there's no pressure to "publish or perish," but your projects are probably a lot less engaging, and more focused on saving the company money than coming up with new ideas. I don't think you can make a truly informed decision about this until you do your first rodeo - so to speak.

they banned me from collegeconfidential because I refused to cooperate with one the administrators, not because I wasn't following rules, but probably because he/she just didn't like me. they give you infractions for the dumbest shit.

I stumbled upon this on google... Now it makes sense why the phone was sometimes ringing when I was in the lab running experiments in my undergrad.... I didn't pick up though, because I was like "who in the hell would call the lab at this hour?" There was a security camera in the lab too. hmmmmm

everything wasted

For those of you who know about faculty research vs industrial R&D, what are the key differences? To me, it seems like that faculty members' jobs are completely integrated into their lives. When they're off work, they're not really off work. They're keeping up with literature, revising grants, answering emails and such. On the other hand, R&D researchers are done when they clock out. They're not constantly under the pressure to publish, get grants approved, putting pressure on students. Is this a correct assessment?