I think I mentioned I got that Bachelor’s Degree in Media Engineering done back in 2011. Made somemovies, got unemployed, called a few places, got an old job back within 24 hours of said phone calls and have been making sandwiches for the last year while looking for more work in my field. Not quite hitched yet, though I did find a girlfriend whilst waiting on a bus stop.
First ever paid summer holiday coming up. Despite the Chronicles of Mystara having been released, no shrine-related e-mails at all. Might want to make something related to Dragon’s Crown, if it turns out to be captivating enough. Also, AC: New Leaf is fun and exchanging Nintendo Flipnote/Mail Box letters with TD/Rhaka/That Pony Guy has been glorious.
I’m starting my residency in internal medicine in West Virginia, so I’ll actually be completing my internal medicine boards around the same time as Sin, although I won’t be reading NCCN material nearly as much as he will be.
Congratulations! Don’t worry, getting a PhD isn’t that bad. You’ve gone through the worst part of the process with your Master’s. Your PhD will naturally extend from the skills that got you that.
NCCN is fucking awesome. Klez, any thoughts on hospitalist vs specialist?
I love the mix of people in Baltimore. It was hard for us to go to a bar and not end up making friends with some interesting person. Right now we live in Arlington, VA and it is much too homogeneous and uppity for us. Biking is much better here though.
I am currently starting my second year of my Statistics PhD. Unfortunately with no results to show for it - health reasons kept me from running my experiments last term. I’m starting them next week (hopefully). My crazy supervisor is hoping to get most of the slog done this year and have the Thesis submitted halfway through my second year. I don’t know how feasible that is, but I did get a good Master’s degree done in 10 months, and that was while suffering from undiagnosed chronic hypothyroidism, which is a buttload of shit. I also went back to karate and got my black belt, currently training towards my second black belt. We’ll see.
Other than that, life is actually pretty good at the moment, if extremely busy.
Seriously. My PhD in a “high-tech” engineering field has been so useless in my job search. The job market for PhDs in Canada is a complete joke. There are like 5 universities overall, the National Research Council is frozen and industry doesn’t hire people with more than a Master’s degree (also, engineers designing airplanes have no clue what they’re doing - true story). There are definitely more opportunities in the US, but everyone and their mother have a PhD nowadays, so it’s impossible to compete as a non-US person. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get interviews for entry-level mechanical design engineering positions at some point in the next few months, if only I could remember what I learned 10 years ago during my undergrad…
Not that anyone asked me for advice, but to those getting a PhD, make sure you have a clear objective from the start (for AFTER you graduate) and work toward it at every possible opportunity: go to a lot of conferences, publish in great journals, teach, network, network, network, make sure you can get at least 3 excellent reference letters from faculty members by the time you’re done, etc.
Happy post. At least, I don’t have debt after getting all this great education. :chupon:
Tempting. There are also tons of plane engineering jobs in Wichita! Didn’t you know that as a Canadian, I’m a potential terrorist? I’m therefore automatically not considered for any position in the aerospace industry in the USA (commercial or military). ITAR, U.S. Export Control laws and DoD security clearance tend to get in the way. Siiiiigh.
I’m not sure that’s strictly true. I have friends who have worked on DoD related projects as Canadians; they just have to go through more security bullshit than other people.
And to answer Sin from yesterpage, I’ll see if I have enough stamina for a subspecialization after I’ve done more of my 3 years…