The third post in a series about writing objectives, specific aims, intended outcomes or whatever-the-funder-you-are-applying-to-calls-them. Previous posts dealt with how academic culture treats the idea of predicting outcomes, and how the significance of the research may not be easy to see at the outset. Over the past several years, increased attention has been paid to [...]
Getting the most from conferences
Posted on May 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Are you going to the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences this year? Or maybe a large disciplinary conference? Are you worried about your conference presentation? Or excited about meeting up with colleagues you don’t see in person very often? Is this your first time? Are you unsure about what it’ll be like? What [...]
Life is like a video game
Posted on May 17, 2013 by 1 Comment
Caveat: I am not a gamer but friend who are have confirmed that what I’m going to say here makes sense. One of my recent posts for the Careers Cafe at University Affairs compared life to a video game. Video game developers write stories in a different way to novelists. Their stories need to be [...]
Thinking about hiring research assistants
Posted on May 14, 2013 by 2 Comments
Are you reluctant to hire Research Assistants?
I was reading a blog post about hiring in a small business and this paragraph resonated with conversations I’ve had with researchers. “I believe that I am a genius at some things and not others. And that I need to hire geniuses in the other areas.” It’s a bit different when you think about research assistants because one purpose of hiring them is to provide apprenticeship opportunities. But that just extends this perspective rather than negating it.
