Honorary Doctorates

[Arshad Ali]

In the school where I work, all adults, from the proprietor and head downwards, are always called by their first name by all children, from age 3 upwards. No one has any problem with this. Some of the children find it strange at first but they soon get used to it.

Halmos, in his autobiography, contends that at third-rate places, "'Doctor Jones' is the way to address Doctor Jones: he and his institution don't want you to forget, not for a minute, that he has earned that great distinction." Instructors without a PhD are addressed as Mr. Jones. If they become asst. prof. or higher, they're known as Prof. Jones -- unless they have a PhD, when they're addressed as Doctor Jones. So "Doctor Jones" is as high as it gets. At second-rate places, the PhD is assumed, so everyone on the faculty who is not an asst. prof. or higher is addressed as Dr. Jones. When they become asst. profs., they're addressed as "Professor Jones." At the first-rate places (like Chicago), it is taken for granted that the PhD is too unimportant to give you any status so everyone -- the janitor, young instructor, elderly prof, chairman -- is known as "Mr. Jones."

[Jonathan Bryant]

In the school where I work, all adults, from the proprietor and head downwards, are always called by their first name by all children, from age 3 upwards. No one has any problem with this. Some of the children find it strange at first but they soon get used to it.

I found it quite strange when I first heard children referring to their teachers by their first names rather than Mrs Branngham (my 1st year infant school teacher) or whoever. Mind you, I also find it strange when I hear them call their friends' mothers and fathers Vicky and Steve rather than "Auntie Vicky" or "Uncle Steve" or whatever.

Not better or worse just different from my day - which wasn't that long ago.

[Nicky Chorley]

I wince slightly when students at the Univ address me as "Dr Elliott".

Whenever I have had to contact an academic that I didn't know too well, I always use their title, since I think it's just polite to do so.

Ahh, thanks to you and Arshad for responses, too. I'll read them in more detail later. It seems like you can miss a lot in just a few days (I think this thread was just one or two pages last time I checked)!

[Jonathan Rogers]

I expect most my students to use my title (Dr) when writing emails to me too - although I don't correct anyone who doesn't. After all, there are some who mistakenly say "Professor" as well as those who mistakenly say "Mr" and one wouldn't want to discourage the former.

I suspect that it is more common at Oxbridge for (undergraduate) students to address their supervisors by their first name.

[AustinElliott]

I expect most my students to use my title (Dr) when writing emails to me too - although I don't correct anyone who doesn't. After all, there are some who mistakenly say "Professor" as well as those who mistakenly say "Mr" and one wouldn't want to discourage the former.

Good point Jonathan. Though I would be amazed if anyone called me "Professor". Somehow I don't seem to convey Professor-dom, advanced age notwithstanding..!

I suspect that it is more common at Oxbridge for (undergraduate) students to address their supervisors by their first name.

Probably - but I think that's just because, with weekly supervisions and small groups (or even one-to-one, though not sure how common that actually is any more even at Oxbridge) , they get to know one another pretty well. I pretty much expect that the students I see weekly, or more than weekly, in tutorials over a term or even two terms will use my first name... Once we have got to know one another a bit, it would seem unnecessarily formal to stick to "Dr". Which is also the point where I then do find it slightly odd if they keep calling me "Dr" or "Mr".

Would agree that in polite and/or formal enquiries - which most "first contacts", whether in person or by email, should be - you would normally expect students to address you with a title of some kind. As I would if I were writing to someone I didn't know.

[Nicky Chorley]

Success in the actuarial exams is probably more correlated with A level math results than with the quality of one's degree (I'm guessing). In the same vein chartered accountancy firms in London often ask for a certain aggregate numerical score in one's A levels -- simply because it gives a better indication of success in ACA professional exams.

Fair enough, I suppose!

With regard to jobs in finance, I mean 'quant' jobs -- risk analysis, the pricing of derivative securities, and so on. All the places where knowledge of some math (PDEs, stochastic calculus, probability, Monte Carlo simulation, linear algebra, etc.) and some coding (C++, R, MatLab, etc.) can be put to use. New York and London are the hubs for this kind of work (among banks and hedge funds). There are many known instances of where PhDs have gone back to earn an MFE (master of financial engineering) just to make themselves more marketable. But employers are really looking for people -- often math, computing, and physics PhDs -- who have the right combination of applied math and programming under their belt. C++ is still the most desired language.

Ah yes, quant jobs. I've heard about those, but in my case, I just don't have the maths. Most of those things, I've never used, simply because I've not needed them for my work. I have a decent (I think) knowledge of C++ and R (this is more true of the former), but I wouldn't consider having advanced knowledge of either. I may look at these jobs again and see if there's anything for me. Thanks!

[Arshad Ali]

Ah yes, quant jobs. I've heard about those, but in my case, I just don't have the maths. Most of those things, I've never used, simply because I've not needed them for my work. I have a decent (I think) knowledge of C++ and R (this is more true of the former), but I wouldn't consider having advanced knowledge of either. I may look at these jobs again and see if there's anything for me. Thanks!

Most quants are glorified programmers. If your C++ is upto scratch, you can approach headhunters.

[Nicky Chorley]

Most quants are glorified programmers. If your C++ is upto scratch, you can approach headhunters.

Thanks for that. I'll probably need to do some brushing up, but I'll definitely keep quant in mind.

Also, to Austin, thanks for the advice. Working connections and just carrying on with applications is what I'll do. I did visit the careers service before I left and a lot of the material they had was just copies of stuff from Prospects. When I saw a careers advisor, they mainly wanted to do personality type things, which didn't really tell me anything I didn't know.

Sorry for the derailment!