What do people here do?

[Nicky Chorley]

I've not really had the time to visit here recently, but thanks to everyone for their responses.

I'm not really a fan of manual labour, to be honest (especially since I'm not physically strong) and I prefer being indoors . My PhD is almost finished (I'm expecting to submit in the next few weeks) and the job search continues..

[Nicky Chorley]

Looks like I'll be unemployed for the foreseeable future. What I'm finding is that employers want you to have a lot of experience. I thought having some would be beneficial, meaning I could learn the rest on the job, but that doesn't seem to be the case; employers aren't interested in people who'll need (and want!) to learn . I don't really know what I'm supposed to do and it doesn't help that I've got to restrict my search to London now, where there aren't really universities advertising posts in areas of research similar to my own. I'm just starting to learn a bit about how the Linux kernel works, in the hope that I can contribute some code to the project and get some experience that way. My main priority, however, is preparing to defend my thesis on 31st August.

[John Upham]

My main priority, however, is preparing to defend my thesis on 31st August.

Good luck with your Viva voce examination. You should boost your confidence by believing that you know more about your thesis than both the internal and external examiners!

Also, research the work of your external and his recent papers: I'm sure you knew this already!

[Nicky Chorley]

Thanks! Yeah, I suppose I do know more about what I've done than either of them and just need to make sure I can show it. My external is a woman and her work really isn't on stuff related to mine (and so there aren't really any citations of her papers in my thesis!).

Edit: I need a job doing things that I already know how to do, so I can show that I don't need to learn anything. There don't seem to be any (?) of those about. My data analysis skills are "poor", I guess - I don't do any heavy statistical analysis; my work has really just centred on investigating periodicities in signals, with the use of, e.g. Fourier transforms. My programming skills are evidently just as poor, as I haven't really had to use much object oriented stuff in my own code or have lots of experience with some language. Well, I've been using IDL for the past ~ 4 years, but it's not exactly something that's used in the "real" world. In short, I'm screwed.

[Dan O'Dowd]

I work as an in-store at Domino's Pizza. I've done this for three years now, for a combination of reasons. I had been previously unemployed for a straight year after getting the boot from Laser Quest, for, shall we say, curious reasons. I applied for about 300 jobs, nothing was working, and I had an intuition about the credit crunch (which came true), so I took the job, and while I hope to move on to administrative stuff in future - I had a waiting list position to be in the DWP/Jobcentre for precisely this, but it timed out - I certainly have grown and become far more pressure-resistant in my current job. It also affords me a very flexible working pattern, albeit I have to work to avoid becoming completely nocturnal at times, and I have never had any trouble getting all the time off I need for matches.

On the chess side, I'm training (have been for years, haha, I should perhaps stop saying training to mislead people!) to become an ECF Arbiter at some stage, and I'm now organising Carlisle chess club, and its associated tournaments and things.

[Jonathan Bryant]

... after getting the boot from Laser Quest, for, shall we say, curious reasons.

That's certainly made me curious. Do tell.

[guyhayton]

Sticking with the name of the thread title!

I am a middle-aged Pensions Manager. I used to be able to use this at a house party to make people 'go away', but these day's everyone wants to tell me about the economy, investment yields or just general advice.

So, I decided to take up Chess. This seemed reasonable, certainly more attainable than learning the piano at 40. As you will see elsewhere in the forum (I'm rubbish, and have never played 'over-the-board'), but it does have the desired effect at parties.

Stranger, "So what do you do?"
Me, "Well my day job is boring, but what I really enjoy is CHESS!"

Works everytime

[Justin Hadi]

I've not really had the time to visit here recently, but thanks to everyone for their responses.

I'm not really a fan of manual labour, to be honest (especially since I'm not physically strong) and I prefer being indoors . My PhD is almost finished (I'm expecting to submit in the next few weeks) and the job search continues..

Nicky,

Good luck from another PhD student. My funding is due to finish in December so I'm in the midst of getting the final results and writing up. Fun and games.

On parties I'm sure a PhD is initially more interesting than chess but the intricacies of research are surely more boring than the excitement of a chess game!

[Nicky Chorley]

Nicky,

Good luck from another PhD student. My funding is due to finish in December so I'm in the midst of getting the final results and writing up. Fun and games.

Thanks Justin. Hopefully yours goes well, too. What's it in? Are you having much luck with job searching?

[Justin Hadi]

It's in modeling multiphase flow. I suspect there are plenty of career options so I'm not worrying too much about jobs right now. There will always be jobs available for numerate people.

[Justin Hadi]

I have a couple of years experience working though, so that helps.

[Nicky Chorley]

I imagine there are plenty of options for you . My experience is rather limited, so am finding it rather hard :/.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

It's in modeling multiphase flow. I suspect there are plenty of career options so I'm not worrying too much about jobs right now. There will always be jobs available for numerate people.

Jobs, yes, but you mention career options and that is something that sometimes means not taking the first job that comes along (or to keep looking for a new job after taking that one). Though some areas are less career-focused than they used to be. And sometimes a few years experience in various job environments is needed before settling on a career route and long-term positions. Of course, not everyone plans for a career, you can build up a portfolio of transferable skills instead, but there are downsides to that as well.

[Justin Hadi]

Sure Chris yeah, I think there are plenty of career options. Although relevant jobs are advertised finding the right career for you is more difficult...

In Nicky's case I don't believe there's nothing out there; at the very least there should be some graduate training schemes in IT for example where you aren't expected to know much. Just found this website http://www.phdjobs.com with a vacancy for a graduate training scheme in IT. But it's a tough market for everyone right now.

[Nicky Chorley]

Graduate schemes aren't suited to people like me :/. I went to an assessment day for one once and I don't think I could cope with that type of working. There should be something I can do with what I already know . Maybe I'll just have to be unemployed for ~ a year, while trying to learn enough to be a quant.