Induction Day 2010 Advice: Getting What You Came for in graduate school

Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie Getting What You Came For Advice for your ﬁrst year Jodi Schneider jschneider@pobox.com NUIG Induction Day 2010-10-21 Galway, Ireland © Copyright 2009 Digital Enterprise Research Institute. All rights reserved.

Begin with the end in mind

Why are you here?

Take Homes • Why are you here? • It’s not undergrad • Track & map the research for your lit review

It’s not undergrad

Postgrad is not undergrad • Know what ‘counts’ • what your advisor expects • why you’re really here • what the department values • what counts as research in your ﬁeld • Get organised:You can’t rely soly on your class cohort. • Personalities matter. Make sure you can work with your advisor and your committee.

Working with your advisor • Meet regularly; generally once a week. • Discuss what you want from your degree program. • Set clear goals, with ﬁxed deadlines. • Ask for regular feedback. • Agree on your responsibilities, and your advisor’s. • Merit your advisor’s good opinion. • You are not just an acolyte, but also a collaborator. Act accordingly!

Self-management • Know what’s expected of you. • Don’t expect your advisor to have a grand plan: it’s up to you to ensure there is a plan. • Goals, deadlines, progress measures. • Time management. • Critical path analysis.

Understand the department • What is the typical service requirement? • How soon and how often should you publish? • Get to know people, inside & outside your research group. • Be nice to admin staff! • Get the gossip: older students can be really helpful, if they want to be. • Who can you go to sort out problems? • What are the graduation requirements?

Track & map the research for your lit review

Track the research • Know the good conferences & journals. • Ask. • Track cites. (The library can show you!) • Start reading these papers now, even before you have papers to submit. • Use RSS feeds to follow journals and blogs. • Find the community (prof orgs, mailing lists) • Use the library (ILL, off-campus access, 1-1 help)

Track your reading

Summarise reading

Track research ideas • Always be writing (helps formulate ideas!) • introduction and literature review • research diary • mindmapping and outlining • “Release” early and often: get feedback from your GRC

Try Mind Mapping

Thanks! • jschneider@pobox.com • @jschneider on Twitter • http://jodischneider.com

Image credits • Slide 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ pefectfutures/3299973538/ • Slide 6, 11, 20: CC-BY Jodi Schneider • Slide 13: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/ magnificentmaps/2010/07/magnificentmaps-that-didnt-make-the-exhibition-4.html

Induction Day 2010 Advice: Getting What You Came for in graduate school

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