Apologies for the rather long stretch since my last blog; as you know, much of the past couple of months has been spent going to interviews (for both PhD projects and interviews, and far more than I’m capable of recalling off the top of my head), usually with the same unwelcome outcome. However, I’m pleased to report that my long, exhaustive search for a PhD project for the next academic year is finally at an end, having accepted an offer from the group of James Dowden at the University of Nottingham. Indeed, towards the end of my search, I even had options (!) in terms of both institution and project; towards the end of March, I visited Simon Lewis at the University of Bath, and he also seemed keen to make me an offer. However, I decided to accept the Dowden offer for two main reasons:
1. Simon will only be starting his independent research career as of this September, and so is a bit of an unknown quantity in both academic and industry circles; James, on the other hand, has spent a few more years in academia and so has built up more of a reputation when it comes to his research.
2. I had a slight preference for the project on offer from James (as I think it struck a better balance between methodology development and natural product/total synthesis work; apologies to all my non-scientist readers for the all the jargon in that last sentence, but trust me, there really is no clearer way of saying it!)
Anyway, confidentiality issues prevent me from divulging precise details about the project, though I can show you the confirmation letters I received, both from the chemistry department itself and the central postgraduate admissions office (just to prove I’m not making it up, obviously!):
• Chemistry department:
• Postgraduate admissions office:
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While the search for a PhD project for the next academic year has ultimately proven fruitful, the search to find work in the interim period has unfortunately been less of a success. Since my last blog, I had a telephone interview for a job in Groningen, Holland (though because the length of the contract would have resulted in a clash with the start of my PhD, nothing ultimately came of it) and a very drawn-out interview process for a job at Manchester Organics, based in the much-closer-to-home Frodsham in Cheshire. Having had a telephone pre-interview, I was subsequently invited not only to an interview in Frodsham but a follow-up “trial day” (i.e. working for a day in the labs; mind you, I spent most of the day stood around watching other people work, carrying out the occasional analytical test and setting up one set of apparatus for an experiment the following Monday, before being allowed to leave at 2.30pm.) Imagine my frustration, then, at being told I wasn’t going to be made an offer after having gone through all that (I did get a very nice lunch out of the trial day, though!)
All of this means, of course, that I’m still looking for gainful employment over the next three months, but thankfully with the PhD monkey off my back, I no longer feel the need to restrict my job search to chemistry-based jobs (although, obviously, that is still my preference) and can expand my search to any job which will keep me occupied for the next three months (with the Euros coming up, bar work looks like an increasingly enticing option!) If anyone has any offers of work or knows of any good search engines, by the way, feel free to let me know (either via the comments section or my e-mail address.)
Well, that’s all for the moment. I’m going to try and post a European leagues round-up, though probably one that’s less exhaustive (and exhausting) than my set of season previews, as well as a Euro 2008 preview, over the next couple of months (there may even be some output during the tournament itself, who knows?) In the meantime, all comments/suggestions are gratefully received by yours truly.
Later,
Liam
