How to Salvage my Academic Career?

[Delong]

Was that performed after your graduation? Wish for more information about that.

Yeah it was performed after graduation...

 

[Jennanana]

Yeah it was performed after graduation...

@Delong How did you go about finding that? Everywhere I've heard of wants undergrads

 

[Delong]

@Delong How did you go about finding that? Everywhere I've heard of wants undergrads

Well I was basically working for free so zhat was a big part of it. I started out emailing professors for if they have a room for a volunteer. I said I was a recent college graduate and I wanted more research experience.

Eventually one professor said yes there was room and I basically worked in.his lab collecting data for five months. I decided to transition to a different lab that was a better fit for my skills. The professor at the first lab put in a good word for me and I was able to switch to another lab very quickly.

I would keep volunteering but at some point I decided I need to start making money. And its hard to do a job and do research at the same time blah...

 

[sunrah]

The job for a certified translator pays well, and requires a degree in the language which you have.

I second this. I found it relatively easy to get a job as a freelance even without experience and when I started I didn't even have a degree. If you can write a good introductory email, most agencies will send you a brief sample text to translate. Russian->English is also a useful combination to have. If you're interested PM me and I'll send some links to a couple agencies. You can make a good living, but the work is a little tedious.

 

[Logical Dog]

I second this. I found it relatively easy to get a job as a freelance even without experience and when I started I didn't even have a degree. If you can write a good introductory email, most agencies will send you a brief sample text to translate. Russian->English is also a useful combination to have. If you're interested PM me and I'll send some links to a couple agencies. You can make a good living, but the work is a little tedious.

A certified translator is even better than that...they are allowed to be a kind of notary to certify documents for courts and legal matters etc. : -) You need to pass an exam and have a degree in that language and have native proficiency in the other language (english here). It is a bit tedious but even normal translation work pays well.

 

[Mark Harder]

[QUOTE="
Anyway I don't think employers care that much about your GPA. Just getting a degree can be enough to them I think.[/QUOTE]

Yes, common sense would dictate that recommendations and a history of accomplishments are more important than GPAs. However, it's people in the HR departments of large organizations who make hiring decisions. Sadly, in my experience, HR recruiters can be woefully lacking in common sense. Oddly enough, recruiters for federal jobs may require GPAs and transcripts. I was applying for a patent office job once, and I had to write my former grad school University and pay them for a copy of my transcript before my application was complete. This shouldn't be a big deal if you are a recent graduate; but at the time, over 30 yrs had elapsed since college, and 24 yrs since my Ph.D. I have applied to dozens of jobs over my lifetime and this was the only time since college that academic credentials were required. I tried to shrug it off, but the implication that all those years of working in the sciences, publishing record included, weren't enough, that in fact my 'report cards' were at least as important as my real accomplishments felt humiliating. (To top it off, I didn't get the job.) Sometimes I wonder if that requirement isn't a subtle form of age discrimination.
Other than complaining, I want to make the point that retaining your formal credentials can be important in a job search, especially when it's a buyer's market and you're at the mercy of prospective employers.

 

[Jennanana]

Anyway I don't think employers care that much about your GPA. Just getting a degree can be enough to them I think.

Yes, common sense would dictate that recommendations and a history of accomplishments are more important than GPAs. However, it's people in the HR departments of large organizations who make hiring decisions. Sadly, in my experience, HR recruiters can be woefully lacking in common sense. Oddly enough, recruiters for federal jobs may require GPAs and transcripts. I was applying for a patent office job once, and I had to write my former grad school University and pay them for a copy of my transcript before my application was complete. This shouldn't be a big deal if you are a recent graduate; but at the time, over 30 yrs had elapsed since college, and 24 yrs since my Ph.D. I have applied to dozens of jobs over my lifetime and this was the only time since college that academic credentials were required. I tried to shrug it off, but the implication that all those years of working in the sciences, publishing record included, weren't enough, that in fact my 'report cards' were at least as important as my real accomplishments felt humiliating. (To top it off, I didn't get the job.) Sometimes I wonder if that requirement isn't a subtle form of age discrimination.
Other than complaining, I want to make the point that retaining your formal credentials can be important in a job search, especially when it's a buyer's market and you're at the mercy of prospective employers.

Through any sort of "job postings," I can't name even one posting--be it for an actual employee position, internship, anything--that did NOT specify a minimum GPA, or ask for a transcript, or some combo of these. Where are people looking for these places that don't nit-pick past the fact that I graduated? I would like to agree with people telling me it doesn't particularly matter that I did poorly my first two years, but unfortunately I didn't quite recover to that magical 3.0 number mark. This has significantly reduced the number of times I even bother applying anywhere

 

[fresh_42]

This has significantly reduced the number of times I even bother applying anywhere

Well, you could do it anyway. What do you have to lose? We have a saying here: cheekiness wins! A friend of mine once turned this into a quite drastic version involving the devil and some kind of a big heap I don't won't to cite here. I think the hardest part, and I know what I'm talking about and how hard it is, is to gain enough self-respect and certainty such that it transports into your appearance, wording and attitude. And I know that these words can easily be spoken and might be of little help when you're down. The point is, the rest of the world acts according to it. One way to (at least temporarily) build up some positive vibes can be music. (I like this one. However, I didn't get the job then ...) At least music is a possibility for us westeners (in contrast to Tibetan monks which have other methods) to influence our autonomic nervous system. It also is the reason I like Bobby McGee.

 

[arydberg]

I spent 4 years at a local junk university. I failed two courses out of the malice of the instructors while I had passing grades. I failed Astromey because i could not accept a professor in his late nineties. I found german impossible. Then I flunked out.

I hitchhiked to California where I took a math course at Univ. of calif at Berkeley. i think it was taught by Ted Kaczynski the unibomber. Before the final exam the class adverage was 33.

I wound up living in Manhattan where I took night courses at CCNY. Guess What. They actually taught. I could get A's and B's at CCNY when I could not pass classes at the university of junk. I could even pass german. They mailed me my degree 5 years late.

By then tricky Dickey had laid off all aerospace workers so there were no jobs. With a name that sounds jewish I never got a job from my resume. The only thing that worked was to get a temporary job with a temp agency. Usually the company tried to hire me. In my late 50's i got a job at a Ivy League University. Best job I ever had but it took a lifetime to land it. Now i am retired. The only thing that saved us was i invested my retirement funds in the stock market and did well.

Yes life sucks.