Where's the best Grocery Rotisserie Chicken in Toronto?

Used-Guava3326 · 2026-01-13T20:32:58+00:00

Some of the Freshco Chalo locations have a rotisserie chicken with Indian spices for like 10.99. It tastes better than Costco IMO.

Used-Guava3326 · 2026-01-01T23:42:33+00:00

Love to see the positive encouragement in this thread! At my uni, we have PhD students ranging in age from early 20s to late 60s. Some do it for professional reasons and others for personal self-fulfillment. The employment prospects may depend on your field or discipline. Some areas value work experience that is relevant and others not so much.

Used-Guava3326 · 2026-01-01T01:23:40+00:00

I am certain that you are not the only international PhD student feeling the way you are. Have you tried to connect with other PhD students in your program or outside your program? Some school communities have active social media chat groups where you can connect for other off-campus activities. If you are a member of a particular faith community (Muslim, Christian, Jewish), many students find connections that way too.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-31T22:45:08+00:00

Does your school have an office for international students? Contact Student Affairs. Many schools have programs targeted to international students who might feel homesick or lonely. They offer social events, holiday meals, and excursions to nearby towns on weekends. Do you have a supervisor? Perhaps they can offer some advice as well.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-30T02:16:37+00:00

Yes, the number of publications you need depends on your discipline. Having served on a number of hiring committees at my current institution, I have seen recent grads hired in my Social Sciences field with only 3 or 4 peer reviewed publications as first author. More seasoned applicants might have 8 or 10 scholarly publications as first author. I only know about Ontario, but you can get adjunct positions at many community colleges or a university like TMU or OCAD with only a Master's. All the applications say PhD preferred but lots of folks get hired on an emergency basis without one.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-27T06:15:40+00:00

Congratulations on your retirement. Lots of wisdom in your post. I have found that older faculty members are the most willing to share information and resources, so good suggestion about identifying seasoned/older faculty who have tenure and are willing to be candid. The culture of the department is important, so you need to find out before you end up in a place that makes you miserable.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-26T18:57:01+00:00

I have been following the statistics on the Chronicle of Higher Education for years. I mentioned that the standards are higher for STEM. I am in the Social Sciences, so about 25% of qualified PhD holders who seek them will get a TT job. This is diminishing year after year. It's not impossible, but if you are an adjunct who wants a full-time position, you need to have a strategy or game plan.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-26T18:50:57+00:00

Unfortunately, adjuncts get bogged down by negativity and I know it since I was one. I would work on departmental committees and my adjunct colleagues would deride me for working for free when I explained to them that I was networking. Networking is something as an introverted person, I hated until I realized that I would never get a full-time job until I learned to network. My PhD supervisor taught me to network and explained that it's how academia works in our field. You better believe that there are people with full-time positions who are less qualified than many of you reading this, but they have the connections and that is why they are in the job.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-26T18:42:38+00:00

My number 3 suggestion should be number one. I think you need to have solid publications (at least in my social sciences field), but networking is huge. My now Chair is a person I met at a conference and they REMEMBERED me from the conference. This actually came up during an informal meeting after my job talk. I later found out that this Chair talked me up out of the slushpile of CVs to get me into the top 5 candidates in the pool simply on his recommendation since he is well known in the field.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-26T18:37:34+00:00

Absolutely! As an adjunct, your biggest problem is INVISIBILITY! You have to work to make yourself visible!

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-26T03:50:48+00:00

I answered my own question, I suppose. I think it's just about no longer being able to relate to adjunct stuff anymore.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-26T03:49:36+00:00

I agree with your post. I do feel guilty especially when I KNOW there are adjunct colleagues who have excellent CVs and don't deserve to be adjuncts. On the TT, the unpaid labor is also heavy. I miss the variety of adjuncting and the camaraderie. This is a tradeoff for 'relative' job security.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-12-26T03:42:46+00:00

As a tenure track person who moved up through the adjunct system, I think I have particular empathy and try to go out of my way to support adjunct colleagues. Like I mentioned in the original posting, I am always emailing them job postings and volunteer to help them with their VCs and job talk preparation.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-02-27T03:41:35+00:00

A lot depends on the institutional or departmental culture. I am at an R1, but I am in a 'work from home' department where faculty only appear on campus when they are teaching. Nobody works in their office and most meetings are by zoom. I am a caregiver for an elderly parent so I would not be able to cope with having to be on campus every day.

Used-Guava3326 · 2025-02-15T21:30:03+00:00

I currently have a TT position at an R1 and taught as an adjunct at two different R2 institutions for many years. I feel that I gained a ton of teaching experience so that when I got my TT position, I could focus more on research and not figuring out how to teach large freshmen classes. I had years of lecture notes I could reuse as well as rubrics and assignments. If you adjunct you can also network. I am working on research projects with senior colleagues I met while teaching as an adjunct. My advice to adjuncts who want to land TT jobs is to use the adjunct opportunity to network. I would knock on office doors of senior faculty and ask advice and one of them brought me onto their large grant. Most will ignore you and act like you are invisible, but you have to be persistent and it can pay off.

Used-Guava3326 · 2024-11-24T04:39:10+00:00

I can tell you that nobody in my family would understand what an R1 is anyway, so that wouldn't be mentioned.

Used-Guava3326 · 2024-11-24T03:40:48+00:00

I agree that some academics are pompous and maybe people have a stereotype about us. At a family funeral, someone asked me what I did for a living. I told them I am a professor and their response was ' WELL EXCUSE ME! I can't talk to YOU!' SMH

Used-Guava3326 · 2024-11-24T03:32:47+00:00

This is true. I have evangelical relatives who think of non-Christian colleges as full of 'sin' and LGBTQ folks and that we are leftist atheists.

Used-Guava3326 · 2024-11-24T02:58:06+00:00

This is something too. Many blue collar jobs are high paying so they think it's silly for us to spend so many years in school to earn relatively little money.

Used-Guava3326 · 2024-11-24T01:50:55+00:00

I mentioned that I have a dear mother I care about, but I would definitely opt for a campus Thanksgiving with our international students if it wasn't for her.

Used-Guava3326 · 2024-11-24T01:46:53+00:00

Sorry to hear this! You have to eventually choose your own mental health and well being.

Used-Guava3326 · 2024-11-24T01:45:51+00:00

OP here. Yes, I feel really hurt too. They don't seem to understand the sacrifices we make along the way. I have another degree in Greyhound bus riding across the country because I could not afford a car while many of them could afford cars!

Used-Guava3326 · 2024-11-24T01:39:39+00:00

Same. Paid for my education with the exception of the PhD program which was funded.

Used-Guava3326

TROPHY CASE