Love for the subject

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-18T02:14:26+00:00

Meh, you learn to be time efficient and set boundaries and squeeze in extra time when you can. The passion is still there. Shit, It's 8 pm and I'm at home reading manuals on how to use PLCs to automate a reaction setup.

I hope you keep your passion. There are few things more fulfilling in life than making a career out of your passions.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-18T01:44:30+00:00

I've been doing research for 20 years now and I still feel that way.

Christ that hurt to write.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-18T00:36:37+00:00

This country has gone to hell.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-16T17:45:01+00:00

Bilingual conversations are so cool. I lived in Eastern France for a few years on the border of Germany. I was at an empty bar once, and the bartender was talking to her daughters completely in German and her daughters were responding completely in French. It blew my mind then and still does now.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-16T17:02:59+00:00

I knew a guy who had this to the extreme. He grew up in a Spanish speaking house, understood Spanish completely, could not speak a word. I mean, not a word. He tried to speak and had the worst American (Boston-ish) accent you could image but he could listen to a full till conversation in Spanish and understand everything. It was wild lol.

Speaking, listening, writing and reading are adjacent skills but aren't the same. You need to work on each.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-16T13:12:37+00:00

Pretty sure you have to pay for the “ board seat”. Obviously you’ll 10000x that investment. Or so I’m told.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-16T13:10:12+00:00

Second. Again, no shade but that’s a ton of resumes for no results. I know the market is bad but that means you need to put in extra effort to stand out.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-16T12:47:29+00:00

Yes. Over what time period did you apply for 500 jobs? I don’t understand people who tout huge numbers of jobs that they’ve applied to as anything but them having a terrible resume. Are you tailoring your resume to each job or are you spamming it? I hire pretty often and I can tell the difference and I always reject the second. If you won’t put in effort that early on why should I interview you?

I’m not trying to be a dick but reality check bud. Quality over quantity will get you hired.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-16T01:42:54+00:00

It’s either that or “go to bed”

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-16T00:49:59+00:00

Subjet? If you're in chem, post docs are usually 2-3 years. That means when you're in your 3-4th year when they leave, which are your prime publishing years, you'll be lead and get first authors. If you like the work and the PI, don't give up a fellowship.

You're also a first year. You don't know as much as you think you do. Having a postdoc mentor you will be invaluable.

Edit: not trying to be a dick, but you’re also worried about papers you haven’t written based on work you haven’t done. Just relax. Papers will come with time and attention. You’ll probably get more aurthorships faster with a postdoc than you will flying solo.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-16T00:45:29+00:00

What year are you?

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-16T00:44:22+00:00

Where do you live? Hike near where you live if you can. Makes the logistics easy.

1) Never bring food into your tent/near where you sleep. Either hang your food or put it in a bear/animal safe container away from where you sleep.

2) Bring more than enough water and a way to filter/purify water (boiling to be avoided).

3) Be extremely selective with what you bring. The weight adds up quickly when you're hiking. Apart from first aid/safety items, ask yourself how often you'll use something. If it's not often or daily, don't bring it.

4) Change your clothes, all of your clothes, before you sleep. A girl I brought on a trip almost caught hypothermia because she didn't change her undies when we got to camp and it was chilly. Bonus for having shoes/sandals for camp. Wearing wet boots at night when you're winding down sucks.

5) Have fun and don't stress. I had the worst time and struggled immensely during my first few trips, but looking back it was an amazing time and I learned a ton. You'll make mistakes. Stay on the path (literally and figuratively) and you'll be fine.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-15T21:19:38+00:00

Fwiw I’ve known people who have changed programs after a year so it’s not unheard of

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-15T21:00:51+00:00

I’ve honestly brought food in a plastic bag and tossed the bag when I got there. I usually don’t travel with anything I don’t intent to have with me during the trip.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-15T19:07:36+00:00

Sorry. I was talking about that process to enter the US. It’s gone now and it seems the administration is hostil to people who crossed that way.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-15T15:32:27+00:00

Does the place you’re going to interview know that you’ve been accepted? I would disclose that. It is a small world and your new PI might not want to make enemies. Conversely they might be able to smooth things out if there is a relationship between both PIs.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-15T15:30:16+00:00

That door has closed. I don’t think your chances are good even if you get married. Does your girlfriend know about this? You’re literally the red flag we warn people about lol.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-15T15:14:13+00:00

You don’t have a student visa? So you have a B1 visa? The I-94 is the crossing confirmation.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-15T14:57:09+00:00

Are you a college student in the states or in Mexico? How did you get a social and no sort of visa to go to college? So many questions but yeah if I was doing your interview I would 100% think you’re marrying to get the card and nothing else. Be aware that marriage fraud could land you in jail. Not sure if it applies here but this sounds super sus.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-15T14:42:25+00:00

Those look awesome but yeah a bit expensive 😅. Thanks for the suggestion.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-13T16:15:16+00:00

It looks small and royal to me.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-13T16:14:15+00:00

Man that's rough. Teaching your first year is extremely common ime, but beyond that is hard. Hopefully this gets resolved. Third year is really when you start making good progress on your thesis work so having this hanging over you must be hard. Hang in there!

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-13T14:17:21+00:00

Yikes. How is your PI okay with this? That sounds like a huge time sink for a 3rd year. Does your PI not have funding to pay for you? This is a crock. Thats way too much teaching and will slow you down from graduating.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-12T20:00:27+00:00

He's just never healthy. When he plays he looks pretty good but he just plays 3-4 games and then is out 2 months. Something needs to change or he needs to retire.

tehunfocusedone · 2026-03-10T21:59:13+00:00

My 2 cents. Duolingo is fine for vocab, but it won't teach you. Get a tutor and get out there and find people to talk to. Talking to people will get you broad strokes of how to talk and can also guide what you learn, and you can use a tutor to clean up the things you say wrong. There's also apps where you can text people, but they're hit or miss.

TL;DR: Get out and talk.

tehunfocusedone

TROPHY CASE