The 100 by 30 project

Job interview DON'Ts

A few days ago, we had a young (26 or so) grad student giving a job talk. In academia, a job talk is what it sounds like -- a talk faculty job candidates give about their current research.

So the speaker is giving his introduction and emphasizes that his work looks for genes related to aging.

"So you can see this is an important issue, especially for the ladies."

The funniest part is this wasn't an offhand, foot-in-the-mouth comment: it had the stiffness of a rehearsed joke!

Do you pay for over-priced registry items?

Well, do you?

I was assembling a gift off of a registry for a June wedding, and noticed that the registry contained a $120 mattress pad (!) and $80 salt and pepper shakers (!!).

I declined to buy these. Not because I object, although if someone were spending $120 on me, a mattress pad is among the last things I'd want them to purchase.

No, it's because I worry that the couple will forget how much the item cost! Perhaps they were giddily circling Macy's or Target or Crate and Barrel with the shooter gun, and adding whatever caught their eye. Maybe they paid attention to the price at the time, but will forget 4 months later; maybe they never paid attention.

Either way, I don't want to be seen incorrectly as the cheap couple who only bought a mattress pad and some seasoning receptacles!

Petty of me? Maybe. But I've seen so much snickering lately by newlyweds about people not "covering their plate", a concept I hadn't even heard of until recently. I don't want to spend $200 and still have people snickering about what cheap wedding guests we are!

Talk about a happy May Day!

Out of the blue, our department chair just sent an email saying stipends will increase by 12.5% next year. That follows a 6% increase this year. I assume that our top rivals increased stipends significantly, and this is in response.

Sure, we still make less than the grad students in CS, but today I'm too pleased to care!