Life and Dots of Daniel

Plight of research students

[feeling | hopeful]
[listening to | roxette - how do you do]

Consider yourself lucky today because I am telling you some general plights faced by researchers, particularly students who are new to research. The other day I was having a lunch with two of my friends, Colourful World and WeiJiun, who are doing their research in their respective field. We were talking about our major problems and bad experiences which make our life sucks so badly.

It appears to me that our thoughts and plights about research is worth addressed here especially to those who think that research is oh-so-easy. In the first place, nobody says research is going to be easy although they say you can have the luxury of time for your own good self. It keeps me wondering why I jumped into this ocean which is full of possibilities as well as uncertainties. I guess it relates with my personality who likes to work alone, have the whole world for myself and of course interacting with industries and other academicians.

Behold, my readers, I will now summarize some of the thoughts generated during the chat and some from our careful observation.

Plight #1: Sleepless nights
This is the first thing you should expect and learn to get over with it. If you could survive this the chances are you are most likely to succeed for there is a saying by Martin Luther King Jr., "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

Plight #2: Not enough time for others
Without realizing it you spend most of your time alone. You interact less with human because you are more attached to your journals, books, experiments, machines, equipments and your own theory/hypothesis. For me, I usually stay in the postgraduate room, so I can balance my time for research and others.

Plight #3: Nature wants to whack you
For those whose research has to do with the sun, the weather, the soil, the water, animals and insects, beware! Since your research is done in the open environment, you cannot escape from being whack by mother nature. You hope its a sunny day for you to plant your plants but then out of a sudden the rain falls and flood all your plants. Or some nasty ants come and carry all the newly planted seeds away because they thought that's FOOD.

Plight #4: Some party is just so not-cooperative
Blame it on the human factor or business benefits or business secret recipe or contractual agreement. Sometimes you need certain chemical or material from the supplier but they just won't provide you because they are aware that researchers like to study their products by carrying reverse engineering on their products. You have to do your best to assure them that you are not even interested to study their product and all you have in mind is to use their products. I wonder when will the academia and industry develop mutual and benefitial relationship?!

Plight #5: You know the-What but you don't know the-How
This is a serious problem. You think you know what to do but you don't know how to carry it out. This is either you do not have basic knowledge in this field, or you don't dare to try it, or you are just not creative to think of the-How. This is especially true to those who are still in the initial stage, you are lingering with the big scope and have not drill down to the steps to execute or solve the problems.

Plight #6: Even the machinery is making fun at you
This one only happens when you are very "soi". When you are at the height of your research and out of a sudden your machine breaks down. You are going to pull your hair off because they usually need to take two to three months to fix that bloody machine. Sometimes your schedule has to be dragged because it takes more than half a year to repair the machine especially if the dealer is from overseas.

Plight #7: When English is a big block
Most theses and dissertations are now written in English. Like it or not, you have to write in English. Who on earth will read a thesis or dissertation written in Malay? Not that I despise my national language, but in order to penetrate to the international arena you have to use English. If you are not good in English, better learn the language now or you can find a good supervisor who has good command in English. This will somewhat help you from the misery.

Plight #8: The tendency to be out of your mind
Ever see the great Albert Einstein sticking out his tounge making a funny face? I am not saying that researchers are crazy but sometimes they simply need to be crazy so that they can release their tension.

Plight #9: Cocky supervisor
Consider yourself unlucky for you will have to spend two to three years of torment under your supervisor. Of all the academicians available for you to choose and you pick the cocky one. No matter what, developing a good relationship is important because they are the one who determine whether you PASS or FAIL.

Plight #10: You are running out of time
Oops... You have been playing all the while, doing nothing all the while, writing nothing all the while, or the weather and machinery is messing up with you. You realize that you are running out of time and way behind the original schedule. Pray, brothers and sisters, that miracles will happen!

Plight #11: No fund! Apparently, no money means no talk. We all know that without money nothing can be carried out! Researchers have to make sure they write a good piece of proposal to impress the relevant ministry or company to sponsor their research. See, we are good in planning and budgeting as well.

Note: I am telling you these from the perspectives of a postgraduate student currently doing his research in the field of Structures in a prominent local university. Don't take it too seriously because what I observed may not be related to you. This is just a higlight to some of the general issues faced by research students who I know.