I’ve recently started my first postdoc! This means a big change in how I structure my time, nevertheless I’m carrying this series on and hope it provides an interesting insight into life as a postdoc.
For all previous monthly updates since finishing my PhD at the end of March you can find them here:
- Beyond the PhD Series
- The goals I mention in this post relate to last month’s article: September 2020 – Spoiler: I got a job!
How I spent my time in September
One of my goals last month was to take some time off and I’m pleased to say I spent 10 less hours doing productive-ish stuff than August. To coincide with some annual leave my partner had booked, I took a week off early September which was certainly very nice before diving into work.
I started my postdoc towards the end of September so it won’t be until next month’s report that it’ll feature heavily in my pie chart.
It has taken a little adjusting to get into the swing of things with the new job but it helped greatly that I had previously been “working” pretty much full-time even though I wasn’t actually getting paid.
Academic work
Publications
Last month I spent a significant amount of time making corrections for two papers which were simultaneously under review. It was stressful!
To great relief right at the start of September I had both papers accepted! For both of them major revisions were requested with deadlines of 10 days so am so pleased this all happened before starting another job.
This past month I only had to spend a little time approving the final proofs. Both are open access and you can read them each here:
- Quantifying 3D Strain in Scaffold Implants for Regenerative Medicine
- Exploratory Full-Field Mechanical Analysis across the Osteochondral Tissue—Biomaterial Interface in an Ovine Model
Both are published in the same Special Issue of a journal which is available here.
I’m of course happy to have them both accepted, but am particularly happy that the second one is published. Although supportive, my supervisors had previously suggested not worrying too much about it since I’d be an author of a (future) paper for a larger related study which I’d been involved in.
Since I had put the work in for this study (which wouldn’t go into the other paper) I wasn’t satisfied to just leave it sat on a computer not being utilised. Although I wasn’t sure that it would end up getting published for a several reasons, not least the tiny sample size, I knew other researchers could find it useful. I hope this serves as motivation to submit your work!
For perspective, here are all the papers from my PhD:
| Results Chapter | # Papers | Paper Status | # Journals to acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | #1: Accepted during PhD. Available here. #2: Draft stage | #1: 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Under review | 3 so far… |
| 3 | 1 | Accepted in September. See above | 2 |
| 4 | 1 | Accepted in September. See above | 1 |
Notice how only one was actually accepted during my PhD. Talking of which: as I write this it’s exactly four years since I started my PhD! Imperial, like a lot of other UK unis, has a four year submission deadline. I submitted back in February which seems like a world away, it’s weird to think I could have just been clicking submit on my thesis around about now!
I still have one paper I want to work on from my PhD, but like previously mentioned it didn’t relate too closely so I basically had nothing of it in my thesis and it requires writing the paper from scratch. I had started this earlier in the year but got sidetracked with things like the other two papers which recently got accepted. I’m certainly still keen to get this published but it may now wait until after my postdoc which is only six months long. The paper relates relatively closely to the postdoc and the interview panel were very interested in it so if nothing else so far it helped me get my current job!
Other academic-related things
In September I presented virtually at BORS 2020. Strangely, it was actually the first time my primary PhD-supervisor saw me present, funny considering I left the group back in March!
Amazingly my previous labmates won both of the student prizes on offer!
Starting my first postdoc
As I write this I’m a week and a half into my postdoc. It’s early days but so far I’m really enjoying it. It’s only six months long and I’m very conscious of how quickly the time will fly by so I’m trying to hit the ground running. Nevertheless a fair bit of last week was spent on admin including training courses, such as one on how to not get bribed and another on fire safety despite the fact that I’ll very likely spend very little time at all on campus!
In terms of actual work, so far I’ve been doing a brief literature review to decide which method we’ll be using. Personally I don’t find it fun reading loads of papers so have to stay disciplined to not procrastinate, plus it’s easy to fall into the rabbit hole of literature: something I don’t have time for. I’ve also been orienting myself to start coding which included signing up to GitHub: I feel like a proper developer! It is so fantastic getting paid to learn things, I’m loving it so far.
What is the project?
There is a condition called Pulmonary Hypertension which affects the heart and lungs. The gold standard for diagnosis is currently to invasively feed a catheter into your heart and take pressure measurements, which isn’t ideal for lots of reasons. A non-invasive approach would be ideal. My supervisor and I are working with some clinicians who would like to be able to use clinical CT scan and an automated tool for diagnosis.
I’m working to begin development of the automated tool. This effectively includes processing the images to extract the main blood vessels. The project has six months funding to get this proof of concept working, with the idea that what I develop could provide a basis for many future potential projects looking at various methods to help understand and diagnose pulmonary hypertension.
Got any postdoc questions you want answered?
I’ll be sharing more details of my postdoc as I go along but if you have any specific questions relating to postdocs just let me know and I’ll try my best to answer them all.
Mentoring
I’ve really dropped the ball with the Princes’ Trust mentoring I was doing earlier in the year. After chasing my mentee a few times things have kind of stalled. Ideally I’d regularly check-in with them but I’m not giving it the time it needs so am considering talking to the team about stepping down.
The Savvy Scientist website
Four posts went live in September:
- Beyond the PhD: September 2020 – Spoiler: I got a job!
- PhD Profiles: Advice from an Anonymous PhD Drop-out
- How Long Does It Take To Get A PhD?
- Where to Publish Your PhD Research: Choosing a Journal
I’m slowly getting through the long list of post ideas I have. If you can think of any to add just let me know in the comments.
Outreach
Last month I ran some free one-to-one sessions to help prospective PhD students. I’ve not yet organised any more but now that I’ve settled in to my new job I would like to start them up again. If you’re not yet subscribed to my (free) mailing list, you can join here:
I’ll be emailing out slots for my next sessions over the next few weeks!
I’m also considering other ways which I can best help as many people as possible. A few weeks ago I began trying to engage slightly more on Twitter. It doesn’t come naturally to me to do anything public on social media and I’m trying to overcome this. I’ve seen a few people organise streamed Q&A sessions where anyone can join and ask questions. If you have any ideas for what you think would help please let me know!
Website Traffic
In September there were 4988 unique views (+5% compared to August) from 3630 users (+3%). Lower than July: I’m not sure if it’s cyclical, to do with the virus or something else. Anyhow I’m just concentrating on regularly producing content which is hopefully useful!
Learning new skills
Computing
For anyone who is just tuning in, I had been doing some courses on Coursera since finishing my PhD.
September task: Finish the Machine Learning course.
Well in September I finished the ML one and now have a job which may well make use of it. I’m certainly using my newly found Python skills (from another course) but am still a novice!
Doing both of these courses definitely helped with my postdoc application. If there is something you want to learn, I can’t recommend doing online courses like these enough, they’re great.
Prior to starting the postdoc I wanted a recap of some maths which may be useful for machine learning so I also watched these two series’ of videos on YouTube, made by some people I know from Imperial:
Video production & editing
September task: Get a video finished and online.
I’m sad to say that I fell down on this goal in September. Although I mostly just set these goals for myself, it’s not a great feeling to miss targets. The fact that I feel guilty for missing the goal must be a sign that accountability in these posts is working!
Here is what I think has gone wrong:
- I haven’t made this a priority and often fall into wondering if it’s worth doing: how many people would find it useful? It also sounds a bit egotistical.
- I don’t really know what I’m doing and the the whole thing sounds like a lot of potential effort
- I go through frequent moods where the thought of putting myself out there for the world to see is scary, plus I console myself with thoughts about how it’s probably pointless anyway.
- Perhaps this is a weak excuse, but I live in a shared house and get shy and anxious about the whole thing. There is very rarely time alone where I won’t get disturbed. I could make the time, or deal with it, but it’s been a handy excuse to not even start.
Some of the content I already had filmed was kind of “vlogy”: how my PhD defence/viva went, the process of making revisions to a paper, applying for a postdoc application. I still think this could be useful and interesting content but while I’m feeling down about the whole idea this kind of content is a bit too vain for my liking.
Well, to overcome these issues I’ve realised I should start with content which is useful in it’s own right, doesn’t focus too much of myself and doesn’t require a ton of editing.
I’m going to prioritise two video ideas:
- Creating illustrations/figures for your thesis and papers
- How to find and apply for a PhD
Both feed directly into blog posts too so I can add them there once they’re done.
Final time now I’m going to say this:
October task: Get a YouTube video online.
Chin-ups
Back in London I had started to do chin-ups, stopping off at a local outdoor “gym” as part of my daily commute to university. They’re an absolutely fantastic exercise.
After a pause because I couldn’t find anywhere suitable to do them, I’ve found a local park has a similar outdoor fitness area for adults. There isn’t actually a chin-up bar but the side of the monkey bar structure seems fine: with the added benefit that no one using the equipment correctly would be touching that part of the frame. Plus it’s wider diameter than a proper bar which makes grip more challenging.
My aim is to be able to do 10 decent reps in a row. Aiming to a good set of 10 chin-ups by the end of the year sounds reasonable. I’ve not actually recently tested how many I can do in a set, I recon probably 6 or 7.
Goal: 10 chin-up in a row by the end of 2020.
To reach this goal I’m currently doing three sessions a week:
- Session 1: High volume: Eg 10 sets of 3
- Session 2: Medium: Eg 6 sets of 4
- Session 3: Low volume with high effort, few sets: Eg 4 sets of 5
Between sets I’m doing another fantastic exercise, dips, at twice as many reps per set as the chins for that day.
Time off
I had a full week off in September which was much appreciated! We didn’t get up to too much, which was one of my goals from last month before starting the new job.
Actually, that’s a lie, one thing I learned in September which I’m very proud of is that I can now spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Tip: learn it following the song:
Media I’ve consumed
Books
Only one book this month:
- A Tale of Two Cities – the book is longer than I like for a novel but nevertheless it turned out to be a decent read by the end. Though it was good, it did take a while to orient myself and I’m reluctant to recommend it to everyone.
Podcasts
Two episodes stand out over the past month:
- Khan Academy episode of How I Built This – a great podcast applied to a selfless project aiming to educate the world, what’s not to like!
The second podcast episode I enjoyed came from watching this Smarter Every Day episode:
I’ve got very little interest in the military, but lots of the comments were recommending listening to an interview with the SEAL/Medic/Astronaut Jonny Kim. It did not disappoint. He had a pretty harrowing upbringing and to hear how it has gone on to focus on achieving so much was an inspiring.
It’s a super long episode but they both talk pretty slowly so you can get away with speeding it up a bit.
TV/Films
- I watched loads of the Tour de France in September. Since starting cycling a few years ago I have a bit more of an appreciation for it! Amazing result for such a young guy to win, and so late in the whole race. Check out the time trial highlights if you’ve got any interest, it was good.
- The Social Dilemma on Netflix. Nothing new but still alarming and can make you apprehensive of notifications and social media. Worth a watch.
Food growing
Not much to report this month, besides hauling back this pumpkin. We regretted bringing it back without a car!
Also in September I watched this great video on the power of composting. If you’re not already composting your food scraps, please considering starting!
Baking
A few things from this month:
- Oat cookies
- Rock cakes
- Not baking, but I’ll include it here: seitan. I’ve frozen some so that I can have it across several weeks. Don’t eat this if you’re gluten-intolerant!
I promise I don’t always eat such dull looking things!
Monthly finances
Income
Postdoc – £922.31
I started my postdoc towards the end of the month and received my first (partial) paycheck for it: £922 after taxes, student loan repayments and pension contributions. Next month I’ll get my first full-month’s income, I’m interested to see how much more it actually is than my PhD stipend!
Prolific – £10.82
I recently noticed that Prolific have a Chrome extension available which has made it really easy to find the highest hourly rate studies. If you’re not familiar with the platform, here is my full review of it:
Savings
Investments
My investment mantra has always been simple:
- Don’t time the market. Simply invest every month with the “dollar cost averaging” principal.
- Stick to diversified funds. Don’t get involved with individual companies, trying to outcompete the market likely isn’t smart.
- Only invest in companies I actually want to support.
Tesla
Well I’ve always stuck to this mantra, with one exception.
I bought a small number of shares in Tesla several years ago while they were getting roasted by short sellers. Since I don’t have the spare cash to buy a Tesla car anytime soon I actually bought the shares to try and support the company (and EV movement) in some small way rather than as a financial investment: I basically wrote the investment off.
Anyhow as I’ve alluded to in previous updates, the shares have gone crazy and recently went through a 5-for-1 stock split. Breaking another of my own rules, I figured it would make sense to sell a portion considering they’ve gone up over 600% already. I decided to sell about 1/3rd of my shares: meaning that I’ve banked returns worth double my initial investment plus I still have 2/3rds left on the market which seemed like a decent compromise.
I still don’t recommend buying shares in individual companies and these Tesla shares are still the one and only shares of a single company (opposed to funds) that I own. Ethically Tesla are involved in some practices I certainly don’t condone but are also having a net positive effect which makes for a tricky position. I’ll go into more depth for a future post about investing ethically.
Funds
Like I said, I believe average investors such as myself should stick to funds where you’re investing in loads of companies. I’ve been looking for good “nice” responsible funds for years (if you want a full breakdown let me know) and somehow hadn’t seen that Vanguard has a few ESG (environmental, social, governance) funds.
I have quite a few positive screening investments but get worried about exposure when investing in relatively few companies. The Vanguard ESGs negatively screen, so avoid the worst and still invest in thousands of companies each. These two have caught my fancy so I’ll look to invest in them in October:
- Vanguard ESG Developed World All Cap Equity Index Acc GBP
- Vanguard ESG Emerging Markets All Cap Equity Index Acc GBP
They’ve got Vanguards nice low fees, with the perk of avoiding the nastiest companies, good news! It’s worth pairing these funds with investment in bonds.
Premium Bonds
In September I chucked a load of money into Premium Bonds because they offered a “decent” rate of return: 1.4%…
Well decent is all relative when interest rates are so poor and with banks slashing interest rates NS&I have since followed suit and disincentivised saving (to practically 0%) on everything except Premium Bonds which have since dropped to 1% “interest”. I’m keeping my money in there for the moment while I figure out the best course of action. Negative interest rates are likely on the way.
I make a conscious effort to not de-rail these posts with too much about economics, politics and the virus but I’ll write it here now: I think 2021 is going to be worse than 2020 by most measures.
Bank account switching
A few months ago I mentioned about a few banks starting up offers for switching. Now there are some good offers, all listed here, and since I have an income I’m eligible for some of them.
I’ve signed up to switch to RBS to get the free £100 joining bonus.
Several high street banks, such as HSBC, are evidently still as dodgy as ever (FinCEN being the latest scandal) so I suggest milking these offers but not keeping any more money than necessary in there.
September Summary
Last month I set myself three goals:
Create a YouTube video
Beyond the PhD: September 2020
Finish the ML course
Chill out before starting the new job
I did finish the online Machine Learning course and I did have a nice break before starting my new job, but I fell short on creating a YouTube video.
Hopefully these posts are interesting to readers but if nothing else I do find them handy to keep myself accountable. On the flipside though, I do have to remind myself that all of this is optional, no one else is putting pressure on me to get this stuff done so I don’t need to stress too much about getting it done. For example I could have got the video created right before the end of the month but instead I wanted an evening off and instead watched Bake Off! Anyhow I will get it done this coming month.
Besides these goals, of course I feel very fortunate to have started my postdoc, getting paid to work on something I was learning in my own time and with it being applied to a very worthwhile cause. It is great so far.
October Plan
With the postdoc now taking up much of my weekdays, I’m not going to set myself too much to do outside of work. I applied for this job because I wanted to use it as an opportunity to learn and so I want to make the most of it. Having said that, I do think it’s important to have other things going on outside of work so in October my goal is to make sure I can strike a good work life balance.
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