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tricktster · 4 years

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Do you regret your doctorate, or was it worth it?

WOOOOOORTH IT... but I am pretty aware that I’m something of an exception to the rule.

So, with rare exceptions, you can’t work in my industry unless you go through the other exact sort of program that I did, and it’s a tough one, and unlike other grad/post-grad programs (which you should really only do if your expenses are being entirely covered by the program, kids), this particular area of study doesn’t come with stipends - you gotta pay for it, it’s a LOT, and very little of it is fun. Even if you love the subject matter, it’s always a competition for the highest grade, the most prestigious extracurricular academic positions, the most speaking time, the best internships or research appointments... and because this field attracts a certain, uh, personality type, odds are good that you’re gonna hate a solid third of the people you’re competing against (not to mention the terrible people you have to impress...).

Now, there’s a carrot at the end of the stick, and some people do eventually get it. People in my industry decide to go into it because they have a pretty romanticized notion of what the day-to-day is like, or because they have a super rosy outlook on how much money you can make doing it, and neither of those perceptions are FALSE, exactly. For a small percent of people, they’ll make absolutely obscene piles of money... right up until they burn out from the endless hours and abusive treatment, quit their job, move somewhere far away, and consider becoming an homesteader but instead drink themselves to death.

The romantic version of the job actually exists too, believe it or not, and you can really truly do the romantic version! ... for roughly 38k a year - before loan payments - and essentially your tradeoff is that you never pay off your loans or buy a home or feel in any way financially secure and then you meet up with the rich burnout on his failing mung bean farm and you drink yourself to death with that guy.

But for most of us, how it shakes out is you make okay money, which is actually on the very low end of “okay money” after your loans, you have less free time than most people, your day-to-day ends up being pretty repetitive and boring while somehow also stressful, you drink more than you should, complain more than you should, sleep less than you should, and deal with the various types of people who you hated while you were in school who are now your bosses and coworkers, and everything just kinda goes like that right up until you get the hell out at age 65, look back at your life, and think “...the fuck happened there?”

That was almost my trajectory when I got my first proper job in this industry. Almost: I had the incredibly abusive boss, remarkably shitty pay, wild amount of stress... but against all odds, I stumbled into doing the one kind of work that wasn’t a repetitive grind? Normally, in order to do the kind of work I started out on, you need to do really boring stuff for years while you fight like hell to get any opportunity that brings you closer to the difficult, interesting, fun stuff. In retrospect, I got to start out doing the Fun Stuff because my boss did the Fun Stuff and needed help with it, but nobody with Fun Stuff experience in my field would ever work for that guy because he was so infamously awful, so he’d burn through someone fresh out of school every few years until he fired them or they quit. I didn’t know that at the time, I just knew that even though the environment was so bad and so poorly compensated that I regularly fantasized about quitting the industry, the work itself? That part actually ruled.

I stuck it out for two years, and then I hit my absolute limit one day. During the time I’d been there, I’d already seen a guy my age get hired, torn to bits, and then fired for a fuck up that was not his fault in the least (right after he signed a mortgage, and with a baby on the way!!!) I’d seen the only woman in a leadership role quit and take a new position because she simply couldn’t stand the abuse from my boss anymore. I’d had eight different people come to me in tears because they just couldn’t take it anymore. And one day, after possibly the hundredth time I’d observed my boss take credit for my work only to call me into a meeting an hour later to inform me that the thing he’d just stolen credit for was actually terrible (dude felt THREATENED by competent women)... I was just done. And by sheer dumb luck, I made the best decision I’ve ever made in my entire life: I texted the woman who had quit the word “Margaritas?????”

Three hours/margs later, I ducked my coworkers who had come out with us, cornered my former colleague in the bathroom, and said “I need to get the fuck out of this company. Does your company need a Me?” Two days later, I had an interview lined up, and on the night of that interview, one of the people who had planned on interviewing me had a conflict, so the owner of the company looked to see who was still in the office, and grabbed the first guy he could find to fill an interview seat. The seat filler in question went in knowing nothing about me, had absolutely no context for this interview, and had never hired anyone to work for him before because he did the Fun Stuff, and he had never encountered someone at an earlyish career stage who could also do the Fun Stuff. Still, one of the seats needed filling, and that, dear readers, is How I Met My Boss.

It was the single best interview performance that I have ever given. I was flawless. Boss told me several months after the fact that I answered one question so well that the owner started kicking him under the table. Interviews at this place normally take 3-5 rounds before the offer goes out. I got my job offer on the way home from the interview that night. And since then? Boss and I have accomplished things that were considered impossible. We’ve quadrupled our team’s business. Boss sets my salary so I’m finally getting paid. The actual work still rules, with the added bonus of getting credit for what I do. I am enjoying every single moment of this, the culture of abuse has been replaced with like... friendship? Friendly pranks? Genuine collaboration? And as a result, we’re kicking so much ass that we’re growing the team years sooner than we thought would be possible. We have a new graduate joining us soon, and with god as my witness, that new grad is never going to know how shitty this industry can be.

So, yes. TL;DR, for me, the luckiest asshole in the entire industry, dropping 6 figures of debt and years of stress and competition on this particular degree that granted me admission into this nightmare industry was worth it. With that said, even though I’ll personally do everything I can to ensure that the people who work for me feel the exact same way... I would certainly not recommend it for everyone.

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katierosefun · 3 years

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Did you always know you wanted to study law? If not, how’d you decide on law? Were there other things you wanted to study?

-a high schooler who wants to study approximately a thousand things and has no idea what they’re going to choose

hi anon! thanks for asking!! as someone who has been in that position before, i’m more than happy to talk about this! (but also, please know that it is totally, totally, totally okay to not really know what you want to do with your life right now. you’re not running out of time, and it’s okay to figure things out at your own pace!!!)

also, this got....super long, because i apparently have many things to say about this, so all my actual discussion / advice is down below:

so, first of all, i think that most in the world, i want to be an author. or someone who just. writes creatively for a living. that’s something that i would really ideally like to do, and it’s something that i’m still working on now. like, that was my first-ever dream since i was an 8 year old kid, and i haven’t let go of that dream either, but at the same time, i also want to do law because i think it’s important, and just because of the way that i’ve seen the world work?

so, specifically in my freshman / sophomore year of high school, there were a lot of different factors leading up to my desire to go into law, but one of the biggest factors was probably actually the ferguson protests.

i think that was just like, my first big exposure to how royally screwed over the system was--seeing that the law protected police officers who would murder a black man really opened my eyes to the fact that like,,,we live in an incredibly broken system, and even though i know there’s a lot of discourse on how you can’t fix a broken system that’s literally broken at the foundation, but maybe i’m someone who’s still naive enough to think that we can at least try.

so that was my entry point in deciding that i was interested in law--but even after i graduated from high school and entered college, i was still a little...scared if i actually wanted to be a lawyer? but i’m lucky in that my college specifically offers a lot of classes about law / legal studies, so i had the opportunity to take an intro to law class and just loved it. i still think it was one of my favorite classes because not only did it give me a broad overview of super important cases, but also--and i think this was the biggest thing that my professor grounded into me--the law is flexible, and the law can be used to help people if they can harness it carefully enough.

and i think that class--along with a lot of my other legal studies classes--really made me appreciate that the legal field has all these crazy possibilities / options, but a lot of it boils down to like. how can you use the law to help someone. (granted, not all forms of law requires like...the dramatic court battles that you see on tv shows.)

and idk--that appeals to me the most. there’s lots of ways to help people, of course, but i just feel like my skillset and my passions especially line up to this direction. it’s a whole ton of writing and a whole ton of reading and a whole ton of talking, all of which...i’m mostly good at, i think. (i think. but i’m gonna ignore imposter syndrome right now!)

that said!!! there are a gazillion ways to help people that doesn’t require everyone to spend time / money / energy to go to places like law school / legal fields, and i don’t think anyone should pursue the legal field unless they’ve really, really, really thought about it. especially given the pandemic, with applications to all kinds of higher education institutions skyrocketing (because when people can’t find a job, people sometimes go to school in hopes to wait out the economic crisis, which...in itself is horrific), a lot of people are deciding to go to law school based on,,,,like,,,,a six month mulling over. this was a decision that took me years to consider and re-consider and re-consider.

and i think this should honestly,,,be considered that like, if i could have any other career? it would, again, be just writing creatively full time. whether that be writing movies / tv shows / books...all of the above? that’s what i want to do. and honestly, i’m still struggling with this, because i constantly feel like i have one foot in one world and another foot in the other. i want to do both things, which is nuts, and i wish i had some better advice on this, but the honest truth is that i kind of don’t have any advice on how to handle having these two loves. like, i’m taking all these legal studies classes, but i’m also taking all of these english / creative writing classes, so i’m constantly swinging back and forth between these two things.

i will say though that sometimes, things work out. like for instance, i’m doing this internship right now where i’m teaching poetry classes to kids involved in the juvenile justice system. i get to actively help kids / witness how the law works and also use my love for creative writing to make some kind of difference. so i know there is a way to combine these two loves of mine, but we’ll just see how i can fully merge these interests together when i actually become a lawyer. (my current hope is that i can get involved with some branch of publishing law, just because i think it would be cool to merge my love of stories w/ the legal field, and just to like. get really deep into copyright stuff / what are the implications of like........having this thing published. but also, i have no idea how that’ll work out).

but like, i think if you take anything away from this at all, anon, it’s that you have time. don’t feel rushed to know what you want to do right now--definitely not right now. you’ll figure it out when you figure it out. and you’ve got a long life ahead of you! people’s careers change and move depending on where they are / how they’ve shifted! a lot of my high school teachers, for instance, actually started out doing some other job before realizing that they kinda were tired of it: my chem teacher in my junior year used to work at super prestigious labs / research facilities before going “lol i wanna teach kids now”, and did just that (and he was a wonderful man!). my physics teacher in my senior year worked at wall street doing finance stuff before going “lol this is annoying” and decided to teach physics (and he was also a really wonderful person!). one of my friend’s dad is currently a lawyer who is now taking a break to teach some classes at a university, and he’s in love with it, apparently. and just, like, to be even more personal, my own grandma’s own career paths / interests were constantly fluctuating (and i’m lowkey convinced she’s a genius tbh), where in her 85-ish years of life, she’s so far been an elementary school teacher, a ballet instructor, a writer, a translator, and a painter. and she’s still going. my own brother went from studying business (because he’s got wonderful interpersonal skills and,,,was frankly good at it) but then realized that he hated business / was always in love with art, and is now studying to be an art teacher (which i think is wonderful for him, because he has the interpersonal skills for it + the passion for art + a genuine desire to help kids out where there weren’t a whole ton of teachers doing the same for him).

so like....the point is? you’ve got time. if you’ve got a million interests, that’s wonderful! you’ll probably narrow things down a little more as you get older, but don’t ever think that you need to pigeonhole yourself into a career path right this instant. if you really want to know, then maybe it’s helpful thinking about what your biggest skillsets are and see where that takes you. but if you’re still not sure of that, that is also totally okay! you’ve! got! time!!!!

adssfddf i hope this huge-ass essay was somewhat helpful, anon!!! you’ve got this, i believe in you, and i know that whatever you do / choose to do will be absolutely wonderful. <3

#answered #anon #OOPH sorry for how long this got!!!#but i hope you were able to pick out the most important bits out of this ramble lol

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fangslikedaggers · 4 years

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❝ he was a collection of hard lines and tailored edges – sharp jaw, lean build, wool coat snug across his shoulders. ❞

huh, who’s DAVID CORENSWET? no, you’re mistaken, that’s actually ALAIN LESTOAT. he is a TWENTY FOUR year old PART-VAMPIRE wizard who is an UNSPEAKABLE. he is known for being RETICENT, MERCURIAL, ALOOF, EVASIVE, and DECADENT but also CHIVALROUS, ADROIT, PRAGMATIC, DEBONAIR, and INTUITIVE, so that must be why he always reminds me of the song THAT’S OKAY BY THE HUSH SOUND and THREE PIECE SUITS, LONE MATTRESS IN AN EMPTY APARTMENT, CODED NOTEBOOKS, INK-STAINED HANDS, BLACK COFFEE GONE COLD, UNSENT POSTCARDS, OLD TABACCO PIPE, SOFT DIMPLED GRINS, PERFECTLY COIFFED HAIR, ÉDITH PIAF RECORDS ON LOW, and RED LEATHER GLOVES. i hear he is aligned with NO ONE, so be sure to keep an eye on him.

GENERAL

FULL NAME: Alain Danet Lestoat NICKNAME(S): some people call him ‘Drac’ for some reason, but he prefers to simply be called Alain AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: 24, 09/19/2005 (will update graphic soon) OCCUPATION: Unspeakable, works in the Death Chamber most days GENDER: Cis Man PRONOUNS: He/Him HOMETOWN: Eguisheim, Haut-Rhin, France CURRENT RESIDENCE: London, England ALMA MATTER: Beauxbatons BLOOD STATUS: Part-Vampire (1/4th) / Halfblood

BIOGRAPHY

If you’ve ever had a chocolate frog, then there’s a great chance you’ve heard the name Lestoat. Among the many trading cards you can find in the packaged confection there is one for an Amarillo Lestoat, a vampire born at the same time that America declared its Independence, immortalized on enchanted cardstock. Amarillo’s rise to fame came with a single piece of literature which the vampire had published during his two hundred and one years. A Vampire’s Monologue, a mind numbingly boring read that offered the vampire a way to disable his victims so he could feed off them without trouble. It’s a story that has followed his grandson Alain throughout his twenty six years -- a fact that isn’t exactly welcome to the 1/4 Part-Vampire.

Alain Danet Lestoat was born on a cold and murky September day in the commune of Eguisheim in Haut-Rhin to Marguerite Babineaux, a pureblooded witch whose family was one of the most prominent pureblood families in France during the 20th century, and her Part-Vampire husband Alexander Lestoat; the unexpectedly conceived son of the bore himself. Amarillo had no intention of fathering halfbreed offspring, but was surprised only ten years prior to his death to find out he’d impregnated a young witch he’d used his book on during a trip to Madrid, thus beginning the equally magical and vampiric lineage of the writer. Sometimes Alain wishes the man had managed to keep to this plan. From the moment he opened his eyes to the world he was instantly met with hardships and difficult hurdles to overcome.

From his father’s side Alain had inherited a severe allergy to garlic, an acute aversion to direct sunlight, canines that were far too long and awkward for braces, and, of course, a slight penchant for the taste of blood. For her part, Marguerite had managed to pass down dark, thick curls and dimpled smiles, but that was not enough to quell the sort of fear that one got whenever he flashed a toothy grin at them. In Eguisheim, among the non-magical denizens, it was important for the Lestoats to stay incognito. Wixen could hide easily among the non-magical, ashen complexed and fanged Vampires could hardly do the same. As such, his childhood was rather isolated and sheltered. He spent most of his days roaming the rather large manor house they had acquired on the edge of town, reading the vast collection of books his two-centuries-old grandfather had left in his father’s possession, consuming knowledge about the world outside he could seldom take part in.

It wouldn’t be until he’d received his invitation to study at his mother’s alma matter that he would get to see the outside world. With its sprawling gardens, never-melting ice sculptures and enchanting fountains, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic felt more like it belonged among Perrault’s stories than in the real world, and yet it was very real. Equal parts excited and horrifyingly nervous, Alain travelled to the secluded chateau to begin his education. His only hope was that among the magical folk of France he would be able to be more readily accepted. He was only a fourth vampire after all -- he was more like the other wixen around him, how could they abhor him? Disappointment would soon become a constant acquaintance for him. All it had taken was one excitedly large toothy grin to a fellow first year within the first minutes of the welcome feast and Alain’s reputation had been set. Leech. Bloodsucker. Monster. All desperately unfair labels since, as he constantly reminded others, he was more wizard than vampire, but it hadn’t mattered. Having knives for teeth was enough to cause anyone to instantly write him off as a danger and liability.

After a particularly disastrous first year, including a rather humiliating question-and-answer session during a DADA class, he had sworn he would turn his back on the wizarding world and never come back. I’ll run away into the words, become the Bête in an enchanted castle and make friends out of the utensils I’ll steal from maman’s cupboard. It hadn’t been until Alexander intervened, having gone through a rough schooling experience himself, that Alain would be comfortable with returning to the academy. You’ll just have to prove to them they’re wrong by showing what kind of person you are. It was with this advice that Alain would come back year after year, despite the harassment from his classmates, in order to study. He had resolved to be the best wizard he could. He studied hard -- an easy feat since he was rarely invited along to field trips or outings with his classmates -- excelled at his academics and managed to be top of his class. Despite the naysayers, he’d graduated from Beauxbatons with top honors, and plenty of prestigious internships and job proposals to choose from. Tired of the isolation of both his small commune and the secluded chateau, he had taken what he felt was the most lucrative option -- an internship with the Bureaux des Mystéres in the Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France.

It wasn’t a particularly glamorous position -- he mostly helped file nonsensical reports. He wasn’t allowed anywhere near the actual Chambers within, but he’d caught on quickly enough to know that some really interesting and important stuff happened in there. Why else didn’t anyone talk about it? When he was able to, he applied to become an Unspeakable trainee and before long he was finally setting foot inside those elusive rooms and learning their secrets. He could be trusted to keep them; he was never one to socialize anyway. Who was he going to tell? The only person who was ever privy to his intimate thoughts was his little sister Amélie, and she was still too little to have discussions about his job. Quickly, he’d come to find the secretive and confidential world within those chambers were far more comforting than the vast world outside. His hunger for knowledge about the things he was studying had lead him to submit an application for another Ministry of Magic across the channel. It was said that in the UK they had made more headway with the types of things that were being studied within their own Department of Mysteries, and Alain was desperate to understand everything. When he’d gotten a response back from their Department head eagerly welcoming him to the team, he left first thing and didn’t once look back. France had already taught him enough, it was time to find something more on other shores.

He’s been in the UK for only a year and a half now, and most of the time he’s spent sitting before a stone arch and shroud, listening to voices calling to him. The Death Chamber. There was something kind of funny about a vampire studying death, but Alain doesn’t care. Each day more mysteries open up to him, keeping him from sleeping and eating as his mind reels with everything. He’s been so occupied with his highly secretive work that he hadn’t noticed the climate changing around him. As a foreigner he understood the past conflicts in England in a textual sense. The Wizarding Wars and the Death Eaters were footnotes in his textbooks, a foreign problem to learn from. They weren’t close to home or part of his own history, so he hadn’t given them much thought. When a string of high prolific deaths began taking place they were sad, no doubt, but not warning bells of something dark to come. As such, he hasn’t taken a side. Per his letters home, he insists that should things become grim in England then he will secure a portkey back to France and resume his post in the Ministére, but Alain figures that whatever is happening will eventually de-escalate. Hadn’t they stopped a rise in dark wizardry in this country a matter of decades prior?

ok so basically: alain is an introverted part-vampire who migrated to london about a year and half prior to start of game to work at the department of mysteries in the ministry. he started his career as an unspeakable in france’s ministry but is eager to learn more than he thinks was capable back in his homeland.

BULLYING AND SLIGHT NON CON TW. generally he’s kind of introverted and keeps to himself; this is because he was harassed and bullied a lot as a beauxbatons student for being “halfbreed”. he’s 1/4 vampire and the grandson of a famous vampire writer, a legacy he really hates. in particular he hates that he’s 1. labelled as a monster by ignorant people (he lives off regular food, thank you very much) but also 2. if people know about his grandfather, then they know he wrote a boring af book and in a shady way to get people to submit to him for feeding. kinda feels non-consensual ya know??

PHOBIA MENTION TW as both a vampire and a frenchman, he dresses impeccably, so he’s usually seen around in long trench coats and thin tailored suits. he wears red leather gloves as both a fashion statement and also because he is a bit of a germaphobe. he won’t divulge details but this has to do with a vicious prank that was done to him when he was a student. he was kinda carrie’d if ya feel me.

despite an air of decadence and debonair, he’s kind of poor (rip) and lives in a dingy little shoebox flat where he sleeps on a barren mattress and eats instant ramen and boxed wine for dinner. most of his money goes towards his closet or to his family back home, who doesn’t really need it but he loves spoiling his little sister so he would rather fund her life than his own. claims he’s making enough to live elegantly so they don’t realize he’s a l i a r.

look he’s gonna be a bit of a hard egg to crack but i promise once he is cracked he’s charming and sweet and a loyal good friend so pls don’t give up on his interactions if he’s aloof and distant ;-; give the boy a chance.

idk i’ll probably add to this as I think of stuff; it’s 3 am lmao

MISC

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Demisexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Heteromantic LANGUAGES: English, French, Spanish, Some German FAMILY: Alexander Amarillo Lestoat (father, b. 1967 in Madrid, Spain), Marguerite Celeste Lestoat neé Babineaux (mother, b. 1981 in Mulhouse, France), Amélie Marguerite Lestoat (sister, b. 2011 in Eguisheim, Haut-Rhin, France), Amarillo Lestoat † (grandfather, b. 1776 in Philadelphia, America, died 1977 in Madrid, Spain; vampire and author of a vampire’s monologue) PETS: Barn Owl named Archimedes and Black Kneazle named Persephone FACE CLAIM: David Corenswet ZODIAC SIGN: Virgo MBTI: TBD PINTEREST: (x)

WANTED CONNECTIONS

tbh i have nothing in mind so just hmu if you have ideas. if not, we will brain storm :)

bonus:

alain danet lestoat, beauxbatons first year c. 2017. ignore that wonky ass eye i’m too lazy to fix it

#potterintro #&& about.#spent my weekend drawing while babysitting #so i decided to make a thing #obviously he's not gray skinned; that was a stylistic choice #i can't make graphics so this is my way of making up for that #afeafea #i'm also sorry this is so poorly written; i literally attempted to write this while babysitting which was ahfiehapfea hard

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dead-thorin · 3 years

Text

Today was a good day

[[MORE]] it did not start off good bc i got complaints about someone and i saw videos of what happened and it wasnt good 🙃

But i got my first dose of the vaccine

My sister sent me a bunch of stuff from the uni im going too for my next grad degree

I met with a grad student about housing for next year and theyre gonna contact people to see if they can help me find something

But the best thing was that like. Im trying to connect these grads with more resources and to have them see other career opportunities besides academia bc a lot of them want to be professors and the job market already sucked and theyll have to be post docs or adjuncts for a while before getting a tenure position MAYBE and they can do applications of their research in industry!! So ive been sending them workshops and internships and my goal was for one of them to have one in the summer.

Today the dept chair sent out an email congratulating a prof on being a fellow somewhere and one of the grads for getting a prestigious fellowship for the summer. And i was like FUCK YEAH bc 1) theres few internships/fellowships for this field 2) shes an international student so its already harder for her to find something and 3) its with a gov institution and its rare for them to accept non citizens.

So i forwarded that email to her congratulating her on the fellowship (which was me saying CONGRATS!!!! Followed by a gif of people cheering lol) and she replied thanking me and saying that because i sent them internship stuff over break she found it through one of the links and she decided to try for it and she didnt expect to get it and she literally ended it with “thank you more than i can say!!! You are the best!!!” And i was literally going to cry lol shes so excited to get it esp since her research area is applied stuff and shes very invested in research

Im gonna be riding this high for a while esp since this week has been extremely hard and i was crying at work on wednesday bc of some shit

My next goal is to find some bootcamps or smth for coding to send them since some have expressed interest in it

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no-d4y-but-tod4y · 5 years

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Unconventional Conventions

So...I want to write more fics. They’re great fun! And I decided that I want to start making a sort of timeline for me and my F/O, so here is my late-night ramblings of how Frank and I met! To be written in third person, because I still don’t know how to do this. I’m making this up as I go along. Please bear with me!

‘Left?’

‘Yes.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Yes!’

‘What if we’re going the wrong way?’

‘I’ve been staring at this fucking map for until my eyes go crossed, we are not going the wrong way!’

The car descended into icy silence. The driver and the passenger were the best of friends, but five hours on a mostly desolate road is bound to test anyone’s endurance.

‘I’m sorry, I’m tired.’

‘I know, so am I.’ The driver stretched her neck, wincing at the lack of space. ‘There’s list a lot riding on this, you know?’

Indeed. Alma and Kitley sped along an unmarked country road towards the most anticipated technological showcase of the year. The best of the best, from the most prestigious schools, the most esteemed tutors, the most reputable families received an invitation to this event. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the academic prodigies of their time to unveil, demonstrate, and sell their fleeting moments of lunatic genius. This provided not only exposure, but the opportunity for potential investors, apprenticeships, internships, and a multitude of prestigious connections.

In short, an inventors dream. Kitley has cried for hours after her sealed envelope arrived three weeks ago. As Kitley’s close friend and trusted confidant, Alma was first choose to accompany her (and her metric ton of priceless equipment) across the country - but she really hasn’t wanted to go. She supported Kit in all her endeavours, of course, but a whole weekend? Of scientific jargon and plummy accents and snooty demeanours? Of things she wouldn’t begin to understand, of the nonsensical racing’s of lunatic minds, of pretending not to realise how out of place she was?

No thanks.

But Kit couldn’t do it alone. And everyone else was more honest.

The bar better be well stocked for all she was compromising for this.

‘Ooh, there it is! Pull in there, I see it!’

The looming gothic country house seemed surprisingly cheery in the hot sun. A string quartet played merrily on the grass, patrons strolled about in twos or little groups. Most people, however, rushed in an out, carrying tripods and boxes and fold out tables and cages. Men in long coats, women in smart dresses and bright red lipstick. More brains than they knew what to do with.

‘Well,’ Kit didn’t realise she was crushing her friends hand. ‘Let’s go in.’

A handsome porter sprung to their aid, taking half of the equipment inside the building with him. Kit joined the line at the foyer, invitations clutched in her hand. Alma accompanied the porter around the back of the house with her load, a quick stamp on the wrist, and followed the man through the winding corridors.

She wondered who lived here. Perhaps they were still there. The faces one sees in a wallpaper pattern, the footsteps creaking along the staircases, the grief-ridden howling of the winter winds. Listen hard enough, and the whole world becomes but an echo of a past life.

They came to a sprawling room, dissected of furniture and grafted with metallic screens and futuristic game consoles.

‘This is your booth,’ the porter explained, dropping their equipment with a relieved sigh. The screen had Kit’s name on it, and their little section included a wardrobe, along with a water cooler and a small table. Some things, she assumed, had to be stored under different conditions. ‘The exhibition will be held in the conference hall, the timings of which are provided here. He handed her two pieces of paper staples together. As of now, you’re free to roam the grounds.’ He held out his hand. Was he expecting a tip? She reached into her pocket and placed five pounds there. ‘I advise everyone not to piss people off at these things. They can cut you head open and stir your brain with a fork. And right now, sweetheart,’ he gave her the filthiest look, ‘you’re not off to a very good start.’

She watched him go, unfazed. See? Lunatics!

***

Alma unfolded the running order one she got outside, and groaned.

Kitley was in the last group. Exhibiting her robotic talents alongside a Dr. Garrett Ferguson, a Prof. Martinez, and a Ms Katrina Morgenstern. That wasn’t until Sunday... what was she supposed to do for two whole days?

The running order came attached to the itinerary, which Alma spared but a glance before stifling a wretch. Seminars, workshops, Q + A panels, guest speakers. All staggered throughout the day in one of the 200 rooms of the house. Each mind-blowing scientific subject more boring than the last.

Kitley hadn’t returned from signing in. Seemingly she received a copy of the itinerary and dashed off. Glad to know she was having fun somewhere...

Alma would have gone along to one. She liked to learn, even if she didn’t - often - understand any of it. But here, these people were elitists. Even just walking around, soaking up the sun and listening to the floral-printed singer on the bandstand, she had been given some questionable looks. It’s like they had a radar. They could smell the mediocrity...

Her clothes, her speaking voice, even her stance conveyed a multitude of errors. The stamp on her wrist might as well read ‘lowly public school graduate’.

She didn’t belong here. She didn’t like it one bit.

And, as even Alma could stand only a certain number of hours at the bar, she needed to find something to do. So far, she hadn’t seen any cornered off areas, or signs indicating where she wasn’t supposed to go. So, she went exploring.

She passed the ‘kit room’ (which seemed now it be a dissected sort of drawing room) on the way to the stairs. Poked her head in to check all the necessities were still there. Nobody had robbed them? Good.

The house really did go on for miles. Magnitude doesn’t really hit you until you experience it first-hand. It seemed bigger on the inside - sprawling. Is this what it feels like to be on the other side of the doll house?

The further up she went, the less well kept the rooms became. It was likely that no one had been up here for a while. The maid cleans it once a month, or something like that. Everything ever that didn’t actually matter had been stored on this floor - fourth, if she remembered correctly. Taxidermy, broken crockery, neglected jewellery. One room, however, that enticed her fancies the most, was a smallish room, drowning in dust: occcupied by nothing but large couches, and a multitude of think, white blankets.

Aww yea.

***

She came to herself in darkness. The stars dazzled and gleamed through the naked window. She remembered, foggily, where she was and what she was doing. Wrapped up in three blankets like a burrito, she felt a sense of slight panic.

She hadn’t meant to sleep that long! Anyone could have found her! Hopefully if she snuck out now she’d make it back to the shared room without worrying Kit. And didn’t she snuggle under two blankets before she dozed off...?

‘Still alive, then?’

She screamed bloody murder. Launching herself in the general direction furthest from the uninvited speaker, tripping over trailing sheets and staggering to keep her balance, her startled gaze quickly found a mint-coated man relaxing on the couch positioned opposite hers, smirking at her.

‘What the fuck are you doing? She demanded, still trembling a little from the dark surprise. ‘Who are you, how did you get in here?’ She narrowed her eyes at him with a vicious glare. ‘How long have you been sitting there?’

‘You’re not starkers under there, are you?’ Her gaze snapped down to the white sheet she’d...why had she covered herself with it?

‘No!’

‘Remove the blanket then, so I can see.’

‘See what?’ She threw the blanket down in rage, despite the obvious confrontational tone of her response. ‘Why aren’t you answering any of my questions?’

‘I know you,’ he gave her a real smile, standing up to cross the room. Instinctively, she geared up to dart away. ‘You’re with Kitley Harlenson.’

Well, that was the only normal part of the conversation so far. Even when alone, always more interested in Kitley.

‘I saw you tip that dreadful porter. You might as well have run over his cat.’ He chuckled with a slight shake of the head. ‘It’s the brooch,’ he nodded towards her breastbone, where a small pin clung to the fabric of her flannel shirt - a tiny silver rocket. ‘Stereotypical and clueless way of showing your support for us...’

‘Us?’ She said, finding her voice at last. ‘You’re scientist too?’

He shrugged. ‘Sometimes.’ A slender hand came out next (notably long fingers) with another gleaming smile.

She wondered how many girls went home elated, thinking they would marry a doctor in due course and never work another day again. All because he smiled at them.

‘I’m Frank, he said she she tentatively accepted the firm handshake. ‘And who might you be?’

She studied the dark mop of crazy curls, at such a sharp contrast to the pristine, professional, white lab coat.

They were still holding hands. What’s my name again?

‘Alma,’ she introduced herself, thanking the heavens that her voice had come out properly.

‘The pleasure’s all mine.’ He kissed the back of her hand - just barely brushed it with his lips - and the stance returned to normal. His eyes sparkled the tiniest bit as he said, ‘Just try not to doze off in my house next time, hmm?’

Her stomach - and face - dropped. ‘This is your house...?!’

‘It’s alright, darling, I’m just teasing.’

‘Why were you watching me sleep?’ She remembered, suddenly, for silver tounges and bewitching good looks made no compensation for stalking.

‘Why, protecting you, of course.’ He bared his teeth in another wicked grin. ‘I came upon you, first of all, so finders keepers, and secondly, there are all sorts of eccentric creatures roaming the grounds here this evening. I should know, I invited them. Sabotage is rife here at these events - you can never be too careful with them. Wouldn’t want them to mistake you for the next female Frankenstein and ship you off to a laboratory in the Swiss mountains. With these people, you never know!’

She tried to figure out whether he was teasing again or not. ‘You’re content with having body snatchers in your-?’

‘Oh, that reminds me,’ he exclaimed rather dramatically. ‘I’d quite forgotten about that horrendous dinner - you know the one I’m referring too, don’t you, presuming you read your itinerary?’

She did. She had. Recollection had evaded her as well. And now she felt fantastic.

A black tie gala dinner with these snobs? To sit around a table sipping £300 wine that was probably just a shop-bought crate with the labels removed, discussing current affairs and politics and how much everyone was achieving, and that small loan of £1,000,000 really kick-started the process?

Can’t fucking wait.

When she fazed back in, he cocked his right eyebrow. ‘You didn’t listen to a word I said, did you?’

‘What?’ It was harder to think now, with that unfamiliar, cloying scent apparently exuding from his skin. ‘No, I just - well, it’s not really my thing, I don’t know that much-.’

‘Come with me.’ He clasped her shoulders firmly. ‘Sit at my table. I loathe these silly affairs, you understand? And you don’t seem to be having a brilliant afternoon either, my darling.’ He squeezed her shoulders a little concernedly. She flushed, hoping it wasn’t as red as it felt. ‘Won’t you please keep me company?’

‘Your table,’ she echoed, incredulous. ‘I can’t sit there! Your table will be filled with the most important people, nobody knows who I am!’

‘I have to sit on my own. I told you, it’s abysmal. I sit at the back of a loooooong room, watching thick-headed rich kids fight over who’s more successful, and no one gives me a thought.’

‘Kit isn’t like that,’ she mumbled.

‘I’m sure she isn’t.’ He smiled at her. ‘She wouldn’t have a friendship with you if that were the case, now would she?’ To her immediate shock, Frank pouted. Bottom lip out, large round eyes the epitome of innocence, forehead creasing. And it was...so cute? She’d never expected that. ‘Please come? Pleeeaaasseee? What’s so unappealing about sitting next to me and getting wine drunk all night? What would you be doing otherwise?

Well nothing. But she wasn’t going to say that. Cheeks blazing now, she mumbled at the ground, ‘I have nothing to wear...’

‘Oh come off it!’ He took her firmly by the wrist and quite literally dragged her from the room. ‘Come to my room,’ he instructed while pulling her along as easily as a suitcase, ‘amuse me whilst I get ready. I’ll find you something to wear.’

Alma followed along obediently until they reached the top floor. Frank ushered into a dark room, and she squinted against the glaring artificial light.

And when she could see again...oh boy.

The very definition of indulgence. Decadence. Affluence. Whatever you want to call it. Purples, blacks, deep reds. Gold trims, silver accents. A sprawling four poster took up most of the floor space, made with rich black silk and mountains of velvet pillows. The curtains were black too, yet sheer. Obviously for decoration then...

A sliver vanity table stood opposite the bed, full to bursting with various shattered, smeared, and unkempt cosmetics. The brushes were unclean, the containers left open. Dark pigments had been walked into the thick carpet. The table itself was a mess too - the illuminated mirror, however, was spick and span.

Through the mirrored doors of the walk in wardrobe, she spied row upon row of glittering corests. Heels were stored underneath, what seems to be a selection of...ahem, toys, spilled from a bag right at the back.

Well it made sense now. Someone of Frank’s financial status could afford hour upon hour from high class escorts. He knew what he liked, clearly - consistency at least.

That was until he discarded the coat with a disgusted scoff to reveal that he wore a corset underneath. And stockings. Suspenders. The works. She watched, jaw on the floor, as he slipped on a pair of meshed gloves.

He turned, and pretended to jump a little from her looking at him. ‘What?’ He grinned, strolling over to the vanity and winking at her through the mirror. He pumped a large amount of liquid foundation onto a filthy stippling brush. He caught her staring again, and mirrored her shock in a pantomime gesture.

‘Academics can’t be beautiful too?’

Alma <3

#my fics #my writing #f/o fic #self ship #self ship fic #frank n furter #rhps #🖤

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realtalk-princeton · 3 years

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i'm a potential '25 deciding between stanford and princeton. i really love both schools but i've heard intimidating things about how social life at pton can be competitive, and the concept of eating clubs feels a tiny bit cliquey (but i can also see how eating clubs foster a really strong sense of community!) would you say people at pton are happy? is it easy to form close relationships/make friends? is there anything you don't like about pton? (why did you choose pton?) thank you so much!

Response from Ocean:

It’s true that certain aspects of social life at Princeton are competitive. However, I wouldn’t say that social life as a whole is competitive. There are certain “prestigious” clubs that require bicker or an interview/application process, but by and large most clubs are open to everyone and it’s very possible to just decline to participate in those competitive types of activities. They’re not essential or central to Princeton life in that sort of way.

Eating clubs are a little bit different. I haven’t really noticed them to be “cliquey”, exactly, as everyone I know who is in an eating club has many friends in other eating clubs or not in eating clubs at all. Although there is certainly pressure around that aspect, I don’t think it’s any different than typical Greek life on most campuses -- maybe even less so because club members don’t actually live at the eating club, and aren’t required to do fundraisers or volunteer work together in the way a fraternity or sorority might.

I would say it’s pretty easy to find and make new friends. It’s a small community (slightly smaller than Stanford), so you see a lot of the same people over and over. If you run into someone from your class at the dining hall, for example, it’s easy to sit down with them and strike up a conversation. Would I say people are happy? Right now I’m mostly noticing a lot of stress and depression among students, mostly mourning the lack of a normal school year, what we lost to the pandemic, and so on. But I wouldn’t say we are more depressed or stressed than the average student at a prestigious institution. During my mostly-normal freshman year, I was mostly very happy.

As for things I don’t like about Princeton... well, you pretty much hit the nail on the head with the competitive aspects of social life. I also wish there were better support systems in place for students who are struggling, but I think this is an “America’s healthcare system is shit” problem rather than a Princeton-specific problem.

I chose to come here mostly because of the financial aid package, to be honest. I didn’t get into any of the other competitive schools I applied for so it was basically Princeton or my local university, and Princeton was cheaper and much better quality. Other contributors feel free to add on!

Response from TNTina:

honestly although this post might get quite long, i think it would probably be better the more contributors respond to this, because everyone’s experience is unique and everyone has different things they like and dislike about princeton.

i chose princeton because it was the best school i got into - i did not know prior to college what i wanted to study, and princeton is on a holistic level a very well rounded school. i still think it’s a very well rounded school as a whole, but if there are specific fields you think you might want to go into, i advise you consider this more heavily in how you choose a school. princeton, for example, doesn’t offer b. arch degrees. i’ve also heard that pre-med here is a big grind, and the grading is harsher compared to other similar schools. if there are specific professors you admire, consider that - i have a friend in east asian studies who gushed about a specific professor who was a total legend in the field and she was able to engage him in one on one interactions at princeton. if you’re interested in an experience like bridge year, also consider that. to top it off, i’ll just comment a few things that i think are unique to princeton that i like and that i don’t like.

positive: access to professors - i may just be really lucky but my major has just been one of the most positive aspects of princeton to me. my professors have been overwhelmingly accessible and accommodating; they have checked in on me when i’ve struggled with personal problems, they have arranged meetings with me on the weekend last minute; princeton’s undergraduate focus really shines through.

alumni connections: princeton does reunions (like the actual event) like no other school. truly, i think the alumni network is by far the strongest of any school in this country. i can’t speak for experiences at other schools but there have been times i have needed advice and reached out to alumni - i’ve been lucky for sure, but there has not been a single alum who hasn’t replied to me and devoted a considerable amount of time to talk to me. the internship i’m doing this summer i probably got in large part because i vibed with an alum i got in touch with.

neutral: single major: you can’t double major at princeton, and you wouldn’t have the time to even if you wanted to. in retrospect, i definitely wanted to double major if i went anywhere else, but without the single major policy i also don’t think wouldn’t have found the department i’m currently in.

independent work/thesis: you should really think this one through. thesis is mandatory for all undergraduate students, and a good amount of your time here will be spent doing research. this is a huge grind and a bit of a pain for a lot of people but it is also really really beneficial for grad schools, and i’ve heard from several alumni that it is also really impressive to employers (at least in some fields). it is also just a very unique intellectual experience.

negative: eating clubs. i really am not a fan of the eating club system for several reasons. i do not think they are ‘cliquey’ necessarily, but at the very least they pose logistical challenges - if you are in different eating clubs than your friends or you’re not in an eating club, in your later years it becomes hard to get meals with friends. it’s also logistically difficult for underclassmen, and i think it exacerbates an artificial class year divide, as most upperclassmen eat in eating clubs and underclassmen will often have limited opportunity to eat with their upperclassmen friends. the eating clubs also pose an absurd cost (the main reason i did not join a club). and despite how much they might deny it, each eating club does have a different reputation and thus has a tendency to attract people who vibe with that reputation. eating clubs also have extracurricular/social affiliations to a degree, and i think this also exacerbates a tendency for people to just group with people who are similar to themselves. this is not to say that people don’t do this naturally in society and at other schools though. on a more positive note though, i will say though that i think ocean is right about the fact that people do not typically identify very strongly with their eating clubs and their eating affiliation does not define them in the way that a frat or sorority might. if i had to choose, i would definitely prefer 70% of people being in an eating club than 70% of people being in greek life.

best of luck, you have some fantastic choices - and i really think you can’t go wrong here!

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my-dreamscape · 4 years

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International Women’s Day 2020 : Cebrating Southeast Asian women in research

Celebrating women in Asia.

There are many remarkable Southeast Asian women who work in important areas in research institutions, governments, universities and pharmaceutical companies. This project aims to celebrate these amazing women and to inspire young women to take up careers in research and research-related fields.

This is the last of the blog series that coincides with International Women’s Day 2020. In total, this blog series featured 12 amazing Southeast Asian women in research.

Nguyen Thanh Ha

Nguyen Thanh Ha has a Master’s Degree in Global Mental Health and a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental and Public Health. She is currently a University of Oxford Ph.D. (DPhil)student based at Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU), Vietnam. Ha’s research is on vaccine perceptions and vaccine-related behaviors. She said, “the rate of vaccination has been quite high in Vietnam but in recent years we have witnessed serious outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles. We really need to understand why. What I found so far in the rural areas, is that they do not simply refuse vaccination or are “vaccine-hesitant”. It is more that there are challenges in getting the vaccination such as reaching vaccination centers because of harsh weather, distance, and poverty, which makes them prioritize work overtaking their children to get the vaccination.

Ha has been interested in health since she was in high school. She said, “I still can’t believe that I got accepted in Oxford. I was so lucky to get an internship with the public engagement team at the OUCRU, and this opportunity came about. I have a lot of support from senior colleagues at OUCRU and my family. I come from a family of academics – my mother is an Associate Professor in economics and my father has a Ph.D. in finance.” She jokes, “even though they have shown me an academic path, they still ask me when I will be getting married!”

When asked how to encourage young women to do research, Ha said, “there should be more equality in gender roles in society. In Vietnam, women are still told to get married in mid-20s and prioritize looking after the family. Men are often given more time to focus on their careers.

Ha is also active in community work. She is leading a community – based project to support young Vietnamese with mental health problems. She is the co-administrator of an online volunteer project with “Beautiful Mind Vietnam”.

Dr. Claire Chewapreecha

Dr. Claire Chewapreecha, who was born in Thailand, is the head of the Melioidosis Genomics Group at the Bangkok based Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit. She has been awarded a series of studentships and grants to conduct cutting edge research on melioidosis, a deadly infectious disease affecting humans. This has included the prestigious Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship for early career researchers and more recently a Wellcome International Intermediate Fellowship and a Sanger International Fellowship. Claire said “I have received kind support from many mentors, and have been working with wonderful collaborators. I believe I’m a product of a great team effort and I am immensely grateful for that.”

When asked to talk about her work, Claire said, “I’m a geneticist by training. I’m interested in understanding the genetic basis of melioidosis infection. I was drawn to this work after a visit to a hospital in northeast Thailand, where the disease is prevalent especially among farmers. There, I witnessed first hand the impact melioidosis has on patients and their families. Almost half of people who contract melioidosis die. There is no vaccine available for its prevention”

When asked about challenges in research in her country, she answered, “for research in genetic and bioinformatics, the challenge still lies in the availability of human resources and the opportunities for their development. In Thailand, the number of new graduates in bioinformatics does not meet the demand. But the situation is improving, with more bioinformatics programs opening in Thailand recently. Also, there is more funding available to support further training overseas. So I really hope we will have more manpower to help solve problems, not only in melioidosis, but also for other public health issues.”.

She continued, “people in health research wear multiple hats at the same time, which can range from conducting research, teaching, administrative roles and caring for the family. I have my 94-year old grandad whom I attend to. It is important to find a balance.” In her spare time, Claire does acrylic painting.

Dr. Moul Vanna

Dr. Moul Vanna is the Executive Director of Action for Health Development (AHEAD) in Cambodia, where she is involved in managing multiple health-related projects such as the Cambodia Malaria Elimination Project

When asked what was her initial, personal draw to the field, she mentioned that she was motivated to serve people in the community to have good health with the focus on women’s health. “I wanted to see an improved standard of living including improved access to basic needs, adequate nutritional foods, quality health services, safe water, clean environment, methods to improve their present income-generating activity, expanded livelihood choices, and increased resilience to the impact of climate change and natural disasters.”

Dr. Vanna is pleased to see the increased awareness and positive changes in attitudes and behavior towards gender equality in Cambodia, which has resulted in a reduction of gender‐based violence in AHEAD’s target communities.

What does she think are challenges women researchers face in Cambodia? Dr. Vanna said “I think women are seen as more practical and less intellectual. I feel like when women ask difficult questions, they are less likely to get an answer.”

“In Cambodia, men continue to make the majority of the financial decisions for families. Domestic violence is deeply linked to social norms and gender differences in the household. We need to improve the development of skills for women and education for girls. We also need an enabling environment to allow women to have a good education and meaningful participation in society to increase their voices in decision‐making and to have leadership roles in government and community structures.”

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kathleenseiber · 5 years

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Fake resumes root out real hiring bias

A new way to study hiring called incentivized resume rating has uncovered evidence of how bias seeps into the hiring process of some of the world’s top firms.

Research has shown how easy it is for an employer’s conscious and unconscious biases to creep in when reviewing resumes, creating an uneven playing field that disproportionally hurts women and minority job candidates.

One example of the bias in hiring researchers found: For jobs in STEM fields, women and minority candidates with 4.0 GPAs were treated the same as white male candidates with 3.75 GPAs.

A previous study about online dating inspired incentivized resume rating. Using this method, hiring managers knowingly review and rate fake resumes and are then matched with real-life candidates based on their expressed preferences.

“We didn’t have to trick employers into doing this,” says Corinne Low, assistant professor of business economics and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania, contrasting the team’s study with the audit methods, which involve sending out fake resumes and drawing conclusions based on how employers react to them.

“That might not be worrying when it’s just one researcher sending out a couple thousand resumes. Some employers spend 30 seconds reviewing each resume, so it’s no big deal. But in the last 10 years or so, 90 of these studies have been published. If each takes a couple of thousand resumes, that’s a large cost you’re imposing on employers—you’re wasting their time.”

‘Franken-resumes’

The incentivized resume rating study used students who were searching for their first full-time jobs post-graduation. The companies participating included top names in fields such as finance and technology, including firms that might have been difficult to reach using the audit study approach, Low says.

“Audit studies rely on sending out cold resumes, which means we can only look at the employment preferences of firms who will respond to those,” she says. “A lot of prestige firms only hire through on-campus recruiting or if you have some other type of relationship with them; if not, you’re not on their radar at all.”

She adds that these firms are also hiring for highly technical positions that don’t usually show up on free job listings services like LinkedIn or Indeed. Audit studies are typically limited to openings that appear on such sites because they are designed to respond to open calls for resumes.

“Companies say that they value diversity and think that everybody else is doing the same… But our research shows they don’t actually have those preferences.”

“It’s a superstar economy and you get such a return from going to the right schools, working at the right firms,” Low says. “But we actually know very little about the preferences of those firms and what helps you get hired at those firms.”

Because employers were in on the process from the beginning, the researchers were able to study both their interest in particular candidates and also their views on what Low calls a candidate’s “get-ability,” or how likely the firms thought they would be able to successfully recruit that person.

“If the employer knows that they’re not really offering a top job or internship and they get a really top-notch resume, they might think there’s no point in calling that person back because they will get snapped up by a top firm and the employer knows that it can’t compete,” Low says. This can cause problems for interpretation—for example, in the audit literature employers tend to call back recently unemployed candidates more than candidates who currently have jobs.

“The audit literature usually treats getting called back as good—it means the employer wants you,” explains Low. “But, I doubt the employers really want unemployed candidates more. Rather, it’s about who they think is available and isn’t going to be a dead-end. In our study, we can directly measure the difference between who employers like the most and who they think is likely to come.”

The study asked all of the employers to rate resumes based on quality and get-ability. Having ratings, rather than an up/down callback decision has another advantage, allowing the researchers to see “a lot more data on what they like and what they value and at which points in the quality distribution they value it,” Low says.

In an audit study, “people who don’t get called back are in a no man’s land where we don’t know how an employer felt about them,” she adds. “If you’re trying to design an algorithm or mapping of employer preferences, there is all this missing data. We understand what pushes you over the bar, but we don’t understand anything about employer preferences lower down on the quality distribution.”

Each participating firm rated 40 randomly assigned fake resumes. The researchers developed the fake resumes using software that scraped real ones to create banks of data for academic major and school, work experience, and leadership skills.

“We created a tool so something that looks exactly like a resume is created live as an employer clicked through,” Low says. “It was pulling randomly from that underlying database of characteristics.” Because so many different permutations were available, it’s unlikely that any two employers saw the exact same pool of what Low calls “Franken-resumes.”

Low says the researchers paid particular attention to how they randomized the work experience on resumes, including the prestige of undergraduate internships and whether the fake candidates listed part-time or summer jobs outside their educational goals, such as waitressing or retail positions. The researchers also designed fake resumes so employers saw names that clearly conveyed candidates’ gender and ethnicity.

Major findings

The researchers used the ratings from the fake resumes to match the companies with real candidates from a bank of hundreds of actual CVs from students. Among the paper’s key findings:

• Employers recruiting in humanities and social sciences did not rate female or minority applicants lower on average, but employers recruiting in STEM rated them statistically significantly lower, leading to the previously mentioned effect that a white man with a 3.75 was rated equally to a female or minority with a 4.0. The authors attribute the effect to unconscious, or implicit, bias, since firms report highly valuing diversity.

• Across the board, employers gave less credit to female and minority candidates for having a prestigious internship. “It was quite a big effect,” Low says. “Women and minorities only got about half the boost that a white man would have.”

• Employers in general rated female and minority candidates lower in “get-ability,” meaning they believed those candidates were less likely to accept a job offer. “Companies say that they value diversity and think that everybody else is doing the same, and that they’re all going to be squabbling over these candidates,” Low says. “But our research shows they don’t actually have those preferences.”

• Employers placed significant value on the quality of the internships candidates held prior to their senior year in college. Low notes that firms indicated that they would choose a candidate with a 3.6 GPA and a prestigious internship (think a position at a top consulting firm, investment bank, or brand) over a candidate with a 4.0 who didn’t have that type of experience.

Low says the study also shows that employers placed no value having a “work for money” job such as waitressing or cashiering during the senior-year summer. “Students got no credit for being a lifeguard or working as a barista or being a cashier even though those jobs could actually build some really useful experience,” she notes. “That tells us that it might be particularly challenging for students who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and need to work to earn money in the summers to get these top jobs.”

For top employers who want to diversify their workforces and identify nontraditional candidates, the results of the study offer a stark reminder: It’s easy to say you want to think outside the box in hiring, but companies are still struggling to do it in practice, with both conscious and unconscious biases getting in the way.

“They are excluding the exact type of candidates they say they want to be interested in,” Low says.

Hiring

Using AI or machine learning to cull through resumes is a growing trend, but Low says to be cautious about the idea that it would solve hiring biases. “Firms need to remember that if you have some of these biases, they’re going to get hard-wired into the algorithm. You have to think very carefully about how to strip that out.”

Low thinks the results are especially important because they shed light onto an understudied domain in hiring. “There’s this discussion in economics that sometimes experiments are too focused in where they can look, rather than where the most interesting questions are—it’s been compared to looking for your keys under a light post because that’s where the light is, rather than where you lost them. With resume audit studies, we could only study one type of firm—the ones who hired by going through cold resumes. So that was a lot of administrative jobs, it was often smaller firms.

“It’s important to know what opportunities are being made available to top-tier college grads and whether those opportunities are equal,” Low says.

The paper will appear in the journal American Economic Review.

Source: University of Pennsylvania

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becomingareallawyer-blog · 7 years

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The first day of the rest of your life

You never know when you’ve reached the real beginning of your life. People debate over conception versus birth, but in reality, it’s somewhere much farther down the road. Coming alive is related to decisions. We make many decisions in our lives that have the capacity to affect the entire course of the future. You could even say that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Assuming you escape childhood without having caused or endured some incredible tragedy, you reach adulthood. As a teenager, I always thought that I was already an adult as soon as I started making decisions that were taking charge of my own fate. I had a job at 14 and when I started decided how to spend my own money, or my own time, I thought I knew what being an adult was about. But then I graduated from high school and decided to go to college. And then I thought I was an adult. But I didn’t really like college, because I didn’t know what to do with my life, so I decided I would rather work for awhile. That’s what adults do, right? Then I decided it wouldn’t be right for me to waste my brain, so I returned to college, moved across the country, got engaged, decided I didn’t want to marry that person, moved back across the country, kept working, started dating someone else, bought a house with him, broke up with that person and moved into yet another apartment and started dating again.

Frenetic energy you might say. Perhaps lots of drive with no destination. Perhaps a destination but no roadmap. Perhaps just making my way in my own time. Even as I write this, believing that I have finally made it, the voice in the back of my head remains, asking whether this is truly the destination, or if I’m just deluding myself yet again.

And where am I now, you might ask. Over 5 years ago, on a random date with a random connection from OKCupid (yeah, I know), this guy says to me, “You’re really smart. Have you ever thought of going to law school?” At the time I thought that I had not ever thought of it, but the “On this day” feature of Facebook proves me wrong. I had thought of it, apparently around when I finished undergrad. But I do not remember the motivation for those thoughts, or what I did with them. I don’t know why I didn’t pursue the idea then. Perhaps because I didn’t know how. But this guy just graduated from law school and is getting ready to enter the Air Force’s JAG program, and I think about how amazing that would be. We spend a lot of time talking over the next few days about what I need to do to get prepared.

I buy an LSAT workbook and suddenly realize why I spent so many years doing logic puzzles for fun, at first with my grandmother and later on my own. I am good at this. I can figure this out. I sign up to take the LSAT and when I get my score, it’s good enough that it saves my unimpressive undergraduate GPA. I receive an 80% scholarship to attend a local law school, and I begin in January. Did I mention that that date took place maybe in August? I can’t remember, but I know it didn’t take long to set things in motion.

Law school is an incredible experience. I grow mentally and emotionally. I learn that I am not always going to be the smartest person in the room, which is a change from my previous educational experiences. Maybe someday I’ll discuss the traumatic experience of moving from a city school to a country school, but not today. Forward momentum. I push through my first year, make some connections with some of my colleagues, engage in some friendly competition, and generally learn the ropes. I watch as people slowly disappear around me and always wonder what happened to them. In my second year I begin to engage in volunteer opportunities and internships. I qualify to join the Law Journal and I climb into the executive board quickly. In my third year I do more internships and explore career options.

But all of my classes have been so fascinating, how can I decide what I want to do when I graduate? What do I want to be when I grow up? I never considered this before I started. People were always asking what made me come to law school. I don’t know. In that initial conversation, I said that I have always wanted to save the world. And Mr. JAG told me that the people with the greatest ability to affect the world are lawyers. I have worked in so many different industries since I was 14: food service, pharmacy, factories, social work, and education. I take an interest in anything presented to me. I learn as much as I can experience, and then something else comes along.

I received the highest grade in my Taxation class, which I know is something to be proud of. I meet with the professor afterward and discuss with her how to pursue a career in the field. I apply to join the joint degree program and begin focusing on Taxation with a dash of corporation transactions. But when I start looking for externships, I realize that there won’t be anything close to home in the field.

So I settle for a civil litigation firm. And I am happy with that. I love the work. I get so excited about drafting my first complaint that I happily walk it over to the courthouse to file it myself. My boss asks me to draft as many discovery requests as I can to send to the opposing party because they’ve done something to piss him off. I’m on the case. A few days later I hand him hundreds of questions. His eyes were as large as the stack of papers I placed on his desk. I was so proud of myself, I didn’t even realize that we probably wouldn’t get away with sending more than 25.

And then I graduate. The bar is looming. I am terrified. I do not mess around with the newer, cheaper, supposedly as effective bar study options. I sign up for the top dog program, for which I have received a tiny scholarship as part of my bar preparation class. I receive a huge box of books in the mail, and when I look at the website with lists of assignments to complete, I see that I am not going outside for several months. Every morning I wake up and drag myself into my office, curl up in my chair, and pour over material. I make huge presentation-sized Post-It charts that I stick up all over the walls to try to organize information. Days before the examination, my great-grandmother passes away and I am not sure what to do. She had lived about 4 hours away, so going to her funeral is not as simple as taking a break for a few hours and then coming home. It will be a multiple day affair. So I pack up my laptop and my homemade flashcards and get in the backseat of my parents’ car and we drive. I regale them with tales of property disputes and point out what may be happening at a traffic stop we pass. When my parents go out for some purpose I can’t recall anymore shortly after we arrive, I stay at home and write essays. But the next day I go to the funeral, and I hug my cousins and we cry. I go to my great-grandmother’s house, where I had spent a few hours each summer in my youth. It is strange to see it filled with so many people. We each pick an item to take home with us, and I find a fairy to add to my collection of fairies at home. I take the bar exam, and then I wait. I start substitute teaching to pass the time until something else comes along. And somewhere along the way I have applied for a job as a law clerk in a county where I had worked as a volunteer in their legal assistance center. One day I return home from teaching and receive a call from the judge asking me if I would like to come work for her. I stand in the driveway and jump up and down in excitement. I’ve made it! I worked for that judge for a year and a half, and I spent at least half of that time applying for other jobs. I apply everywhere: in large firms, small firms, prosecutor’s offices, county administration, corporations, and to take over solo practice when the owner retires. I apply for open positions and I send out unsolicited resumes. I receive some responses which go nowhere, and I receive lots of dead air. I am completely unsure about what’s going on. A friend from law school who graduated after me lands a job at a fairly large and prestigious firm almost right after graduation. They make her the offer before she has even passed the bar exam. I spend too much time wondering and asking her questions about how she got there. One of the useful pieces of information I received from her is that firms will consider multiple clerkships instead of experience. So I realize that this may be my best option, to apply for yet another clerkship, since no one seems to want to hire someone with no experience. And luckily, I apply for a clerkship in a nearby county, where one of the criminal defense attorneys that I see on a regular basis in my current job often practices. He is good friends with the hiring judge in fact, and the judge asks him what he knows about me. Thankfully, I have worked hard on maintaining a good reputation; I work hard and speak kindly to everyone. And this has paid off, because the attorney gives me a good recommendation. Additionally, there is a judge’s retreat around this time, and the new judge asks my judge her opinion. My judge is so excited about the opportunity that she sends me a text message from the retreat to tell me that he has asked about me and that she gave me a good recommendation, so I should expect a call from him. And he calls, and then I get an in-person interview, and then I get a job. I take a paycut to change jobs, and I am devastated to leave what feels like a family in the rural county where I’ve been for a year and a half. This city courthouse runs much differently. Instead of being a jack of all trades, I become specialized in criminal law, and I handle most of the letters from prisoners and bailiff jury trials. In the beginning there are a few civil and family matters to attend to, but then it is all criminal. As the split between civil and criminal grows, the civil law clerk moves to a different office, leaving me and the one other criminal law clerk in the office together. A few weeks later, the other criminal law clerk is gone too. This is the intrinsic problem of the clerkship that isn’t governed by contract. We are some of the best qualified but least experienced attorneys out there, and we are paid based on our experience. We cannot help but want the greater prestige and pay of a practicing attorney. So we spend our free time dreaming and casting wishes into the universe in the form of applications. And sometimes our wishes are granted.

And that’s why I say that today is the rest of my life. Today I will put in my two weeks’ notice at my current clerkship because yesterday, I received my first offer to go work at a law firm. In two weeks, I will become a real lawyer.

#lawyer #clerkship #growingup #memories #story #introspective #follow

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