Dreams of elevators
Mar. 14th, 2005 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
onefixedstarLast night I dreamt of doing interviews. Well, of waiting in front of the elevator to do an interview, and talking to one of the other interviewers about building security at the various buildings we were interviewing at and how easy it was to get to the apartments. Kind of scary, but appropriate enough, I suppose, since I spent most of the weekend doing interviews. Or rather, I spent Saturday curled up in a public library waiting in vain for my interviewee to show up (damn those no-shows, although it's partly my fault because I forgot to call and remind her that I was coming), and Sunday doing interviews with time in the library in between. The Sunday interviews both went well, although the second guy wouldn't let me record it, which meant I spent the two hours frantically scribbling notes. There was some interesting stuff about not knowing how to use a computer and still being in the workforce, and some interesting stuff about immigrant use of computers. I'm a little concerned about my own section of the interview. I've done twelve of nineteen interviews (we have five and one-quarter interviewers and we're aiming for 100 interviews in total), and the data I've been getting has not been very enlightening. I'm thinking I may have asked the wrong questions, which is a common enough problem in this field--every study ends with a list of questions that didn't work and a list of questions you wish you'd asked instead--but I haven't figured out exactly what I should have asked instead. It's a good thing that my section is just a government report/possible publication and not my dissertation.
Doing these interviews has increased my already great appreciation of public libraries. The interview location is far enough from home that when I have two interviews that are only four or five hours apart, I prefer to stay in the area rather than trekking back and forth. Public libraries have my been lifesaver on those days because even the most lenient coffeeshop tends to get antsy after you've been there for a couple of hours, and February (or even March) in Toronto is just too damn cold to hang around outside for four hours.
On another note, I met with my supervisor (NetworkGuy) today and found out that he doesn't feel like he has time to be my supervisor. Disappointing, but not a big surprise. He recommended someone else who I had already been considering for my committee. The only problem is that the "someone else" is an assistant professor, and only tenured professors are allowed to chair dissertation committees. What this will probably mean is that NetworkGuy will be my supervisor on paper, but new prof (CultureProf) will be my supervisor in fact...assuming that he agrees to it. I'm going to try to set up a meeting with him later this week (after I've read more of his stuff) to see how he feels about this. I'm feeling fairly positive. I don't know CultureProf well, but we've gotten along the few times we met, and he'll have a lot more time for me than NetworkGuy (who currently has at least five grad students under his direct supervision plus at least another three or four students who he works with closely while serving on their committees). On the other hand, I'll still have NetworkGuy's support if I need it, and his name behind me when I'm trying to find a job. I should also be done before CultureProf comes up for tenture review, so I won't be faced with losing my supervisor part way through (and if I am, NetworkGuy has promised to step up to the plate). This probably isn't the ideal situation, but I think it could work out.
NetworkGuy also gave me some ideas on how I might be able to get funding for the research that I want to do instead of settling for what I can do. I need to sit down and plan out my ideal research project while I'm still feeling optimistic. And he thinks we might be able to get a four month extension on a report we're supposed to be writing, which would be really helpful since the original contract calls for the report to be done by April 1st and we haven't finished collecting the data yet, never mind transcribing, analyzing, or writing it up. Oh, and they're going to pay me more money for the report, which is also good.
Doing these interviews has increased my already great appreciation of public libraries. The interview location is far enough from home that when I have two interviews that are only four or five hours apart, I prefer to stay in the area rather than trekking back and forth. Public libraries have my been lifesaver on those days because even the most lenient coffeeshop tends to get antsy after you've been there for a couple of hours, and February (or even March) in Toronto is just too damn cold to hang around outside for four hours.
On another note, I met with my supervisor (NetworkGuy) today and found out that he doesn't feel like he has time to be my supervisor. Disappointing, but not a big surprise. He recommended someone else who I had already been considering for my committee. The only problem is that the "someone else" is an assistant professor, and only tenured professors are allowed to chair dissertation committees. What this will probably mean is that NetworkGuy will be my supervisor on paper, but new prof (CultureProf) will be my supervisor in fact...assuming that he agrees to it. I'm going to try to set up a meeting with him later this week (after I've read more of his stuff) to see how he feels about this. I'm feeling fairly positive. I don't know CultureProf well, but we've gotten along the few times we met, and he'll have a lot more time for me than NetworkGuy (who currently has at least five grad students under his direct supervision plus at least another three or four students who he works with closely while serving on their committees). On the other hand, I'll still have NetworkGuy's support if I need it, and his name behind me when I'm trying to find a job. I should also be done before CultureProf comes up for tenture review, so I won't be faced with losing my supervisor part way through (and if I am, NetworkGuy has promised to step up to the plate). This probably isn't the ideal situation, but I think it could work out.
NetworkGuy also gave me some ideas on how I might be able to get funding for the research that I want to do instead of settling for what I can do. I need to sit down and plan out my ideal research project while I'm still feeling optimistic. And he thinks we might be able to get a four month extension on a report we're supposed to be writing, which would be really helpful since the original contract calls for the report to be done by April 1st and we haven't finished collecting the data yet, never mind transcribing, analyzing, or writing it up. Oh, and they're going to pay me more money for the report, which is also good.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 02:31 pm (UTC)I ask, because I had friends who did the official/unofficial supervisor thing, and the busy professor ended up creating roadblocks because he was too busy to do some of the official things that only he could do - things that were less of a problem if he had just been on the committee.
More time is good - I hope that your meeting goes well!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-21 08:25 pm (UTC)