Motivation letter / Statement of purpose: Part 2: For PhD

Getting into graduate school / higher education is hard. Even though a few percentage of the University / College graduates prefer to go into grad school, due to limited paid positions, the chances of ending up in your dream institute can be challenging. Now that I am 6 months into my PhD, and after getting positive responses on my previous post on how to write motivation letter for Master's degree, I decided to write a post on tips I learned the hard way with a couple of rejections. Everyone's journey and background are different, every department has its way of selection, feel free to modify it depending on your needs.

Now that you have a master's degree and a little more research background, there may be too much to write. Even though it is always recommended to keep CVs, resumes, motivation letters as short as 1 A4 size page short, with all the experience and background, it may be hard to summarize it to 1 page. My motivation letter is a little longer than 1 page and a half.

This short description is a way to advertise yourself and catch promoters attention. I don't know how the review process goes in each department, but I would personally check the CV first and if it catches my attention, read motivation letter to see how this person describes the things they mentioned on their CV.

Here is how I structured mine;

1st paragraph I explained why I became a civil engineer and how my bachelor's degree helped me

2nd paragraph I summarized my accomplishments and projects and general skills I obtained in the master's degree

3rd paragraph I explained why I couldn't go into PhD directly (I took approximately 2 years off between my masters and PhD) and how I used this time, including brief information about my industrial job and highlighted the skills I improved that can help me get into the position I am applying for.

4th paragraph I explained how I conducted research part time because I just liked it better than my industrial job while looking for a full-time PhD.

5th paragraph summarizes why I want to go back to academia and pursue a PhD. Depending on the topic of the application I try to write a few sentences on how and why I am interested in those research areas.

The 6th paragraph is my final paragraph which I wrap up everything in the letter and give some final comments on why I can potentially be a good candidate.

Even though with 6 paragraphs I almost reach 2 pages, I wished I could write a small research interest paragraph. Depending on how relevant the topic is with your background, this paragraph can be as long as a page. After being the 3rd selected candidate for a position I really wanted, one critical comment the interviewers had was that they preferred to have a research proposal added that is relevant to the topic. After learning that, I start writing a short proposal to the positions I really wanted to get into, which I had some background.

As I mentioned, it is very hard to get a good PhD position, one thing I'd like to add is that sometimes some positions open for specific students already known by the department who proved themselves. Don't let this discourage you, but always keep it on the mind.

Hasselt University

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Hasselt

The University I am pursuing my PhD in, Hasselt University. It is located in Hasselt, Belgium which is a city in Eastern Belgium.

Even though I found Hasselt University in a common academic job web page, after searching about it, I found that it has some very strong research groups. The group I am a member of, call Construction Engineering Research Group is one of them.

Even though I am only enrolled for 6 months, I cannot imagine a better work and research environment. The structure of a PhD is very fulfilling. As part of the PhD program, as a student, you're involved in doctoral schools, which has certain requirements you need to fulfil within the time of PhD. Some of these requirements are non-technical skills such as ethics, communication etc, however, some are very useful practice requirements such as a min number of publication requirements, conference requirements, teaching assignments etc.

As the first female PhD student, I am working towards accomplishing my goals and providing service to the university.

Here is a link to the University vacancy page, if anyone is interested.

5 Major Differences between Industry and Academia Job

After all you can see easily how much I like being in academia and industry and do not like feeling stuck in both time to time. In previous posts, I always tried to mention my point of view on this. As being super close to both, I felt like this had to be said;

- Yes it is rude, however, in academia you are surrounded by co-workers who have similar academic level of education which makes it a little easier to communicate with them. However, in an industry job you could be working with an engineer who graduated 30 years ago and doesn't care about today's technology. This will definitely something to remember.

- In research your main goal is to develop something that hasn't been done/published before, however in industry it all comes down to cost. And guess what, repeated solutions are appreciated because they are cheap and fat.

- In industry it is very rare to be able to measure your success level in terms of numbers however, in academia scientists found many ways of measuring their outcomes in numbers.

- In an industry job, you have to have an outcome at the end of the day, in academia finding out a way doesn't work sometimes counts as an outcome.

- Repeating and mastering some habits are key to fast and reliable success in an industry job, in academia you constantly have to renew your skills depending on your project or trend.

Volunteering in a conference in your undergrad

I remember my freshman (1st) year in bachelors. All we cared about was passing the classes and enjoying free lessons. None of us had what to do after school, and none of us cared either since we had more than 3 years.

On my sophomore (2nd) year, I was going through some family financial problems which lead me to take charge of my life and start earning. At that time, and after having a terrible site summer internship, I thought going into academia was easiest and best path for me.

My passion and hard work helped me get a position and research funding. Beside my research work my advisor encouraged me to volunteer in 1 national and 1 international conference. Here is how my experience went;

1. In the international conference, I met a professor who then became part of my MSc committee in Texas A&M.

2. All faculty from my school recognized me and I built my very first academic network. This network later helped me getting references and getting paper work done easily. Besides that, every time something national or international was going on, I was one of the first students they called to.

3. During the national conference I met many recognized researchers, and one ended up being coworker of my dad from the 90's. You can guess how it helped me stand out in crowd.

4. I learned the research technical slang before even getting bachelors degree.

5. The vision and mission of the conferences motivated me to move forward in hard time in academia.

6. Never paid to attend those conferences and during technical sessions, I could attend the ones I like.

7. Got the goodies bag along with published papers.

These being said, I highly recommend every undergraduate student to take part in such conferences. I believe all academics and graduate students should help young researchers get involved as soon as possible. I think this is the strongest way to get students get involved in research.

Erasmus: Politechnika Krakowska (Crakow University of Technology)

Picture of me on my first day in Crakow, in front of Politechnika Krakowska

Right after writing about Erasmus program, I would like to continue with my personal experience. I went to Politechnika Krakowska for my Erasmus program. It is a technical university located in Krakow, Poland. Before I started erasmus program, I was highly recommended to join this school because it is one of the leading universities in Poland.

I went for Erasmus on my 4th (last) year of bachelor's degree, on the Spring semester. For my case it was pretty risky because I had Fulbright scholarship for 2014-2016 which was starting that fall and I had no chance to fail. And an advantage was I had to take a very few classes.

In some classes we had the pleasure of being "Erasmus Students" meaning the lecturer cared only if we enjoyed ourselves and learned a bit of what was taught. And in the other classes we were sitting with full time students of the University and taught very seriously.

Speaking about classes, a few things I really enjoyed in Politechnika Krakowska is that they had the latest technology in lab or practice classes. I remember taking building physics class which is for heat isolation (we do not have that course in bachelors in Turkey). That course was very unique to me and the theory was a bit confusing, however, after the lab classes, when they showed what was being taught in lecture, it sounded a lot better. Another standing memory I have is that in a concrete class we went for beam bending test which was very interesting to watch as an undergraduate student. Even though I knew I would be a structural engineer, one other class I had to take was transportation class and again it ended up being one of my favorite classes. The course wasn't only theory, we had to make a real life project of a small town. First we had calculated the traffic rate (inbound, outbound etc.) and afterwards started working with a software called Visum. It pretty much visualized our hand calculations.

Last but not least, I found the love of my life in Erasmus, who I call husband now. Besides him, I have bunch of friends all over the world that I am loving to meet once in awhile.

If there is one best thing that can happen to you is Erasmus. Whatever your life is about, if you get the chance, go for it, no matter what it takes. If there is anything I can guide you with please feel free to let me know.

ME vs MSc

This was one of the biggest confusions all my classmates had when we started grad school in Texas A&M University.

ME (Master's of Engineering) is master's degree with no research and thesis involved. More classes are required for graduation and an extra design course is taken. A supervisor is required only to guide for which courses should be taken.

MSc (Master's of Science) is master's degree with research and master's thesis being required. A number of classes are required but not as much as an ME degree. A supervisor for research thesis is required.

Advantages of ME

- More advanced classes are taken.
- Preferred option for industry engineers.
- Sooner graduation.

Disadvantages of ME

- Not accepted for PhD applications in most of the countries.
- No research experience is gained.
- Reading and writing skills are not necessarily improved.

Advantages of MSc

- Research is introduced. It is usually in form of case study supported with literature review.
- Preferred for industry firms which has research and development development.
- Research related delays in graduation may occur.
- Writing skills are improved.
- Solid knowledge on literature review process.

Disadvantages of MSc

- Literature review can be challanging and overwhelming time to time.
- If there is no specific project, finding a gap in literature can be tough.
- Funding is needed even for an analytical research project.

At the end of the day, it is out decisions that make us who we are. Sometimes what we think is best is not best for us. I highly recommend an MSc degree if time and funding are not an issue. In close future it may open more doors.

Why is good GPA way to PhD?

We all are trying to fit in the system by “trying” to get best ranking, best GPA in school. The second we walk out of University, all people care about is what kind of experience we have. I am in industry for a year and absolutely no one asked me what my GPA was.

Besides my job I am conducting research and decided to start PhD. When it is about school admission, one very important thing is GPA. I have been working on trying to understand this requirement. Just because I can remember bunch of things when my book is closed makes me a great candidate to carry on a 3-4 years of an intense project? My ability to memorize pages of information will help me publish in top journals? My control over 1,5 hours of a well went exam will help me manage my research project time? And last but not least, just because I have or had good GPA will keep me away from PhD depression? Yes, I am asking this questions because I do not have a “good” GPA from my master’s degree and even if I get to a great research university or just a regular one, I will be a researcher for the rest of my life.

There are many successful academics who earned their PhD degrees from “average” universities but had great ideas to change literature in their field. I totally understand that university name is just a title. All you need is a “good” advisor (everyone’s good definition is different) and a “good” project.

With one blog post I can’t change the system, but if I am ever at a position to decide for this, I will only request transcripts to see if they have taken relevant courses to the research project. From my experience in research and industry, I can confidently say that all that matters in you can find a way out from a problem when all the information is open to your access. Only this way intelligence and problem solving skills will grow.

How I became a Book Person after my Master's Thesis

I am not writing to set a bad example. All my childhood my parents tried to make me a book person. Both of my parents are educated and they read on regular basis. I just didn't like letters and reading. I strongly (and still) preferred numbers over letters. I was also okay reading for classes, I loved doing homework and it was part of the process, I believed.

In Turkey, to go to university everyone has to take a public exam. This exam included Turkish (reading), maths, science in beginner level (for high school) and depending on what major you want to choose you have to take another exam which includes all material, in my case it was 4 years worth of maths and science. However, to do overall well, I needed a decent reading grade. That year while I was preparing for the exam, I was reading minimum 15 minutes a day. I did better than I thought and got into my dream degree program, civil engineering.

Civil engineering program didn't involve too much reading and I read only books of my interest (not sure how many a year though). Even though I got involved in research during my undergrad, I don't remember having to read too much. I was only given material that I directly needed to use and understand. When it came to masters, things changed. Guess what was my advisors first comment on my research topic? Go through the literature and find a gap, use keyworks X,Y and Z. TA-DAA, yes I spent almost a year 90% just reading for my thesis proposal. At the end of a year, it helped me so much that I could write my thesis in less than 3 months.

Since then I really appreciate how further reading has taken me. I am still not a book worm, but I do read everyday even if it is only for 10 minutes. I don't think there is too much to worry when you don't like reading, since you don't really know what you are missing. But once you "have" to read, things change in a way that nothing can stop you from reading. And my personal advise is "write as much as you read or read as much as you write".

Why would be industry be VS academia

Even though I have been using the term industry vs academia in my daily life before blogging, lately I started thinking that I may be overlooking at something. Seriously, why would be industry be against academia? If there was no success in academia once upon a time (maybe it wasn't called academia or research and it was just essential for life) there would be no technology. Even today, almost every single successful research invention is converted into an industry business.

I graduated from my masters degree exactly a year ago and because of unexpected situations I went to an industry job. Not only I got the job because I had research experience, also the skills from academia helped me successfully complete my day to day tasks which most of the time included finding 1 sentence of information in a 500+ page codes.

For sometime now I am looking how the PhD hiring process is going in Europe. Speaking for civil engineering, I am very disappointed to see there are almost no fully-paid positions. This makes me think of 3 things:

1. Do we know everything we need to know?

I am not a professor or an expert but I can speak about a few very important gaps in civil engineering. In 21st century we should be putting more effort into development of technology than being satisfied with what we have.

2. Do we have too many PhDs that are unemployed?

PhDs who graduated sometime between 2000-2006 have good academic positions. Assuming someone gets their PhD at 30, this scholar might work in same institute for almost 30 years until retirement. So what is seriously happening to all PhDs that are graduating now?

3. Why does industry companies think PhDs are expensive?

This also includes the idea that PhDs are overqualified for industry jobs. Ofcourse someone straight out from bachelors will be a lot cheaper to hire if you are only looking into industry experience. However, a candidate with masters and PhD has developed many skills overtime that most of the industry worker will not be able to develop in 5-6 years.

So I am sitting here, having an industry job with the dream of getting into a PhD and applying all I know into civil industry.

Let me know what you think of such situation? Is it worth going to research based degrees? Or shall we just be satisfied with what we have?

10 Things to Avoid at Your Very First Job

10 THINGS TO AVOID AT YOUR VERY FIRST JOB

I manage to stay in my first industry job only 8 months. Don't get me wrong, I didn't get fired or had a very bad experience, instead I made all the mistakes below and my colleagues with no self-respect used each one of those against me. I quit my job for good, I learned very valuable practice lessons as well. I promised myself not to make the below mistakes. If you're getting ready for your first job, here are a few advise learned the hard way.

1. Don't be afraid to ask

The question can be as simple as "can you help me connect to the printer" or as something more complicated as "how can I access previous reports for such client". It doesn't feel good when you have to ask 10 questions a day to one specific person because you might feel like you're interrupting them, however, that is the only way you'll overcome those problems.

2. There is no such thing as it is a "false" because you are not experienced. Everyone was at that point once in time

I mentioned "I have no experience" every time I didn't know an answer to a specific question. A few months later when I was able to give right answers, colleagues working under my authority questioned it. The right answer for something you don't know could be "let me look it up to be sure" and if you need go speak about it with someone who can potentially answer or guide you to find an answer.

3. Feel free to speak with your manager / boss on positive and negative things

I was pretty unlucky on this one because my boss was my manager and my senior engineer. I had to be very careful what I tell him because I wasn't sure if the answer would come from my boss, manager or senior engineer. However, I do regret not letting him know how I feel.

4. If you're assigned a work that you cannot over come, try to take it as far as possible and let your senior know what knowledge you need to move forward

When I look back now, I know they were not expecting my to do everything that I eventually figured out how to do. I would stress myself over something that sometimes I didn't even think if I had all the data necessary to move forward. Best way to overcome this is by using previous projects, it can at least give you an idea of where to loop up.

5. Reflect your personality - directly

You're older than 21 years old by the time graduate from basic university degree. We all have positive and negative properties and no one will and no right to judge you over it. If you have that one skill that will move the project forward, don't wait and just take action. It might feel like it will look bad since you are there for a limited time but at the end of the day what matters is if the work is done.

6. Know exactly what they are expecting from you

Yes, you'll read the job description and have an overall idea of what they can expect from you. On the other side you might have to do things that are not directly related to your qualifications. This can be as simple as putting files from all departments together. Make sure to know as much as details as possible.

7. There will be longer days, don't let stress take over your life quality and your health

I am a daughter of a workaholic - who would work 24 hours straight if needed. One piece of advise from him was to work until your job for the day is done. One thing he never told me, maybe he doesn't know, was to know your limits. If you need to work late, of course do. But if you are working late because someone cannot do their job right make it very clear that it is not your job scope.

8. If you really need to take a few days off, don't wait until you are sick. Speak with whoever is in charge, there should be ways around it

This is not something I can do until I feel comfortable with the company and people around. However there are days you just don't want to leave the bed. Sometimes even a couple of hours off on a work day can help you re-fuel and feel a lot better. Make sure to let someone know.

9. Don't get into any agreement that will limit your freedom to leave the company

I always prefer unlimited time agreements. You never know what will bring. You may not like the company, job or simply the people around you. Or all of a sudden something great happens in your personal life and you have to leave the city or country for something better for you. It is also very common for a company to ask you to sign a contract because they paid for you business trip or funded your certification. At this point it is up to you to decide. Even though I didn't have to make a decision on such a topic I would probably prefer "to pay back for X work Y years or pay Z amount". It still limits the freedom up to some extend but still gives you a chance in case things don't work out.

10. Don't take it emotional - Almost no one retires from the company they first worked for

It is your very first job. I was so damn excited because this company invested time and money into me. My first few months I couldn't even think about I can quit this company because I believed they put so much faith me. Yes, they hired you because they thought your skills would help however, every single person in industry can be replaced. Don't think about this the bad way. If you're not happy or satisfied with the conditions you have the right to move on. Like you can find a new job, they can find a new employer.

Why you should have a Researchgate profile

www.researchgate.net

I joined Researchgate only few weeks ago and I really regret not joining earlier. It is a platform where each researcher represents their research work including articles, current and completed research projects, peer reviews, books and conference papers. The most important factor for us, new researchers, is that it gives you very important information for someone you are interested in working with.

I am sure almost everyone had the struggle of finding the best possible advisor to conduct their research degrees. Below are a few factors you should consider, which Researchgate made easier;

1. How active is that person - By this I mean if that person attends one conference a year, or just publishes 1 article in every 2 years and if he/she carries research with international researchers. This clearly shows that how many and which conferences they'll potentially take you to, how much time they put to distribute their research and during your studies or after the doors they can potentially open you.
2. Continuity in one research field - This can be very important for a new researcher. If a person you are looking at has many articles and conference papers on future dates, it clearly shows that there is funding in that part of field. You can take it further and improve the literature.
3. Quality of their research - Even though I didn't like use the word quality for such a unique piece of work, depending on the field and timing some research is out date or has been done so many times that no one wants to cite. This could be an interesting point to keep on mind. 
4. Easy access to research - Sometimes it is hard to find one specific paper or to find previous research of someone that wrote a very interesting paper once upon a time. If you're lucky enough that such person has a profile, you can access (sometimes you have to ask for it) such information and other papers supporting it very easily.

Researchgate has been a very useful database for me and I highly recommend anyone to have it.

Annotated Bibliography

Since I wrote about importance of reading in research on my last article, I believe this is the right time to write about annotated bibliography. For those of you who are in research many years this is not something new. I am writing this specially to those who are new in research. Even if you want to end up in academia or become an industry engineer following latest technology you should be reading constantly. Best way to keep track of what you read and what is going on is to keep annotated bibliography.

My annotated bibliography is on a google word document. It has the author, year, subject and paper name or conference name respectively, my advisor wanted me to follow Chicago style. Once I read a paper, I write a paragraph summary of the paper, as the word describes it self, annotate. I use my words as much as possible to avoid plagiarism in case I will need to add it to my paper. After the summary, I try to write a few sentences of how the paper/ research could be improved. This helps me get a better idea of what I could potentially add to my research. Sometimes it is a great point to start. In research what has been done before seems very important but what is missing is way more important for us, young researchers.

Another benefit i found of an annotated bibliography is you can keep track of what each researcher did. Sometimes you will see same authors publish very similar information in few articles within the same years with some improved comments. Even though I believe each paper published must have something unique, this shows a way to get most out of one project.

I hope this will help some of you have better way to organize your research library. Good luck!

Can a poster change your life?

A picture from Gateway Conference

I have a first experience in this topic. I was in my Junior (3rd year) of my undergrad and one day I came across a flyer that caught corner of my eye. It had a white background and a very neat bright blue word on it "Fulbright". I quickly went through the requirements and all I needed was a 3.0 GPA. I wrote down the name of the scholarship and googled it all night wondering what is it actually. Summary of my research was they were funding your studies in the United States for 2 years (depending on the country you are applying from) with no pay back. This sounded tricky because why would anyone really do that? I went into few of my professors the next day and asked if they had known anything about this scholarship. I probably didn't end up with a real answer since I don't really remember anything.

It took me a full day to complete the online forms (they pretty much interview everything about you) and around 3 weeks to collect letter of recommendations. I posted (yes, hard copy mail) the application a week in advance of the deadline to be on the safe side on March 18, 2013.

Since I sent my application no word was heard. I kept on checking their social media accounts to see if I would miss anything. 3 months later, I see an e-mail stating I am invited for the interview. The date, time and location is set and you have no other chance but be there and guess what it was scheduled for my finals week but luckily I had no exam on that day.

The interview was quite fine. Some personal and some technical questions, they just want to see the light in your eyes (and yes every single thing you did in school counts). Thinking now I believe there was 2 thing that differed me from others.

1. I was funded by a national research council as an undergraduate researcher.
2. I wanted to work on steel structures and my reason why there is lack of research in Turkey on that field.

I heard the final work approximately after a month when I was doing my internship on steel structures.

It was not an easy process getting selected or getting into a school, however, I can say with confidence now it was the best and most challanging experience I had since now. Let me know if there is anything I can guide you with for the Fulbright Scholarship.