Posts
by Ryan Leib
Initially, I debated on whether or not to invent some kind of ‘killer’ hook paragraph for this article. Telling you the real story behind the article, as I have obviously chosen to do here, would be (I hope) deeply enthralling, however my ‘geek would be showing,’ as they say. Then I remembered that I’m a graduate student, and, most likely, so are you. Crisis averted.
When the call came for articles late last year, I asked the generally open minded people at The Berkeley Graduate if they would, in the name of research, subsidize a monthly subscription to World of Warcraft (ostensibly so I could ‘learn more’ about a stimulating simulated environment that, if my RSS feed is to be believed, not only serves as a model of free market consumerism but also is capable of swallowing professional careers whole). A deeply interesting topic, I believed, considering that most of us are looking to have one of those careers soon. I submitted my usual proposal documents [Editor’s Note: In the form of post it notes], a few recommendations from friends [Editor’s Note: A picture of an “identical twin brother” doesn’t count], and so forth, hoping that my dreams of taming wild Azeroth would soon come true. Alas, that was not in the available software package from Anthony Hall; and for what it’s worth, I thought “But I can be a wizard when I grow up!” was a thoroughly compelling argument in favor of that arrangement. [Editor’s Note: Ryan was offered a saving throw on the decision, it’s not the management’s fault he didn’t have a suitable icosahedron hand—we thought he was an Eagle Scout: whatever happened to being prepared?]
This left me with a fair amount of time for soul searching (as I couldn’t farm Molten Core) and in my lonely thoughts came a small stirring voice, asking, ‘why didn’t I get my dream job?’ I promised myself then and there that if I’m ever going to make this virtual dream a virtual reality (which I think is a phrase I so enjoy typing that this entire paragraph was devised just to contain it), I need to get one of two things: a second job to cover the exorbitant increase to my meager cost of living, or a better pitch the next time The Berkeley Graduate asks for articles. Luckily, those musings led like night into day to an excellent subject for this semester’s article: The UC Career Center.
Now I know what you’re thinking, dear reader (actually, I’m just postulating; telepathy is reserved for humanities students), you have one of the following impressions regarding the Career Center:
i.) Isn’t that for the undergrads or people on the way out (not me!)
ii.) I guess it could be useful, but isn’t it a long walk? and/or
iii.) What is this Career Center of which you speak?
And frankly, between the typical unawareness of the outside world we suffer here as denizens of the ivory tower and their lack of a good viral marketing campaign, I can’t really blame you. So, I hope you don’t mind terribly that I’ve decided to unwrap this delicious little morsel for you (because if I ever do get WoW, I’m surely going to need a job to keep paying those subscription fees) and feed you the information you need most as you’re looking to graduate.
So, let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Like most campus organizations, a quick glance at their materials reveals that many of their student fee supported services do indeed focus on undergraduates. No surprises there, as getting all those wee ones out the door and on the market is certainly within their vast purview and keeps Sproul plaza considerably less crowded in the summers. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t offer a wide variety of services for those of us with our own peculiar set of needs. With the diligence of the special type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that graduate students acquire around the time of their qualifying exams at my disposal, and the help of my mighty internet sleuthing abilities, I have been able to coax vital intelligence for you, the graduate student, from the Career Center’s materials and have distilled the choice bits for you into 2000 words or less. What a bargain!
The first thing that you should realize is that your career has already started. I know, wild isn’t it? I remember when I stumbled away from commencement ceremonies a few years back, that fake blank diploma in my hand and I said to myself, “huh, I guess in six to eight weeks when they finalize my grades I’ll be a chemist.” Maybe you had a similar realization; in any case, remember, anything you do now will only serve to benefit your future development.
The career center offers a lot of services to help you right now. In particular, there is a whole division over there that is devoted to the aspiring GSI-of-the-year types to ease the agony of those teaching positions in which most of us find ourselves obligatory participants. I’m afraid I’m not going to say more on this subject. At some time in the not so distant past, I wrote a fine piece about pedagogy for the Berkeley Graduate, so if developing yourself into a better instructor is your goal in reading this article, stop now. Please direct yourself post haste to our back issues department; I’m certain they will be able to find it for you.
If, on the other hand, you’re more interested in what happens after graduate school, then we’ve still got you covered. For, as is implicit with the title of their office, the other major goal of the Career Center is to serve as a single stop shop to ease your inevitable exit. Indeed, it is the peculiar plight of the graduate student to take on an indefinite term of service that is equal parts long hours, short pay and hard work with a dash of no long-term job certainty. As one of my coworkers was saying this morning, “we work and work but at the end of it, you’re out on your own”. Quite a dramatic departure from climbing the corporate ladder; the graduate student’s ladder ends in a diving board.
But the inevitable leap doesn’t have to be a rapid descent into the icy, shark-infested water of unemployment if you plan ahead now. If you learn nothing else from me today, know that the Career Center serves as the University’s lightning rod for all those academic and industry human resources departments looking for new brilliant hires such as yourself to fill out their ranks. While certainly your advisor and department can and may help you find that perfect job through recommendations and personal connections, when a company calls to look for newly graduated students to fill those vital positions, the Careers office is who picks up the phone. At specific times of year, the center sponsors and helps organize on campus career fairs for over 500 major firms that can give you those vital first looks at a potential employer, and a feel for the job market of which you are about to become a part. The center also orchestrates over 15,000 on-campus interviews every year; and there are only about 9,000 grad students, so we should all get at least one, right?
Many of us haven’t spent much time outside of the walls of the academy, and finding yourself in an industrial position interview can be a rude awaking. To help prepare you for these new experiences, the Career Center has a series of seminars, workshops and presentations to help prepare you for the market. Whether it’s mock interviews, writing your CV, putting together a good portfolio or even what socks to wear, there is a group activity specially designed for you, and having their input can be a great help.
Perhaps you already are ready for those interviews. And then, you have gone on that interview, but your potential employer would like another letter of recommendation. But your recommender of choice is on a beach in Fiji, drinking mai tais and doesn’t answer your calls (and just think, mai tais were invented here in Oakland! What a waste of a trip!). Well, if you start now, that never needs to be a problem. The Career Center can help through their Letter Service. By having your recommenders submit their letters through the Career Center, they will send out copies to any potential employer without your having to go back and ask yet again for that same letter. On top of that, the Center keeps the letters on file for a few years, in the case that the first foray into the working world isn’t right for you, and you need to make a change.
But maybe you know you don’t want that academic position, and the industrial jobs that you know about don’t sound like the right fit for you. If you find yourself in this position, a great place to start is with their vast resource library on alternative jobs for people with your skills. Through online inventories as well as career consultation and advisement, hopefully the right job is just a couple hours of searching away. And once you find it, you’re already where you need to be to start sending out your applications and getting that dream job.
‘But Ryan,’ you say, ‘I’m just beginning this graduate student gig. I have many years left in the salt mines. Why should I start now?’ Well, if the reasons I already pointed out above weren’t enough to convince you your career started yesterday, I’ll appeal to your wallet. During your last semester on campus, it’s likely in many departments that you will be placed on Filing Fee. For the uninitiated, let me quote the Grad Division site: “Filing Fee puts you on withdrawal status, which means you are not allowed to use University facilities, and student loans may become due.” Not only do you lose access to the gym at exceptionally low student membership rates, and the clocks start ticking on all of your loans, but all those free services of the Career Center are gone or come with a price-tag. So get your appointment right now, dear readers, before it’s too late.
If you need some specific advice, or don’t have a clue where to begin, perhaps a private consultation is for you. These can be set up directly through the website or call the number at the end of this article. They can help you with all parts of the career building process, from finding what you want to do to negotiating proper compensation for your immense battery of skills. If you choose to avail yourself of private consultations, I will gladly receive 10% finder’s fee for directing you to these services – just drop a check in The Berkeley Graduate’s box at Anthony Hall; I’m sure it will find its way to me.
A note to my loyal readers: For more detailed information about the services provided by the UC Career Center in planning your job search, please go to career.berkeley.edu or call 510-642-1716 to set up your appointment with the career office today.
Showing posts with label On Campus Student Resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label On Campus Student Resources. Show all posts
Monday, August 4, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
The Balancing Act: An Assessment of the Child-Care Options Available to UCB Graduate Student Parents
By Katrinell M. Davis, on behalf of the Graduate Student Parent Project
“I am considering scrapping my academic career because if I put family first, my colleagues won't consider me competitive and the job options get even scarcer. I can't travel for conferences, attend lectures and groups, etc. I just don't think it's likely that I can expect a decent job after taking the ‘time off’ (teaching & writing part-time for a few years) to raise my son. I can't choose the job over the child. I didn't understand how bad this dilemma would be when I started grad school.”
---UCB Graduate Student Parent
Due to the increasing number of women and older students entering graduate programs in recent years, colleges and universities have made efforts to address the changing needs of their student populations. However, despite the fact that schools including the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) have developed a variety of services for “non-traditional” students, many are left wondering if the available resources are effective in helping students finish their programs while raising children.
Amidst rising housing costs and the reduction of resources needed to help balance work and family, it has become necessary that we examine how graduate student parents are affected by the affordability and availability of child care at UCB. In response to this crisis, the Graduate Assembly and Graduate Division commissioned this study in 2007 in order to learn more about the child care hurdles UCB graduate student parents confront in their attempts to balance parenting and the work of preparing for an academic or professional career.
There were four distinctive goals of the 2007 Graduate Student Parent Survey, which is the primary data source for this report.1 The first goal was to learn more about child care expenses, and which forms of child care arrangements graduate student parents generally use. The second goal was to learn more about the school-related factors that limit their ability to balance work and family. The third goal was to learn more about which University sponsored programs most benefited this population, and also which programs seem to under-serve graduate student parents. Finally, the fourth goal was to learn more from graduate student parents about the services they need to be productive parents and students.
When UCB graduate student parents were surveyed almost ten years ago by Alice Jordan, the current director of the Student Parent Center, they were asked what the university should consider as top priorities in its attempts to help student parents balance work and family. At the time, most students reported that the university should consider expanding its services to include summer child care, sick child care, and short-term or drop-in child care.
The results from the 2007 survey indicate that, despite the change in times, the resources graduate students require are very similar to what they needed in the past. In fact, graduate student parents in this sample (n=299) overwhelmingly agreed that greater efforts must be made by the university to find innovative ways of addressing the child care problems they face. Specifically, most UCB graduate student parents contend that the university should expand its efforts to create affordable housing. Many also report that the administration should help facilitate a change in the affordability and accessibility of UC childcare. Furthermore, others ask that the proper steps be made to ensure that family-friendly policies are acknowledged within departments and implemented in ways that meet the needs of all graduate student families.
The full report is available as of March 14, 2006. You can find it at the graduate assembly webpage at http://ga.berkeley.edu at the Graduate Student Family Researcher Page under the heading “Resources”.
1 -Anonymous surveys for graduate student parents & graduate student assistants were distributed via email. There were 299 graduate students that participated in this survey, & 38 UCB graduate student assistants that responded to this questionnaire. Telephone interviews & online surveys were sent to family resource center staff at schools that are members of the Association of American Universities, a organization that helps its members develop national policy positions on topics relating to academic research as well as graduate & professional education. Overall, 6 out of the 60 American members of the AAU responded to this survey.
“I am considering scrapping my academic career because if I put family first, my colleagues won't consider me competitive and the job options get even scarcer. I can't travel for conferences, attend lectures and groups, etc. I just don't think it's likely that I can expect a decent job after taking the ‘time off’ (teaching & writing part-time for a few years) to raise my son. I can't choose the job over the child. I didn't understand how bad this dilemma would be when I started grad school.”
---UCB Graduate Student Parent
Due to the increasing number of women and older students entering graduate programs in recent years, colleges and universities have made efforts to address the changing needs of their student populations. However, despite the fact that schools including the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) have developed a variety of services for “non-traditional” students, many are left wondering if the available resources are effective in helping students finish their programs while raising children.
Amidst rising housing costs and the reduction of resources needed to help balance work and family, it has become necessary that we examine how graduate student parents are affected by the affordability and availability of child care at UCB. In response to this crisis, the Graduate Assembly and Graduate Division commissioned this study in 2007 in order to learn more about the child care hurdles UCB graduate student parents confront in their attempts to balance parenting and the work of preparing for an academic or professional career.
There were four distinctive goals of the 2007 Graduate Student Parent Survey, which is the primary data source for this report.1 The first goal was to learn more about child care expenses, and which forms of child care arrangements graduate student parents generally use. The second goal was to learn more about the school-related factors that limit their ability to balance work and family. The third goal was to learn more about which University sponsored programs most benefited this population, and also which programs seem to under-serve graduate student parents. Finally, the fourth goal was to learn more from graduate student parents about the services they need to be productive parents and students.
When UCB graduate student parents were surveyed almost ten years ago by Alice Jordan, the current director of the Student Parent Center, they were asked what the university should consider as top priorities in its attempts to help student parents balance work and family. At the time, most students reported that the university should consider expanding its services to include summer child care, sick child care, and short-term or drop-in child care.
The results from the 2007 survey indicate that, despite the change in times, the resources graduate students require are very similar to what they needed in the past. In fact, graduate student parents in this sample (n=299) overwhelmingly agreed that greater efforts must be made by the university to find innovative ways of addressing the child care problems they face. Specifically, most UCB graduate student parents contend that the university should expand its efforts to create affordable housing. Many also report that the administration should help facilitate a change in the affordability and accessibility of UC childcare. Furthermore, others ask that the proper steps be made to ensure that family-friendly policies are acknowledged within departments and implemented in ways that meet the needs of all graduate student families.
The full report is available as of March 14, 2006. You can find it at the graduate assembly webpage at http://ga.berkeley.edu at the Graduate Student Family Researcher Page under the heading “Resources”.
1 -Anonymous surveys for graduate student parents & graduate student assistants were distributed via email. There were 299 graduate students that participated in this survey, & 38 UCB graduate student assistants that responded to this questionnaire. Telephone interviews & online surveys were sent to family resource center staff at schools that are members of the Association of American Universities, a organization that helps its members develop national policy positions on topics relating to academic research as well as graduate & professional education. Overall, 6 out of the 60 American members of the AAU responded to this survey.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Bears: Discount Culture
When I think of culture at Cal, my first thoughts go to the Petri-dish of a lawn of sporulating grossness that I made by inoculating sugar-free jello with the growth from my labmate's coffee pot. For someone who professes to love the elixer of that bean so much,one would imagine that his carafe wouldn't have gotten to the point where I could take colony samples off it. But I digress. Millions of bacteria can't be wrong. Or can they? I love sugar-free jello anyway--it's way cheaper than McConkey's agar,even if I don't get to make any conclusions on lactose metabolism. I'll stop before your collective dorkmeters end up smoldering on the floor.If anthrax taught me nothing else, it's that a little biology is a dangerous thing.
Anyhow,I think the important thing to remember while engaged in the pursuit of your advanced degree is that there is life outside of the lab. This is a concept that is for some difficult to accept,but it is true. You can plug away at your studies 110 hours a week,but if you don't take the time to do a little cultural decompression once in a while,you're setting yourself up to develop a close personal relationship with the good people of GlaxoSmithKline (Tums),Johnson and Johnson (Mylanta),Novartis (Maalox), and Pfizer (Rolaids,Zantac,…and Viagra,but that is neither here nor there). And these are my friends,so I would suggest you get your own.
Of course,you might be thinking,“Culture is expensive and I am POOR!”. Fair enough. Thankfully, there is lots of culture on the cheap in the bay area. With your student I.D. (put that on your first things to get list if you haven't gotten it already), and your hopefully simultaneously acquired Class Pass (opening to you the gateway that is the AC Transit festival of free buses),you have a whole great area to explore. Sometimes riding the bus and people watching is all the culture and entertainment I need. However, with an ID,you can walk into the Berkeley Art and Anthropology Museums for cheap as free! Also,the campanile is accessible,ASUC Superb concerts and such,and most athletic events. Your wallet is still fat. The Pacific Film Archive offers free movies sometimes (usually the beginnings of the months),so that's certainly something to check out.
Introverted? Agoraphobic? Might I suggest that you use the card's second functionality: Library Card. While you might be used to looking for things in the library or libraries devoted to your field,perhaps a book on something you stumbled upon in the news or while poking around on the internets. The stacks offer that warm confined feeling that you don't get so much in Art museums,while there's a lower risk of social interaction. Heh heh heh. Seriously though--some of the best chairs on campus are hidden in libraries. Therearelunch poetry readings sometimes in the Morrison library, there's the dinosaur over by the biosciences library (which is one of the first things I show visiting guests),and of course,most of them have books that surely someone would find interesting. And,the buildings areoften climate controlled. Hot. (Or not,when that is
the preferable way to be.) And maybe if you're not introverted,you could meet people interested in the same topics as you? I'm sure you can think these things through. After all,you're here,so you've surpassed some initial screening. Probably.
If you have the opportunity,classes outside of your department are occasionally tempting,and often covered by your department,so that's pretty cool. Classes down at the ASUC Art Studio are discounted with your ID,so if you want to learn to craft in some way,that's a regular inoculation of non-work option. Free departmental seminars are great too!
Some people incorporate food as part of a culture. And you have a plethora of options here in Berkeley. If your having saved money on entertainment has not sufficiently sated your desire for cheapness,Mel's, EZ Stop and Fenton's will discount your food if you flash your I.D. I think the candy store by the BART station too,but that might involve some sort of trickery. If you want to shift up in price range,remember that Berkeley is the hometown of the development of what is considered “California Cuisine”, so there are high-end options. Perhaps when I graduate I will try such things. But feel free to experiment. Depending on your focus,experimentation may be what getting your degree is all about.
Anyhow,I think the important thing to remember while engaged in the pursuit of your advanced degree is that there is life outside of the lab. This is a concept that is for some difficult to accept,but it is true. You can plug away at your studies 110 hours a week,but if you don't take the time to do a little cultural decompression once in a while,you're setting yourself up to develop a close personal relationship with the good people of GlaxoSmithKline (Tums),Johnson and Johnson (Mylanta),Novartis (Maalox), and Pfizer (Rolaids,Zantac,…and Viagra,but that is neither here nor there). And these are my friends,so I would suggest you get your own.
Of course,you might be thinking,“Culture is expensive and I am POOR!”. Fair enough. Thankfully, there is lots of culture on the cheap in the bay area. With your student I.D. (put that on your first things to get list if you haven't gotten it already), and your hopefully simultaneously acquired Class Pass (opening to you the gateway that is the AC Transit festival of free buses),you have a whole great area to explore. Sometimes riding the bus and people watching is all the culture and entertainment I need. However, with an ID,you can walk into the Berkeley Art and Anthropology Museums for cheap as free! Also,the campanile is accessible,ASUC Superb concerts and such,and most athletic events. Your wallet is still fat. The Pacific Film Archive offers free movies sometimes (usually the beginnings of the months),so that's certainly something to check out.
Introverted? Agoraphobic? Might I suggest that you use the card's second functionality: Library Card. While you might be used to looking for things in the library or libraries devoted to your field,perhaps a book on something you stumbled upon in the news or while poking around on the internets. The stacks offer that warm confined feeling that you don't get so much in Art museums,while there's a lower risk of social interaction. Heh heh heh. Seriously though--some of the best chairs on campus are hidden in libraries. Therearelunch poetry readings sometimes in the Morrison library, there's the dinosaur over by the biosciences library (which is one of the first things I show visiting guests),and of course,most of them have books that surely someone would find interesting. And,the buildings areoften climate controlled. Hot. (Or not,when that is
the preferable way to be.) And maybe if you're not introverted,you could meet people interested in the same topics as you? I'm sure you can think these things through. After all,you're here,so you've surpassed some initial screening. Probably.
If you have the opportunity,classes outside of your department are occasionally tempting,and often covered by your department,so that's pretty cool. Classes down at the ASUC Art Studio are discounted with your ID,so if you want to learn to craft in some way,that's a regular inoculation of non-work option. Free departmental seminars are great too!
Some people incorporate food as part of a culture. And you have a plethora of options here in Berkeley. If your having saved money on entertainment has not sufficiently sated your desire for cheapness,Mel's, EZ Stop and Fenton's will discount your food if you flash your I.D. I think the candy store by the BART station too,but that might involve some sort of trickery. If you want to shift up in price range,remember that Berkeley is the hometown of the development of what is considered “California Cuisine”, so there are high-end options. Perhaps when I graduate I will try such things. But feel free to experiment. Depending on your focus,experimentation may be what getting your degree is all about.
Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" as pertain to the state of being a graduate student at UC Berkeley
While Abe Maslow may not be the most cited researcher in psychology, some of his work I find reallyinforms not really so much how to prioritize as a student here in Berkeley (since that in many ways takes care of itself) or in general,but how to be effective in the long run.
Basically, Maslow noticed that some needs are greater than others and made a hierarchy of the basics—physiologicals,the intakes and outputs of one’s physical person are at the bottom of the hierarchy because if those needs aren’t met it is biologically dangerous.
Depending on what you are used to,graduate school may be an increase in workload which will have a concomitant increase in stress which can interrupt sleeping and eating patterns. My colleague and I used to joke that there is sleep,academics,and social interaction and you can only really have 2 out of the 3. The fact of the matter is that with some time management and a willingness to get up earlyand work efficiently one can have 3 of the 3. Looking a professors with families can be inspiring in as much as you can see that these things are possible but it does require a readiness to socialize with the right people who will also have your best interests in their priorities. But the take home message is that taking care of your body is key if you’re expecting your higher order functions to work.
Next up is the safety and security needs. I think dealing with these is almost like adaptive testing: your first couple decisions are key and after that you can only shift your results within a pre-established region. I actuallyhaven’t moved around since initially moving into Berkeley and I lucked into a living situation with housemates who I trusted and a nice landlord who was friendly enough with the neighborhood that I felt vaguely safe when he was around. I know better than to walk alone in a non-vigilant manner at night and I certainly will shamelessly hound my current housemates about locking the doors though,because,as one of my old labmates used to say,“those bars aren’t in the windows for decoration.” I can’t realistically change my neighborhood within the time frame that I would love to feel safe in,but what I can do is establish patterns. If I am on campus after 9PM during the school year I take the door to door lines,and after 3AM I will call the owl line,also provided free by UC Parking and Transit. The Campus Safety Officers have been great in all my interactions with them. My one complaint would be about the gap between the limits in which one can apply for a campus parking pass and
the outer limit of safety shuttle coverage,but I live 4 blocks from what would be a perfect situation,if I wanted to pay that little bit more in rent. Basically I’m trading the establishment of savings for future financial safety for current feelings of occasional safety. I’m okay with that but you might not be.These are the trade-offs. But research your housing situation.
The third tier is the more social stuff that one feels a longing for after one feels safe and biologically sated. Feeling lonely or socially anxious is something that the local community can help with. There are plethora of graduate student organizations and one shouldn’t feel like organizations that are mostly undergraduates are necessarily exclusive. If you have an interest in the Brazilian art of dance fighting there’s a community for that. If you want to play video-games with peers there are groups that do that too. A non-negligible number of students showup to the bay area without prior friends or relations locally. Meeting people will happen through your department,certainly, but if you want to avoid talking about work all the time,making some non-departmental connections is key too. If you’re having problems meeting folks…there’s the gym, there’s public transit,you could even show up to GA meetings. My parents,who were both
international students used to go to grocery stores to meet people (and learn English). There’s opportunity everywhere.
The final level of basic or deficit needs involves respect,both from others and for yourself. The respect of others you can deal with by publishing.I think gaining respect as a graduate student is not necessarily something that ought to be conceptually new or different than what you know about gaining respect as a person in the rest of your life.
Dealing with self-esteem is probably the same. If you work hard to be achieve mastery of your area of study and become competent,confidence should follow. Low self-esteem can lead to some problems that can be dealt with over at the Tang Center (getting that monkey off your back sometimes is a chemical problem),however for more middling situations,there are options for confidence development through workshops in the teaching or career centers on campus.
If you don’t notice that you’re lacking in any of the previous areas,well, you’re doing well enough to survive,either based on your own preliminary work on maintaining yourself as a healthy individual,or on your instincts. These are what you have to take care of first so you can focus on the top of the pyramid, where self-actualization and self-transcendence are where thriving is. See, Maslow studied more than monkeys,he studied the histories of the best and the brightest. And,as you’re a graduate student,these probably apply to you more than most. This area is where…drive to be the best is. Not just drive, really. This is where the need and capacity to solve problems and resist pressures. Once you’ve dealt with the basics you can change your negative qualities and reallyflourish with…well with Gemeinschaftsgefühl. Those Germans have words for everything!
I don’t know how much of dealing with the need to live up to potential is something you can actively do as opposed to something you will naturally be inclined to do,(I’m not in the philosophy department,I imagine they have more answers on this,) but I think this is where your work as a scholar lies. I don’t know. If you want advice with certainty backing it…ask a professor. They’re usually past this phase of doubt. Or they can fake it. That might be something you need to learn too. Good luck!
Basically, Maslow noticed that some needs are greater than others and made a hierarchy of the basics—physiologicals,the intakes and outputs of one’s physical person are at the bottom of the hierarchy because if those needs aren’t met it is biologically dangerous.
Depending on what you are used to,graduate school may be an increase in workload which will have a concomitant increase in stress which can interrupt sleeping and eating patterns. My colleague and I used to joke that there is sleep,academics,and social interaction and you can only really have 2 out of the 3. The fact of the matter is that with some time management and a willingness to get up earlyand work efficiently one can have 3 of the 3. Looking a professors with families can be inspiring in as much as you can see that these things are possible but it does require a readiness to socialize with the right people who will also have your best interests in their priorities. But the take home message is that taking care of your body is key if you’re expecting your higher order functions to work.
Next up is the safety and security needs. I think dealing with these is almost like adaptive testing: your first couple decisions are key and after that you can only shift your results within a pre-established region. I actuallyhaven’t moved around since initially moving into Berkeley and I lucked into a living situation with housemates who I trusted and a nice landlord who was friendly enough with the neighborhood that I felt vaguely safe when he was around. I know better than to walk alone in a non-vigilant manner at night and I certainly will shamelessly hound my current housemates about locking the doors though,because,as one of my old labmates used to say,“those bars aren’t in the windows for decoration.” I can’t realistically change my neighborhood within the time frame that I would love to feel safe in,but what I can do is establish patterns. If I am on campus after 9PM during the school year I take the door to door lines,and after 3AM I will call the owl line,also provided free by UC Parking and Transit. The Campus Safety Officers have been great in all my interactions with them. My one complaint would be about the gap between the limits in which one can apply for a campus parking pass and
the outer limit of safety shuttle coverage,but I live 4 blocks from what would be a perfect situation,if I wanted to pay that little bit more in rent. Basically I’m trading the establishment of savings for future financial safety for current feelings of occasional safety. I’m okay with that but you might not be.These are the trade-offs. But research your housing situation.
The third tier is the more social stuff that one feels a longing for after one feels safe and biologically sated. Feeling lonely or socially anxious is something that the local community can help with. There are plethora of graduate student organizations and one shouldn’t feel like organizations that are mostly undergraduates are necessarily exclusive. If you have an interest in the Brazilian art of dance fighting there’s a community for that. If you want to play video-games with peers there are groups that do that too. A non-negligible number of students showup to the bay area without prior friends or relations locally. Meeting people will happen through your department,certainly, but if you want to avoid talking about work all the time,making some non-departmental connections is key too. If you’re having problems meeting folks…there’s the gym, there’s public transit,you could even show up to GA meetings. My parents,who were both
international students used to go to grocery stores to meet people (and learn English). There’s opportunity everywhere.
The final level of basic or deficit needs involves respect,both from others and for yourself. The respect of others you can deal with by publishing.I think gaining respect as a graduate student is not necessarily something that ought to be conceptually new or different than what you know about gaining respect as a person in the rest of your life.
Dealing with self-esteem is probably the same. If you work hard to be achieve mastery of your area of study and become competent,confidence should follow. Low self-esteem can lead to some problems that can be dealt with over at the Tang Center (getting that monkey off your back sometimes is a chemical problem),however for more middling situations,there are options for confidence development through workshops in the teaching or career centers on campus.
If you don’t notice that you’re lacking in any of the previous areas,well, you’re doing well enough to survive,either based on your own preliminary work on maintaining yourself as a healthy individual,or on your instincts. These are what you have to take care of first so you can focus on the top of the pyramid, where self-actualization and self-transcendence are where thriving is. See, Maslow studied more than monkeys,he studied the histories of the best and the brightest. And,as you’re a graduate student,these probably apply to you more than most. This area is where…drive to be the best is. Not just drive, really. This is where the need and capacity to solve problems and resist pressures. Once you’ve dealt with the basics you can change your negative qualities and reallyflourish with…well with Gemeinschaftsgefühl. Those Germans have words for everything!
I don’t know how much of dealing with the need to live up to potential is something you can actively do as opposed to something you will naturally be inclined to do,(I’m not in the philosophy department,I imagine they have more answers on this,) but I think this is where your work as a scholar lies. I don’t know. If you want advice with certainty backing it…ask a professor. They’re usually past this phase of doubt. Or they can fake it. That might be something you need to learn too. Good luck!
I Can’t Think About Orientation Without Thinking of Orienteering
I can’t think about orientation without thinking of orienteering. Not that I anticipate you’ll be doing a lot of running around with a map and a compass (I would say that a fair percentage of graduate students have very little idea of what’s going on in buildings oncampus outside of their department,so maybe that would be a great activity…) but I think that getting your bearings with respect to Berkeley might help.
As you’ve gotten here,you’re probably aware that to the South are Oakland and Emeryville. Directly to the West is the San Francisco Bay,and on the other side of that is the Pacific Ocean. To the North is Albany and Kensington. East of Berkeley are the hills,the ridge of which is the county line between Berkeley’s Alameda County and Contra Costa County. If you have registered to vote,you will likely be called for Jury Duty and if you are a local that would be in Alameda County and consequently in Oakland or Hayward. The courthouses in Oakland are easier to reach,but if you are called to serve in Hayward you get mail from the “Hayward Hall of Justice” which I always associate with the Super Friends,although I have never made a super friend at jury duty. I did meet a grad student in Physics who I went out with,but that ended awkwardly and I probably shouldn’t talk about it. In any case,water is to the west, hills are to the east.
Besides its Super Friends association,you might associate Hayward with its eponymous fault, which was featured in the mid-Eighties Bond movie “A View to a Kill” (the last one with Roger Moore),and it surely appears in countless science texts.Tom Wolfe used it as a plot device once,too. While my love of geography doesn’t creep too much into geology, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this fault runs through campus, as that could help you orient yourself too. In addition to causing parts of Memorial Stadium (where the football is played,but also a good place to run around and climb stairs and such) to creep a little over a foot in the past 80-some years,it is responsible for the occasional pants-staining terror of many a lab-manager on campus,what with the shaking and the bouncing that occurs everyonce in a while. If you’re inside,you should probably knowyour orientation with respect to stairwells and door- ways.
THEY’RE A GREAT PLACE TO DUCK AND COVER!
As long as we’re discussing things on campus, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to orient yourself to the
library system. There are something like 30 libraries on campus. Lucky for you in this day and age, they’re all accessible through Pathfinder,the online catalog searching program, so you don’t necessarily have to walk to the 29 locations where what you are actively looking for is not located. Not that you won’t find interesting things that way. Maybe you would stumble upon the
book that cracks open your deep seeded love and preternatural talent for ventriloquism. I guess you can still look these things up,but it’s much more…efficient. Anyhow,that would all be found via lib.Berkeley.edu.
If you do not have a computer or easy access to one,there are computer labs on campus: in the basements of Dwinelle and Evans, VLSB,Moffitt Library,Tan Hall,Wheeler hall, and,if you have an OCF account,Heller Lounge in MLK. I know that the OCF usually gets a plug in here for having classes in things every once in a while,but I feel it is worthwhile to reiterate that they do provide some excellent services and one should visit ocf.Berkeley.edu for more details.
Getting back to orientation,Berkeley is a place full of foot and bikepaths both on and off campus. There is good public transit via BART and the buses (which are an excellent deal at the price of nothing with your magical student ID card). AC Transit actually connects with a variety of other service providers so that you can actually get pretty far for pretty cheap. With your ID card,you could hop 2 buses and make your way all the way down to Stanford if you wanted to for 4 dollars. Intercollegiate rivalry at its cheapest!
There are plenty of interesting local food, and sports and musical things that occur locally though. If you are not enthralled by Cal Adventures (www.oski.org),you can go climbing in the Indian Rock Park Community, or, if you’re feeling a different kind of spiritual,there are over 100 places of worship in Berkeley alone. From African-Methodist-Episcopalian to Zoroastrian:you’re covered! I had made a map of the churches and such,looking for a correlation with liquor stores (there are much fewer of them than I would have imagined, but still enough to lead to some disorientation!) but studying the culture of the city and the dynamics of it’s economy and the trade-offs feels a little too much like work. Anomalies in price gradients are interesting;there is currently a 22 cent per gallon difference between Eastern and Western University Avenue gas stations (!), but those won’t help you find your way home. I would suggest exploration,it’s the best way to get to know a place.
As you’ve gotten here,you’re probably aware that to the South are Oakland and Emeryville. Directly to the West is the San Francisco Bay,and on the other side of that is the Pacific Ocean. To the North is Albany and Kensington. East of Berkeley are the hills,the ridge of which is the county line between Berkeley’s Alameda County and Contra Costa County. If you have registered to vote,you will likely be called for Jury Duty and if you are a local that would be in Alameda County and consequently in Oakland or Hayward. The courthouses in Oakland are easier to reach,but if you are called to serve in Hayward you get mail from the “Hayward Hall of Justice” which I always associate with the Super Friends,although I have never made a super friend at jury duty. I did meet a grad student in Physics who I went out with,but that ended awkwardly and I probably shouldn’t talk about it. In any case,water is to the west, hills are to the east.
Besides its Super Friends association,you might associate Hayward with its eponymous fault, which was featured in the mid-Eighties Bond movie “A View to a Kill” (the last one with Roger Moore),and it surely appears in countless science texts.Tom Wolfe used it as a plot device once,too. While my love of geography doesn’t creep too much into geology, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this fault runs through campus, as that could help you orient yourself too. In addition to causing parts of Memorial Stadium (where the football is played,but also a good place to run around and climb stairs and such) to creep a little over a foot in the past 80-some years,it is responsible for the occasional pants-staining terror of many a lab-manager on campus,what with the shaking and the bouncing that occurs everyonce in a while. If you’re inside,you should probably knowyour orientation with respect to stairwells and door- ways.
THEY’RE A GREAT PLACE TO DUCK AND COVER!
As long as we’re discussing things on campus, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to orient yourself to the
library system. There are something like 30 libraries on campus. Lucky for you in this day and age, they’re all accessible through Pathfinder,the online catalog searching program, so you don’t necessarily have to walk to the 29 locations where what you are actively looking for is not located. Not that you won’t find interesting things that way. Maybe you would stumble upon the
book that cracks open your deep seeded love and preternatural talent for ventriloquism. I guess you can still look these things up,but it’s much more…efficient. Anyhow,that would all be found via lib.Berkeley.edu.
If you do not have a computer or easy access to one,there are computer labs on campus: in the basements of Dwinelle and Evans, VLSB,Moffitt Library,Tan Hall,Wheeler hall, and,if you have an OCF account,Heller Lounge in MLK. I know that the OCF usually gets a plug in here for having classes in things every once in a while,but I feel it is worthwhile to reiterate that they do provide some excellent services and one should visit ocf.Berkeley.edu for more details.
Getting back to orientation,Berkeley is a place full of foot and bikepaths both on and off campus. There is good public transit via BART and the buses (which are an excellent deal at the price of nothing with your magical student ID card). AC Transit actually connects with a variety of other service providers so that you can actually get pretty far for pretty cheap. With your ID card,you could hop 2 buses and make your way all the way down to Stanford if you wanted to for 4 dollars. Intercollegiate rivalry at its cheapest!
There are plenty of interesting local food, and sports and musical things that occur locally though. If you are not enthralled by Cal Adventures (www.oski.org),you can go climbing in the Indian Rock Park Community, or, if you’re feeling a different kind of spiritual,there are over 100 places of worship in Berkeley alone. From African-Methodist-Episcopalian to Zoroastrian:you’re covered! I had made a map of the churches and such,looking for a correlation with liquor stores (there are much fewer of them than I would have imagined, but still enough to lead to some disorientation!) but studying the culture of the city and the dynamics of it’s economy and the trade-offs feels a little too much like work. Anomalies in price gradients are interesting;there is currently a 22 cent per gallon difference between Eastern and Western University Avenue gas stations (!), but those won’t help you find your way home. I would suggest exploration,it’s the best way to get to know a place.
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