Tuesday, 26 July 2016

Want a job? Here’s some conflicting advice!


In lecture halls around the world, university departments and organizations with names like “Employment Soon!” are hosting career panels, presumably with the goal of making graduate students and postdocs freak out. They invite a handful of gainfully employed scientists, give them microphones, and then let the arbitrary information flow.

The audience includes trainees who may have never technically held a job in science, despite having worked in academic labs for a decade or more. They’re all looking for the magical job market formula, the secret tip that will cause the offers to roll in. They may also be looking for bagels.

You can tell who the most panicked students are, because they frantically scribble every word a panelist or presenter says, as if waiting for them to whisper, “Format your CV in 11-point Arial Rounded MT Bold. That’s what they want to see.”

“But what about line spacing? What line spacing?”

“1.15.”

“I KNEW IT.”

If they’re not panicked when they enter the seminar room, they’re certainly panicked when they leave—because the advice is never straightforward, rarely general, and often contradictory.

At a job panel I attended this spring, one panelist warned that you should never connect with your interviewer on LinkedIn; it looks desperate. The students dutifully scribbled down this advice. Then it was the next panelist’s turn. She advised that you should definitely connect with your interviewer on LinkedIn—before the interview takes place, if possible. The scribbling stopped.

The panelists smiled at each other; this was going well. Meanwhile, I could hear the students’ brains: “Um ... can’t you just tell us how to get jobs?”

Here’s just a sampling of some of the other conflicting advice I’ve seen job panels offer.

    Dress formally vs. wear what you’d wear to work

We’re scientists. Our most important fashion accessories are the gloves that protect us from bacteria (or that protect the bacteria from us). No one advocates wearing sweatpants and a Jethro Tull T-shirt to a job interview, but at the same time, there’s a range of guidance on what to wear. A suit or just khakis and a nice shirt? Heels or flats? What makes me look like I’m trying too hard, and what makes me look like I’m not trying hard enough? We’d like to think that no one cares, but it’s “all part of the package,” as they say.

I once witnessed a discussion of a scientist’s job interview that factored in her purse. Because it was an expensive purse, apparently, the interviewers concluded that she was capable of doing the work but probably wouldn’t want to.

The best fashion accessory for you to bring to a job interview, then, is obviously a necklace with a long chain. Hold it up in front of your interviewers and let it swing gently back and forth. Once the hypnosis has taken hold say, “I am wearing exactly what you want me to be wearing.”

    Be personable vs. be serious

If you’re not serious, you’re not ready to perform science at a high level. But if you’re not jokey and jovial, you’re not someone with whom your potential co-workers will want to interact. If you’re either more serious or more personable than your future colleagues, they may feel threatened. And if you’re serious one moment and personable the next, then they’ll wonder, “What is wrong with this weirdo?”

    Be confident vs. be humble

Every recommendation for being successful in life contains some variant of “Be confident.” Look people in the eye. Don’t hedge. Don’t apologize. Step on your interviewer’s foot and say, “Yeah, I’ve got solid feet. WHAT.” But you also don’t want your confidence to make people wonder whether you’ll never admit to being wrong. I once interviewed an extremely confident man who said, “I’ve got a lot of great ideas, but I’m not going to give you all of them unless I get the job.” He then proceeded to tell me one idea for free, and it was one of the stupidest ideas I’d ever heard.

    Ask about salary vs. act like money is not important to you

The most awkward part of any job interview is the part you want to know the most: whether they check your internet browsing history. Just kidding, it’s the salary discussion—yet you can make it through multiple rounds of interviews with no information about the job’s salary beyond what you glean from hearsay and guesswork. Does asking about it make you look practical, or does it communicate that you’re focused on the wrong thing? It’s especially frustrating because a lot of nonscience jobs declare their pay scales outright, while a lot of science jobs withhold the information. And if there’s anything scientists love, it’s using numbers to make decisions.

    Negotiate your salary vs. that’s not done

If you’ve never negotiated a salary before, you may be picturing something like haggling inside a spice hut in Marrakech, Morocco—with bargains, concessions, and at least three or four repetitions of the phrase “It’s a good price.” In reality, every company is different. Some hiring managers will laugh and high-five each other after you leave the room if you accept their first offer, while others will simply shrug at you and say, “That’s what the job pays.”

    Talk about outside interests vs. pretend you have none

No one wants to hire a scientist who only cares about science. But no one wants to hire a scientist who spends all of her or his time in lab writing an Appalachian banjo blog. (Then again, I don’t think anyone wants to interact with a person who spends all their time writing an Appalachian banjo blog.) And sometimes, the guidance falls somewhere in the middle: Talk about outside activities, but show that each one somehow complements your science. “Where do I plan my experimental protocols?” you might say. “Well, I usually get my best ideas while paragliding.”

    Embrace your graduate research vs. pretend you’re better than that

Those with graduate degrees have a special challenge: You’ve spent the last several years working on a project, and you can probably describe that project with unique commitment and thoroughness. By discussing your graduate research at length, you’re showing that you can become an expert on a given topic and generate data. But if you talk about your graduate research too much, your potential employer will see you as a permanent graduate student, not someone ready to take the next step. In other words, graduate school has set you up to fail. Yay graduate school.

    Don’t show too much interest vs. don’t show too little interest

“I want this job, but I don’t need it,” your attitude should convey, when in reality you want it, need it, and would likely put on a koala costume and dance the Macarena if it meant you’d get health insurance. (Twenty years ago, I actually had a job that required me to put on a koala costume and dance the Macarena. It did not include health insurance.) This conflict highlights the most exasperating aspect of finding a job: All of the power is with the hirers. They can indulge their whims, while you have to court and coddle them as though they may flip out at any moment, like you would with a psychotic codependent lover—or a normal toddler.

Of course no piece of advice works for all jobs, or all job seekers. But do job panels really have to be as tone-deaf and insensitive to their audiences as they sometimes are? It’s as if the moment we get jobs, we forget what it was like on the other side of the table, and we feel we can give any old instructions because they’ll all be fine.

Maybe the reason for the conflicting advice is that there isn’t one right answer, and all we know is what worked for us. Panelists want to feel helpful, so if one of them wore blue to a successful interview, he or she will recommend wearing blue.

So when you attend a science job panel, take everything with a grain of salt. Listen to the panel’s recommendations, and then use your own judgment to parse the unhelpful bits. Because one of the worst things you can do is to let the panel’s contradictory ideas stymie you until you’re trapped endlessly formatting and reformatting your CV based on the last suggestion you heard.for more info, check out avant career

Wednesday, 6 April 2016

4N/5D Udaipur to Mount Abu Tour Packages

Udaipur Tourism & Rajasthan India Travel Guide - City of Lakes, Temples & Wonderful Traditions - Visit This Amazing City of Rajasthan & Spend Few Days in the Lap of Nature & Culture. Travel Udaipur, Rajasthan & North India Guide For a Memorable Holidays of a Lifetime.

Duration: 04 Nights / 05 Days

1. Udaipur


You will be received by our representatives from the Jaipur Airport / Railway Station / Bus Stand.Upon arrival transfer to Hotel and have lunch. In evening Visit local Market and Fatehsagar Lake. In evening have a Traditional Marwar Dinner.

2. Udaipur

  
 After breakfast start the sightseeing travel of Udaipur. Visit Jagdish Temple, Sahelion-Ki-Bari, Garden, Maharana, City Palace, Lake Pichola. After the whole day of visit Stay overnight at hotel in Udaipur.

3. Udaipur-Mount Abu
  
After Early Breakfast you will be traveling towards MOUNT ABU. You will be taken sightseeing straight away. You will be visiting Mount Abu Lake, Sunset Point. Overnight Stay in Hotel.



4. Mount Abu
  
After Breakfast you will be taken to Guru shikhar, and other place of interest and the Overnight Stay in Hotel.

5. Mount Abu
  
After Breakfast you will be taken to local market for Shopping and later will drive back to Udaipur then will be dropped at nearest Airport/Railway Station/Bus Stand.


Highlights of Udaipur to Mount-Abu Ex

    1. Udaipur- Sahellion Ki Bari, Beautiful Garden, Sagar Lake, City Place.
    2. Mount-Abu- Dilwara Temples, Sunset Point, Nakki Lake, Gaumukh Temple, Museum & Art Gallery.



Sunday, 13 March 2016

Medieval Orthodox Boyana Church

Boyana Church is a beautiful Medieval Orthodox Church located in Boyana Quarter set in the outskirts of the capital of Bulgaria- Sofia. Originally built in the late 10th to the early 11th century, the Boyana Church was expanded a few times, in the 13th century by Sebastocrator Kaloyan, as well as in the mid 19th century. The Boyana Church houses exquisite frescoes which are one of the most complete and perfectly preserved monuments of east European medieval art. It was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site in1979, together with two more Bulgarian sights- Madara Rider and Kazanlak Tomb.


  

The frescoes of Boyana Church were made in 1259. They were in fact the second later, painted over original artwork done in the earlier centuries. There are a total of 89 scenes with 240 human images painted on the frescoes. The name of the artist, as discovered during restoration, was one "zograph Vassilii, from the village of Subonosha, Sersko, and his apprentice Dimitar". As for the 11th-12th century original frescoes, only fragments were preserved, as it is the second later done in 1259 which is the more famous. In addition, the church also houses later work done in the 14th, 16-17th centuries, as well as those from 1882. The oldest section of the Boyana church is the one-apse cross-vaulted chapel built in the late 10th to early 11th century.

To this, the ruler Sebastocrator Kaloyan added an annex in the mid 13th century. The annex is a two-floor tomb-church, with the ground floor holding the family sepulchre, and the upper floor the family chapel. The newest section of the church was built in the mid 19th century from funds donated by the surrounding community. This place is one of the most visited by the tourists traveling to Sofia, together with the Historical Museum and the "St. Nevski" Cathedral Church.

Medieval Orthodox Church, Boyana Church, UNESCO World Heritage, Bugaria tourist attraction, Historical Museum

Ancient City of Nessebar

Nessebar is charming town located in the southern Black Sea coast and is one of the most popular Bulgarian Black Sea resorts. It is divided into two parts determined as "The New "and "The Old" city. The Old City is the preferred part, while the new one is more specified in accommodation service.

The old Nessebar in fact is located on a small peninsula connected to the mainland by a thin piece of land. The first thing which will welcome you is a big wooden windmill. Soon after, you will meet the stone walls of the ancient city. The old city of Nessebar is quite popular with its historical churches
 and buildings dating back to ancient times.



For this reason this town is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Originally a Thracian settlement, the Nessebar was later a Greek polis, then a Roman colony. The largest number and best known buildings date from 11th to 14th centuries almost all of them churches in the so called "picturesque" style: walls intersected by pilasters and lunettes, with stone, brick and ceramic ornaments and arches along the cornice. According to legends, the churches of Nessebar were no less than 41, which, when compared to the small population of the town, make the latter one of the world's settlements with the highest number of churches per capita.

One of the oldest sanctuaries is the Basilica built on the coast most probably around the beginning of 5th century. The Old Bishop's Residence located in the centre of the town is probably the most impressive church in Nessebar. It is more than 25m long and 22m wide while its three naves were decorated with a colonnade and arches. St. Ivan the Baptist Church was built much later, in the 11th century. It is a typical cross-domed church with three naves, and four columns supporting the dome. There you can see fragments of frescoes dating back to the 13th century.

The St. Stefan Church or the so-called New Bishop Residence, situated in the vicinity of the harbor, was built in the 10th century. Its decoration is so picturesque that it marked the beginning of a typical local style, seen in the construction of churches of later times. If you are tired of sightseeing the summer resort of Sunny Beach is only 2km. away.