If my time at university has taught me anything it's that
university buildings are designed with one of two purposes in mind. Either to
be economical where every room, corridor and stair case are identical. These type
of buildings usually leave me with an odd sense of deja vu and desire to see if
climbing down outside of the building would be the quickest route out. Or Worse
than this are the buildings that are designed to look futuristic and awe-inspiring.
Whilst many are atheistically pleasing the
trouble is the interiors make me feel like I'm trapped in an Escher painting. In short,
both types were not designed with any thought to how people are actually
supposed to navigate the building.
When attending my induction last week I found that there is
a new even more complicated type of building- the one building that was once
a series of separate buildings type. I'm
almost certain the building started off as one building that can be easily
navigated, but over the years someone decided to abandon the laws of physics entirely
and absorb the nearby buildings. This meant that although I arrived 45 minutes
early for my Induction, it took me 40 minutes to find the room- which happened
to be two minutes away from the entrance! If you ask me the real reason we are
moving to a new building soon is that too many undergrads have gotten lost and
people are starting to ask awkward questions...
All joking sidesettling into a new department can be a challenging
task, so I decided to write this post give some tips which I've found useful
when starting a in a new department.
1. Firstly, find the
toilets. If there is one room you are going to need it will be them.
2. Secondly, find out where the PhD students hang out. If
you can find others who are just starting. Not only is it comforting to know
you're not the only one who is lost, they may also be able to show you where
other essential rooms are i.e. the library.
3. Explore the
library asap. Every library has their little quirks about where certain books
should go (i.e. short loan), how to arrange the books on the shelves and how
easily it should be for you to take one of their (precious) books. Some, if
your especially unlucky, decide that they are too good for traditional sorting
systems and invent their own. My advice
is save yourself some stress and find your away round before you desperately need to find something.
4. Find out how your department works i.e. who to talk to
you if you need money for a conference or something building for your study.
Once you've found out who they are make friends with them.
5. Read a good book on doing a PhD. The 'Unwritten rules of PhD Research' really
developed my understanding of what PhD entails.
6. Find out what your
department expects of you as a PhD student, including when certain pieces of
paper work has to be handed in, that way you can make sure you work to these
goals.
7. If all else fails... Look lost. I'm serious, you'd be
surprised how many people will help!
If anyone else has any tips it'd be great to hear them,
after all I'm still trying to find my way.
Mike
p.s. I feel I should say that the department has loads of
great resources and despite the fact that our days in the building are numbered
they are doing up the PhD offices for us.
