Pseudonymous Ramblings by Psychobunny

Why I call her Dr. Candid Advice

This is just one recent example. Dr. Candid Advice speaks like this all the time. I like her. :)

While waiting in the hallway after hours tonight for a research participant (who never showed up, may I add--that's one bad thing about working with humans), Dr. CA passed me on her way to the restroom. I sighed dramatically, expressing my frustration at waiting for people who can't be bothered to show up at the scheduled time. She said, "Students. What do you expect?" I replied, "Yeah. The older I get, the more they seem to frustrate me. Of course, I hear about it all the time, too." (And I do. For some reason, when the faculty I know want to bitch to a student, usually about the students, I'm the one they choose.) Dr. CA then told me, "Don't go into teaching. I mean it. It's like when your mom says not to have children. Don't go into teaching!"

When she got back, I asked what I'm supposed to do with a degree in experimental psychology if not teach. Her response: "Um, experimental psychology? Go work at a drug company, or for the government! You should do a postdoc at Fancy Government Drug Research Institution. It's lucrative. Just be careful not to piss off too many people. That's why I'm here and not still at Fancy Government Drug Research Institution."

Then she told me stories: stories of how the professors of her era (all male, of course) traded sex for A's, stories of how the Big Name Psychologist who discovered our field used to go to Behavioral Science Association conventions and proposition indiscriminately every woman there, stories of how much things have changed in just a few short decades.

I really, really, really like Dr. CA. And I get to work with her in the fall! I'm terribly excited. :D

posted by Psychobunny at 8:38 PM