using your PhD title

Makood

The O/H is a medical Dr and would never dream of using the title outside of work. But I do insist she puts it on flight tickets in case of an emergency.

darkpagandeath

my friend wrote: »

and your chosen area of expertise would appear to be negativity, best of luck with that attitude.

OK what part if any of what I said is incorrect. I wonder how well the work for free job bridge people feel after being gouged and let go. Odd that in other countries they don't need a job bridge affair or Tus or any other plethora of schemes to cook the books. Most places manage to hire people without government subsidies. Where will you work once the race to the bottom is complete ? Will you go back to farming the land as that will be the only option, as multinationals will move to the cheaper countries in time once their tax breaks stop.

Vandango

o1s1n wrote: »

If you can't write me a cert to get a day off work you're not a real doctor.

Nailed it.

Tarzana2

sullivlo wrote: »

I work in academia and have "sullivlo, PhD" in my email signature. I'll use it in applying to conferences / for funding / for work purposes. My boss refers to me as Dr Sullivlo in dealings with others (if I meet a visiting scientist / she is emailing someone and I'm copied in on it) but generally in work I'm just sullivlo.

Never use it other than that - flights / banks / insurance is all Ms.

Most of my other PhD friends are the same.

If that makes me a twat then so be it!

Very few people have said in this thread that using it in a professional sphere makes you a twat.

Tarzana2

steddyeddy wrote: »

Considering the amount of medicine students who struggle at biochemistry I would hesitate to think that there are a lot who could handle a PhD.

I need to respond to this and I have to say I disagree.

I did a large component of biochemistry as part of my degree though I didn't specialise in it. Most students on my course struggled at first with biochemistry, it's tough at first to grapple with. And some of these went on to be gold medallists in their degrees and earn PhDs at prestigious institutions. Biochemistry takes a lot of work at the beginning to get to grips with and I don't believe the med students you are dealing with are any worse in this regard. They are just getting less time to process the information because they have such a volume of work to get through. I think any of them would be well able for a PhD in biochemistry if they had a chance to really immerse themselves in the subject. They are not science students so just don't need to immerse themselves as much, and they just wouldn't have the time to!

lanos

Saipanne wrote: »

I have a degree and masters degree in economics. I finished top of the class in the latter. I think it is a little bit pretentious putting the letters there.

Its a bit pretentious telling us that you finished top of your class

ronanc1000

This topics reminds me of a certain movie comedy.

'Stu, you're not a doctor. Your a dentist!' XD

Witcher

You and your mum are hilbillies, this is a house of learned doctors.

take everything

Tarzana2 wrote: »

I need to respond to this and I have to say I disagree.

I did a large component of biochemistry as part of my degree though I didn't specialise in it. Most students on my course struggled at first with biochemistry, it's tough at first to grapple with. And some of these went on to be gold medallists in their degrees and earn PhDs at prestigious institutions. Biochemistry takes a lot of work at the beginning to get to grips with and I don't believe the med students you are dealing with are any worse in this regard. They are just getting less time to process the information because they have such a volume of work to get through. I think any of them would be well able for a PhD in biochemistry if they had a chance to really immerse themselves in the subject. They are not science students so just don't need to immerse themselves as much, and they just wouldn't have the time to!

From what I remember of biochem in college, there's nothing intellectually taxing about it. Once you have the basic principles, i remember it as a largely a "plug 'n' chug" subject with reams and reams of catabolic/anabolic pathways to remember.

I remember once briefly being vaguely interested in the whole idea of there being a more elegant unifying description for how all these pathways arise (and discussing this with the biochem lecturer) but otherwise it was just memorisation.

Tarzana2

take everything wrote: »

From what I remember of biochem in college, there's nothing intellectually taxing about it. Once you have the basic principles, i remember it as a largely a "plug 'n' chug" subject with reams and reams of catabolic/anabolic pathways to remember.

I remember once briefly being vaguely interested in the whole idea of there being a more elegant unifying description for how all these pathways arise (and discussing this with the biochem lecturer) but otherwise it was just memorisation.

I would never have learned it if it was solely memorisation personally, I needed to understand what happened in each pathway. Chemical names need to be memorised to an extent but what helped me memorise them was understanding what each one meant, as the names don't tend to be gobbledegook, each part of the name means something.

vienne86

Re the PhD vs medical doctor thing, I've always thought it just very unfortunate that both of these use the same title of 'doctor'.

ronanc1000

Strider wrote: »

You and your mum are hilbillies, this is a house of learned doctors.

Yeah. Great contribution. Its highlights the PhD vs medical doctor title. What, acadmeics can't have banter too? Muppet.

dibkins

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Indeedy.
I put Dr. on my first flights after i got my phd. My friends wound me up no end saying i would need to respond to a medical emergency, so i asked the guy at the check in. He just laughed and congratulated me on getting the phd.

They won't let you perform medicine on anyone without some sort of proof, so don't worry!

I personally use it sometimes if i think i can get something free out of it - flights and the like:P Never got an upgrade yet though:/ Also, I'm in a startup an the boss loves telling people there are two phd's working here, so we have it in our e-mail signatures.