http://www.aetherial.net/weblog Just another WordPress weblog Sun, 01 Aug 2010 12:05:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/2009/10/what-i-miss-from-academia/ http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/2009/10/what-i-miss-from-academia/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:13:10 +0000 Chris http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/?p=149 described why I was leaving graduate school to strike out on my own. In the post, I promised a followup that looked at the things I missed from academia in order to be somewhat balanced in my description of the situation. Here's that list. 1. Most of all, I miss the weekly routine that I was able to keep while in school. This is largely an artifact of taking weekly classes, but having a regular rhythm was nice. In my current role as a self-employed developer/consultant, it's been hard to impossible to get a routine going. Weekends? What are those? 2. One of the headaches that I deal with now is getting payment from clients in a predictable manner. When at the university, that stipend was deposited in my bank account on the last day of the month, rain or shine. Now, when I get paychecks is an extremely variable affair. I have a couple of clients that pay quickly and on time, but I also have some clients who are a bit overdue on their checks. Ironically, the worst offender is the same organization that used to deposit my stipends in such a timely manner. :-P 3. I miss the socialization with my former fellow graduate students. I was smart to find another group to share office space with, so I haven't become an antisocial freak quite yet. However, I do find myself missing out on the frequent lunches that I used to share with colleagues. I'm sure that there are more things that I'm leaving off, but those are the major three. My transition back into the workforce has been a good one (and the right choice), but it hasn't been without its costs.]]> http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/2009/10/what-i-miss-from-academia/feed/ 0 http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/2009/02/a-followup-to-the-post-on-leaving-graduate-school/ http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/2009/02/a-followup-to-the-post-on-leaving-graduate-school/#comments Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:57:18 +0000 Chris http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/?p=56 the post where I listed all the reasons that I was leaving graduate school. I think that a couple of clarifications and elaborations are necessary lest I leave readers with a wrong or incomplete impression. In the spirit of list-making, here's another.]]> http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/2009/02/a-followup-to-the-post-on-leaving-graduate-school/feed/ 0 http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/2009/02/a-list-of-things-describing-why-im-jumping-from-graduate-school-to-a-startup/ http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/2009/02/a-list-of-things-describing-why-im-jumping-from-graduate-school-to-a-startup/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:51:45 +0000 Chris http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/?p=37 not write this post as each attempt became a longwinded dissertation on things that no one other than me cares about, but since someone apparently does care, I figured that this would be a good opportunity to document this point in my life. In order to satisfy the curious, here are my reasons for leaving graduate school to found a startup. ]]> http://www.aetherial.net/weblog/2009/02/a-list-of-things-describing-why-im-jumping-from-graduate-school-to-a-startup/feed/ 0