I go to these seminars, see, against my better judgement, because certain people have been whining that we're not supporting other members of the Department when they give seminars, and we'd like them to come to ours wouldn't we, yadda yadda. And there are fewer than ten people in the room, but that's probably to be expected because frankly most of us in the building think what you're doing is rather desperate.
But anyway, you've got your PhD, and you have to give a talk. Sitting behind the desk at the front and drawling through your slides (which are mostly crammed with text) doesn't really show much respect for your audience. You know you're brilliant, but you have to convince me. And I don't care if you are 35, but putting 'Dr' in front of your name on the title slide, and alphabet soup after (including 'PhD'), tells me two things: 1. you're insecure, and 2. you're a medic.
Three tips, then.
- When your work is so fascinating that your supervisor spends your entire talk writing emails on her laptop, that's probably not a good sign.
- Please don't assume we've read all the papers in your field, nor even that we know what all the acronyms you use mean. Some of us are here for reasons other than cronyism.
- Perhaps most importantly, TURN OFF YOUR SODDING MOBILE PHONE.
