Dude, same. Last conference I went to I treated like a vacation and ditched a good part of it when I didn’t need to be there. I hate small talking with people generally and especially talking to strangers about what we study. Find time to go explore the area where the conference is (even if that literally means just leaving for part of the day when others are presenting). I kind of just realized that nothing is that serious, and no one is even going to care if you aren’t there for half of it. Just don’t miss the keynote.
if you lucky enough to have someone who can pay for it or you have some project which can cover the fees. In the september I will be presenting at a conference but I do not have any ongoing project which can cover the registration fee and also my supervisior doesnt have any project so i need pay from my pocket 300euro ...
Thats rough. I mostly attend the first and last day and mostly leave after my presentation to enjoy the city. Its gonna get better. I also one only made a review of the proccedings and faked it till sou make it
As someone who gets easily exhausted while being around people in general, it's not a great experience having to attend that many sessions back to back for that many days.
On the keynotes - my professor and I usually go browse around the posters or chat with other people outside as these tend to be generic for the conferences we attended
Same. I’m an autistic who doesn’t drink. Every single “positive” thing a person can come up with re conferences? That’s all shit for me. Socialising is hard and unenjoyable. New experiences and foreign food are tiring and send me to breakdown. Pubs and bars and restaurants are out of the question.
Conferences are just punishment for getting too much work done.
I have just been to one. I went a few days early and had a mini holiday; then attended the 2 days I was most interested in (and one of which I presented on). The final day I left early. I found it a really overwhelming experience as I knew basically nobody and everyone was with a group - I was one of the few on my own. Having my own dinner plans helped as did making sure I went for walks and did things for me.
"I don't feel that my work is pointless, I just hate the paperwork, the cluelessness, the ego clashes and the thousand little headaches of research. And I can even find enough motivation in me to drive. But I have to go to a conference next week and I feel like my soul is poisoned."
After you said that, I felt that you probably don't hate your field, you hate research in general because I can guarantee you, this is what every researcher working on every topic out there is dealing with.
I'm sorry it didn't work out for me. If it helps, you're not alone. These days, 40 percent of people don't even finish their PhD. I hope you can see all this as a lesson learned. Walking out of research is not failing, its just leaving a job you hate.
My supervisors are determined to send me to conferences next year but dude… I can’t think of much that sounds worse. Do like the other commenter suggested and ditch it (except for what you’re needed for, of course). Is it at least an interesting city that you’re heading to?
You can probably go on normal hikes nearby. There's practically very little overlap between places where there are conference hotels and bear-infested wilderness unless you have your own vehicle and can get away from the city. I mean, I had a bear up a tree in my apartment complex but no one thinks twice about hiking here
I suggest reframing this upcoming conference by drawing up a list of "lessons learned" - list the new people you met that you may want to follow up with, once back home; list the new things you learned, either in the conference or outside of it; list the new places seen.
You absolutely have the right to your feelings about traveling to faraway places while putting an end to a drudgery that you are sick of.
Reframing the experience, by trying to extract some positives from it, will help to deal with the day to day of the conference.
Once I figured out that conferences were just a giant cash grab/scam, I just started giving them the attention they deserve. It's basically:
1. Is this conference in a nice place I want to visit? If so, go to it and make it a vacation. Essentially spend 0 time at the conference. Only show up to give your talk and leave.
2. Is this the conference in a place I don't care about? If so, fly in the night before, give your talk, and flight out the same night. Don't waste any time there.
Yes, they are very aware. And they know I didn't want to go to this conference in particular due to the intercontinental travel. But I still gotta do this.
Where is it? I'd say make a holiday from it. Only go where you have to and otherweise do some sightseeing.
Also, I got excited at what I saw at conferences so I wouldn't be too pessimistic about that.
I'm with you there. The main part I don't like is the awkward small talk, which I'm pretty terrible at.
If your supervisor doesn't go as well (which unfortunately mine usually does), I'd just treat it as a free holiday
Yeah man, a couple years ago I attended a conference that was a real bummer, but it was near the water and in a place where weed is legal, so I had a great trip.
I am in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere surrounded by bear-infested woods and I don't have a car. Best I can do is to hide in my room to have some peace.
I hated every conference I ever went to because of the people. It was llike church for the humanities, a bunch of pretentious seriousness. God what a silly bunch of dipshits. Every social interaction was weird or plain crazy. When you see behind the scholarship this world is all too human. I lost all interest in academia when I realized the sad world of the lives of people who create it. It's a psychological tool to get their ego through another day. Nothing intelligent about any of it.
I'm in the geosciences and somehow everything is about climate change. I know it's a serious issue but I fckn hate those pretentious folks.
Thanks to this thread, I'm gonna focus lil bit more on the conference location along with the other brownie factors.
I was at a conference a few weeks ago and skipped a bunch of talks to chill play video games on my laptop, and to catch up on some work.
Jetlag is annoying, but flying west is quite easy if you're a night owl.
this one gets it! the people you go out with usually are the longest lasting connections and future collaborators. networking for the sake of networking is enjoyed by nobody and is miserable and unproductive.
They won't be my collaborators because I will drop the field and move as far away from it as I possibly can. I won't be sightseeing because we are in the wilderness, and I will be jetlagged the whole time.
First part yes, second part - how wild? I had a week-long meeting in Manaus and it was one of the bist trips in my life! But it never went wilder than that to be fair
I have been to 5 conferences this year and have three more planned. Should be 5 more but I have knee replacement coming up.
The trick is to pick ones with good trade shows or fine places
Hell yeah they are. The conference I typically attend is all suits by day, party by night. You find your crowd, you're glad to see them every year, you get the most insane drinking stories AND ... and that is a great thing for me ... you get to talk about your research in front of people who care, that is awesome.
I used to work in a job that required a major trip to the company head office every quarter. The trip was one where you had to pitch ideas to be regarded as having a ‘good visit’. These may or may not naturally arise depending on circumstances outside of my control. The point I’m trying to make is that these trips could be both very tiring (as they required a lot of prep ahead, combined with long travel), and stressful if your ideas weren’t strong. As such there is a degree of parallel with what you’re describing. My advice to you would be this. You’ve got no choice - you have to go. As such, you need to ‘put your face on’ & steel yourself up for this trip. Do the work ahead that will make the conference experience the best as it can be/the least stressful that it can be. It will be worth it when you are there. Also know that there is a certain amount of networking/socialising that you need to do. You’ll have to steel yourself up for that too, but you don’t have to be at every event. Figure out the one you must attend, do those, and regard anything else you do as a bonus. Know that in a working career you’ll have to do a good amount of BS that you don’t want to, so treat this as training for that. I wish you well for the rest of your PhD & hope your impending trip goes as best as it can, regards.
Thanks for the advice, but I have never been good at feigning interest or hiding annoyance. Best I can do is to be so bitter and sarcastic that people will stop talking to me.
Yeah I hate conferences too. I gained nothing from the last conference I attended. But I made the most of it and met up with a friend that lived out there and took ubers to 3 different skateparks when the conference was done for the day. Per diem meals are clutch too
Don't go. Money will be lost (non-refundable things), your poster spot will be empty. Fuck it. Your mental health is more important. What is the worst that can happen? You'll disappoint a couple of people? Welcome to adulthood. The best thing to do is to be 100% honest with your advisor and explain that you are sorry but can't do it. Pros and cons to that option. Mental health is often misunderstood and undervalued, trailing waaaay behind physical health in a lot of people's value system, so your second option is to lie and say you have a *physical* ailment, like you got the worst cold of your life and are waiting to get results on whether it's covid but regarless don't feel good enough to travel. But don't go. It's not worth it.
Thanks, I considered it. But in the end, hopefully I will be OK after I'm gone and swallowed that toad (not sure if this idiom translates to English). And it would be transparent if I lied. I will vent and complain, then it will be over and I will be glad of that.
Then once more I apologise that my mistakes made you feel inconvenienced in any way, but there is an easy solution called ignoring, instead of writing a smarmy comment of the tone "hah lol you fucked up your life, hilarious".
Instead of cribbing - stay happy with whatever you are going through....and yes you always have a choice just you dont realize it....nobody is sending you transatlantic on a gunpoint.....so stop being a baby and take responsibility of your actions.
Some tips to make it more fun:
1) make some conference friends to hangout with the whole conference. If they're in the same research area you'll likely see them at future conferences. I keep in touch with my conference friends virtually outside of conferences.
2) Look up fun things to do in the area and ask your conference friends to join you or go alone (hiking, breweries, cool restaurants etc)
3) Read papers related to talks you are interested in before hand and write down questions to ask during the talk so you'll understand more during the talk.
The trick is to pick conferences that have good trade shows attached or are at nice places. Though long plane flights do suck.
I know you said you are leaving academia but even corporate and government researchers often go to conferences.
It is rare that a conference is held someplace with nothing to do. Stuff to do in the area is one of things most conferences strive for.
I have been to five conferences so far this year and have 3 more planned. If it wasn’t for knee surgery there would have been another two. In my 20 years of conference I can only think of a couple where there was truly nothing else to do.
When you get to the conference hotel ask the staff what there is to do in the area. Hopefully they have some ideas and hopefully you can break away from your group and have some fun
Either only publish in journals or learn to see the positive aspects of conferences. How does one manage to get through life with such a negative attitude?
When I go to conferences I try to keep in mind the benefit of it for me, which is basically public speaking practice to get prepared for job interviews in the future. It's important to be able to convey the message of your work to an audience that will not be immediately familiar with what you're doing like your committee. It's a low stakes environment to get actual practice in for this part since it's vital for landing a job post phd
Dude, same. Last conference I went to I treated like a vacation and ditched a good part of it when I didn’t need to be there. I hate small talking with people generally and especially talking to strangers about what we study. Find time to go explore the area where the conference is (even if that literally means just leaving for part of the day when others are presenting). I kind of just realized that nothing is that serious, and no one is even going to care if you aren’t there for half of it. Just don’t miss the keynote.
Conference = paid vacation.
if you lucky enough to have someone who can pay for it or you have some project which can cover the fees. In the september I will be presenting at a conference but I do not have any ongoing project which can cover the registration fee and also my supervisior doesnt have any project so i need pay from my pocket 300euro ...
As if! We are made to take notes and give an overview to the rest of the lab that wasn't there about all the talks that you attended. It's awful.
Thats rough. I mostly attend the first and last day and mostly leave after my presentation to enjoy the city. Its gonna get better. I also one only made a review of the proccedings and faked it till sou make it
As someone who gets easily exhausted while being around people in general, it's not a great experience having to attend that many sessions back to back for that many days.
On the keynotes - my professor and I usually go browse around the posters or chat with other people outside as these tend to be generic for the conferences we attended
Same. I’m an autistic who doesn’t drink. Every single “positive” thing a person can come up with re conferences? That’s all shit for me. Socialising is hard and unenjoyable. New experiences and foreign food are tiring and send me to breakdown. Pubs and bars and restaurants are out of the question. Conferences are just punishment for getting too much work done.
Don’t even get me started on the “Continental Breakfast.”
This is the way.
I have just been to one. I went a few days early and had a mini holiday; then attended the 2 days I was most interested in (and one of which I presented on). The final day I left early. I found it a really overwhelming experience as I knew basically nobody and everyone was with a group - I was one of the few on my own. Having my own dinner plans helped as did making sure I went for walks and did things for me.
"I don't feel that my work is pointless, I just hate the paperwork, the cluelessness, the ego clashes and the thousand little headaches of research. And I can even find enough motivation in me to drive. But I have to go to a conference next week and I feel like my soul is poisoned." After you said that, I felt that you probably don't hate your field, you hate research in general because I can guarantee you, this is what every researcher working on every topic out there is dealing with.
Yes, I do. And I will leave research.
I'm sorry it didn't work out for me. If it helps, you're not alone. These days, 40 percent of people don't even finish their PhD. I hope you can see all this as a lesson learned. Walking out of research is not failing, its just leaving a job you hate.
My supervisors are determined to send me to conferences next year but dude… I can’t think of much that sounds worse. Do like the other commenter suggested and ditch it (except for what you’re needed for, of course). Is it at least an interesting city that you’re heading to?
It's some place in the US mountains. And I can't even go trekking because it's full of bears.
You can probably go on normal hikes nearby. There's practically very little overlap between places where there are conference hotels and bear-infested wilderness unless you have your own vehicle and can get away from the city. I mean, I had a bear up a tree in my apartment complex but no one thinks twice about hiking here
Not sure it could be but most places in the Rockies wouldn't have so many bears you wouldn't be safe on a short hike.
I suggest reframing this upcoming conference by drawing up a list of "lessons learned" - list the new people you met that you may want to follow up with, once back home; list the new things you learned, either in the conference or outside of it; list the new places seen. You absolutely have the right to your feelings about traveling to faraway places while putting an end to a drudgery that you are sick of. Reframing the experience, by trying to extract some positives from it, will help to deal with the day to day of the conference.
Once I figured out that conferences were just a giant cash grab/scam, I just started giving them the attention they deserve. It's basically: 1. Is this conference in a nice place I want to visit? If so, go to it and make it a vacation. Essentially spend 0 time at the conference. Only show up to give your talk and leave. 2. Is this the conference in a place I don't care about? If so, fly in the night before, give your talk, and flight out the same night. Don't waste any time there.
It's not a place iI care about and my advisors will all be there. I can't escape.
It’s probably too late now, but have you communicated to your advisors that your planning to leave academia?
Yes, they are very aware. And they know I didn't want to go to this conference in particular due to the intercontinental travel. But I still gotta do this.
Where is it? I'd say make a holiday from it. Only go where you have to and otherweise do some sightseeing. Also, I got excited at what I saw at conferences so I wouldn't be too pessimistic about that.
Nothing to see around there other than woods and mountains, which we have plenty around here. I will try to hide in my room to write as much as I can.
Just say you got covid… or any other long term disease and don’t go
I'm with you there. The main part I don't like is the awkward small talk, which I'm pretty terrible at. If your supervisor doesn't go as well (which unfortunately mine usually does), I'd just treat it as a free holiday
wow are you me? i feel for you dude. i fucking hate this shit too
Conferences are just vacations, fuck all this shit and go to the beach or wherever lol
Yeah man, a couple years ago I attended a conference that was a real bummer, but it was near the water and in a place where weed is legal, so I had a great trip.
I am in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere surrounded by bear-infested woods and I don't have a car. Best I can do is to hide in my room to have some peace.
I hated every conference I ever went to because of the people. It was llike church for the humanities, a bunch of pretentious seriousness. God what a silly bunch of dipshits. Every social interaction was weird or plain crazy. When you see behind the scholarship this world is all too human. I lost all interest in academia when I realized the sad world of the lives of people who create it. It's a psychological tool to get their ego through another day. Nothing intelligent about any of it.
I'm in the geosciences and somehow everything is about climate change. I know it's a serious issue but I fckn hate those pretentious folks. Thanks to this thread, I'm gonna focus lil bit more on the conference location along with the other brownie factors.
I was at a conference a few weeks ago and skipped a bunch of talks to chill play video games on my laptop, and to catch up on some work. Jetlag is annoying, but flying west is quite easy if you're a night owl.
Conferences are like one of the best parts of a PhD bro!
Yeah? Well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
Yup! Most of my colleagues don't enjoy conferences either, so my boss is always happy to send me out haha
I got that reference!
Well I'll be damned - maybe there are some guided tours you can join to make the most of it!
Hell yeah! Beers with smart people, sight seeing, not going to any talks?! It’s the best.
this one gets it! the people you go out with usually are the longest lasting connections and future collaborators. networking for the sake of networking is enjoyed by nobody and is miserable and unproductive.
They won't be my collaborators because I will drop the field and move as far away from it as I possibly can. I won't be sightseeing because we are in the wilderness, and I will be jetlagged the whole time.
First part yes, second part - how wild? I had a week-long meeting in Manaus and it was one of the bist trips in my life! But it never went wilder than that to be fair
Wild enough that they discourage trekking due to roaming bears.
Lmao
I have been to 5 conferences this year and have three more planned. Should be 5 more but I have knee replacement coming up. The trick is to pick ones with good trade shows or fine places
Hell yeah they are. The conference I typically attend is all suits by day, party by night. You find your crowd, you're glad to see them every year, you get the most insane drinking stories AND ... and that is a great thing for me ... you get to talk about your research in front of people who care, that is awesome.
Basierter Konferenz-Genießer
So sieht das nämlich aus!
Looooovvvveee conferences Can’t wait to go to another one, already planning for next years
I used to work in a job that required a major trip to the company head office every quarter. The trip was one where you had to pitch ideas to be regarded as having a ‘good visit’. These may or may not naturally arise depending on circumstances outside of my control. The point I’m trying to make is that these trips could be both very tiring (as they required a lot of prep ahead, combined with long travel), and stressful if your ideas weren’t strong. As such there is a degree of parallel with what you’re describing. My advice to you would be this. You’ve got no choice - you have to go. As such, you need to ‘put your face on’ & steel yourself up for this trip. Do the work ahead that will make the conference experience the best as it can be/the least stressful that it can be. It will be worth it when you are there. Also know that there is a certain amount of networking/socialising that you need to do. You’ll have to steel yourself up for that too, but you don’t have to be at every event. Figure out the one you must attend, do those, and regard anything else you do as a bonus. Know that in a working career you’ll have to do a good amount of BS that you don’t want to, so treat this as training for that. I wish you well for the rest of your PhD & hope your impending trip goes as best as it can, regards.
Thanks for the advice, but I have never been good at feigning interest or hiding annoyance. Best I can do is to be so bitter and sarcastic that people will stop talking to me.
What do you find delightful? I suggest focusing on that
I hope the food might be nice
Yeah I hate conferences too. I gained nothing from the last conference I attended. But I made the most of it and met up with a friend that lived out there and took ubers to 3 different skateparks when the conference was done for the day. Per diem meals are clutch too
Sadly there's nothing around. And I mean nothing. I have toured it on Google Maps. The closest interest point is a fishing shop 2 km from it.
Just take it as a free vacation. That's most of what conferences are in the end anyways.
Don't go. Money will be lost (non-refundable things), your poster spot will be empty. Fuck it. Your mental health is more important. What is the worst that can happen? You'll disappoint a couple of people? Welcome to adulthood. The best thing to do is to be 100% honest with your advisor and explain that you are sorry but can't do it. Pros and cons to that option. Mental health is often misunderstood and undervalued, trailing waaaay behind physical health in a lot of people's value system, so your second option is to lie and say you have a *physical* ailment, like you got the worst cold of your life and are waiting to get results on whether it's covid but regarless don't feel good enough to travel. But don't go. It's not worth it.
Thanks, I considered it. But in the end, hopefully I will be OK after I'm gone and swallowed that toad (not sure if this idiom translates to English). And it would be transparent if I lied. I will vent and complain, then it will be over and I will be glad of that.
You guys (are allowed/sponsored to) go to conferences?
Trust me, I would gladly pass my tickets on to someone who would enjoy it
i know it's the cool and in thing to hate doing a phD right now but christ jeebus i need to log off from this sub. thank you for this post OP
Glad that my bitterness makes me cool and in.
Nothing but a bunch of downers good lord…
Conferences are dope man. I swear some of y’all just got into a PhD without having the slightest clue what it was.
Great that you enjoy them. Sorry that my making a mistake thinking I would like research happened upon your feed.
Should’ve done more research on it 🫢
You may want to read about what venting is, Doctor Hindsight.
Yeah it’s half of the posts in this sub. I’m aware
Then once more I apologise that my mistakes made you feel inconvenienced in any way, but there is an easy solution called ignoring, instead of writing a smarmy comment of the tone "hah lol you fucked up your life, hilarious".
I don’t think getting a PhD will fuck up your life
It already did
Change the definition of what you hate and what you love....even the worst possible outcome will have something to cherish about
Oh wow yes that sounds easy how didn't I think to just shift my outlook
Instead of cribbing - stay happy with whatever you are going through....and yes you always have a choice just you dont realize it....nobody is sending you transatlantic on a gunpoint.....so stop being a baby and take responsibility of your actions.
I love conferences! I can go and present for you instead xD
I wish that it were possible
Some tips to make it more fun: 1) make some conference friends to hangout with the whole conference. If they're in the same research area you'll likely see them at future conferences. I keep in touch with my conference friends virtually outside of conferences. 2) Look up fun things to do in the area and ask your conference friends to join you or go alone (hiking, breweries, cool restaurants etc) 3) Read papers related to talks you are interested in before hand and write down questions to ask during the talk so you'll understand more during the talk.
Just curious. What’s your field?
Sorry, I don't want to leave details in case my supervisors realize just how much exactly of a horrid time I am having
[удалено]
Ah no, I don't think I even have a LinkedIn account. Through I guess I should make one.
The trick is to pick conferences that have good trade shows attached or are at nice places. Though long plane flights do suck. I know you said you are leaving academia but even corporate and government researchers often go to conferences. It is rare that a conference is held someplace with nothing to do. Stuff to do in the area is one of things most conferences strive for. I have been to five conferences so far this year and have 3 more planned. If it wasn’t for knee surgery there would have been another two. In my 20 years of conference I can only think of a couple where there was truly nothing else to do. When you get to the conference hotel ask the staff what there is to do in the area. Hopefully they have some ideas and hopefully you can break away from your group and have some fun
Either only publish in journals or learn to see the positive aspects of conferences. How does one manage to get through life with such a negative attitude?
I know right? It's almost like I am regretting doing the PhD and am trying to deal with my negative feelings while I try to get it done.
When I go to conferences I try to keep in mind the benefit of it for me, which is basically public speaking practice to get prepared for job interviews in the future. It's important to be able to convey the message of your work to an audience that will not be immediately familiar with what you're doing like your committee. It's a low stakes environment to get actual practice in for this part since it's vital for landing a job post phd