Do you use at work what you learned in school?

[sherpa]

Yes. Because, airplanes. I schooled to be a mechanic, and became an engineer. I knew my career destiny from a very young age.

 

I did too.

Knew what I wanted to do since I was five.

Did it.

[SoTier]

 

What was your PhD thesis on (in 1,000 words or less that won't give me a migraine)

 

One of the worst thing about University was that the most gifted instructors in the non-STEM areas had no hope of finding employment in the ivory tower.

 

The female side isn't rushing to sign up for the upper regions of STEM, nor is it carrying it's proportion in the real world. I guess an argument can be made for discrimination but I won't bother with any other theories.

 

My thesis disputed the idea/myth/stereotype that most of the early settlement of the Great Plains was done primarily by individual families living on isolated homesteads separated from others by long distances. Rather, I argued that most early settlers in the area tended to settle in groups, creating small towns that served as little social and commercial centers from the very beginning. Other communities were created as railroad stops by the Union Pacific RR or as steamboat landings or ferry crossings to facilitate commercial activity. In Nebraska specifically, there seemed to be a tendency for groups, sometimes based on hometown, ethnicity or religious affiliation, to migrate together and create communities out on the prairies ... literally in the middle of nowhere.

 

I find the lack of women following STEM courses of study in college to be extremely frustrating. My guess is that there's still a strong bias in western culture that discourages women from going into mathematics and science. Specifically, in the US, math education just sucks, which exacerbates the problem. It seems most American students graduate from HS lacking an understanding of fundamental math and/or convinced that they "can't do math" (ie, algebra), so they shut themselves out of most STEM fields.

[DC Tom]

 

My thesis disputed the idea/myth/stereotype that most of the early settlement of the Great Plains was done primarily by individual families living on isolated homesteads separated from others by long distances. Rather, I argued that most early settlers in the area tended to settle in groups, creating small towns that served as little social and commercial centers from the very beginning. Other communities were created as railroad stops by the Union Pacific RR or as steamboat landings or ferry crossings to facilitate commercial activity. In Nebraska specifically, there seemed to be a tendency for groups, sometimes based on hometown, ethnicity or religious affiliation, to migrate together and create communities out on the prairies ... literally in the middle of nowhere.

 

You might actually be more boring at parties than I am.

[KD in CA]

 

My thesis disputed the idea/myth/stereotype that most of the early settlement of the Great Plains was done primarily by individual families living on isolated homesteads separated from others by long distances. Rather, I argued that most early settlers in the area tended to settle in groups, creating small towns that served as little social and commercial centers from the very beginning. Other communities were created as railroad stops by the Union Pacific RR or as steamboat landings or ferry crossings to facilitate commercial activity. In Nebraska specifically, there seemed to be a tendency for groups, sometimes based on hometown, ethnicity or religious affiliation, to migrate together and create communities out on the prairies ... literally in the middle of nowhere.

 

I find the lack of women following STEM courses of study in college to be extremely frustrating. My guess is that there's still a strong bias in western culture that discourages women from going into mathematics and science. Specifically, in the US, math education just sucks, which exacerbates the problem. It seems most American students graduate from HS lacking an understanding of fundamental math and/or convinced that they "can't do math" (ie, algebra), so they shut themselves out of most STEM fields.

Everything I know on this topic comes from watching Little House on the Prairie in the early 80s.

[Chef Jim]

 

I did too.

Knew what I wanted to do since I was five.

Did it.

So what are you Johnny? A fireman or an astronaut?

[RaoulDuke79]

About 10%. School gave me a base of knowledge, but pretty much everything I know I learned from on the job experience.

[SoTier]

 

You might actually be more boring at parties than I am.

 

Dissertation topics are meant to be boring. In fact, the entire process to get a PhD is a test of endurance -- just how much excrement can a person tolerate without becoming violent to him/herself or, more likely, his/her advisor?

[BringBackFergy]

Yes. Because, airplanes. I schooled to be a mechanic, and became an engineer. I knew my career destiny from a very young age.

Do you work for Amtrak or one of the freight train lines?

[Chef Jim]

Do you work for Amtrak or one of the freight train lines?

Lionel.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Lionel.

He could be an HO man.

[teef]

Lionel.

 

 

He could be an HO man.

 

this is some fine model train humor right here.