Advice for U of A Graduate Students: sorry for the late post...

First, I apologize. I try really hard to get blog posts out on Friday, but then life happens. Let's talk a little about when things don't go the way you planned.

Many of you know about (or are participating in) the From Abstract to Contract competition. Yep. I'm part of that too. And a few of you had some issues submitting your information to our form over the last few days...which was ok. It was handled. BUT THEN...the entire registration form site went down last night at about 7:00pm when the deadline was midnight! ARRRRGGGGGHHHH...

This was how my weekend and Monday went.

me: "I'm so glad we have some students registering this weekend...I'll try to keep up with my email so I can address any issues."

me later: "Hmmmm...a few students are having issues, but they can just send their information directly to me. No big deal."

me Monday: "More submissions. Great. Man, my mailbox is busy today. And a few more problems. No worries. I've got it handled. I'm going to need to check my email all night..."

me Monday evening: "Looks like everything is going ok. I'm going to eat dinner and then check back later..."

me later Monday evening: "ohhhhhh, nooooo. The site isn't even up anymore. eeeeeek! What the heck am I going to do!?!?"

So here's where I had a choice to make. I could freak out and start trying to figure out who to yell at, or I could figure out a solution, that, while not ideal, would allow everyone to accomplish their goals. It would mean a little more work for me (and let's face it, what could be a more appropriate real-world experience than trying to submit your registration last minute and not be able to...) but in the end all would be ok.

In the end I chose B. And here's the best part. Since I chose to be level-headed about it (and repress the urge to freak out), I think I was able to come up with a better solution than if I had freaked out. I think all of you will agree that it's hard to think clearly, or see anything in a positive light, when you're in full freak out mode. So some of you know what I did from here. (And to be fair, others were on board to help make this happen so I wasn't the only one involved. Support people are always key. Thanks, Andrew and Diane.)

I sent an email to all the students who had encountered the missing registration page and let them know what information I needed from them to complete their registration by hand. Then, I created an out-of-office reply to go out from my email address, confirming that there was a problem, and how students could submit their information to me directly, so that if anyone emailed me at midnight, they could get the information without me having to be awake. I emailed our webmaster who was already monitoring the situation since we had a few issues earlier that day, and had him put up the same message on the website. And so, everything was "handled" by 9:00pm, (I did need a glass of wine after that) and I was able to get into bed at a decent hour and not dream of databases and abstracts all night. Cheers.

On the flip side, I have quite a bit of work this morning to enter in the information from all the folks who were unable to access our form, but hopefully kept most students from ending up in their own freak out mode. (We also extended the deadline to noon today to give everyone a chance, especially if they didn't email me last night.)

CONFIDENTIAL TO THOSE STUDENTS: For those of you who ended up submitting under less-than-ideal-circumstances, I will be emailing you today to confirm that I received your registration.

Hey, thanks for letting me share with you...and here's the moral of the story. I have a few take away messages for you.

1. When presented with a crazy situation, or when things aren't going the way you hoped, try not to freak out. Or give yourself permission to freak out for a few minutes, but then calm down and think through your different options. No one does their best reasoning in freak out mode.

2. THINGS HARDLY EVER GO THE WAY YOU PLANNED THEM TO. Let's be honest. It's rare that a graduate student ends up selecting and completing their degree studying the first topic they present to their advisor. Most undergraduates switch majors at least once. Advisors come and go, committee members come and go, funding comes and goes.

3. Regarding submitting an abstract for a conference...
Occasionally you will be presented with an opportunity to present at a conference, you just have to submit and abstract, and it's usually at the last minute. (My master's advisor did this to me a few months ago...here's an opportunity to present at a conference, you just have to update an abstract and submit it by tomorrow...I'll be out in the field all day so I can't help...good luck!) Not to be giving away faculty secrets or anything, but most faculty submit their abstracts, proposals, reports at the very last second, so usually, when the deadline appears for a conference, they don't have enough presenters and have to extend the deadline for another week or so. So...if you get a last minute "suggestion" from your advisor, don't freak out, contact the folks with the conference and see if you can have a few days to complete your abstract. (Feel free to blame your advisor for sending you the information last minute and tell them what a great opportunity it would be to present at their conference, and you'd really like some time to pull together something worthy of their time...) I can't promise that you will be given an extension, but it's possible (at least I've found this to be true with engineering conferences - and not where people are really competing for presentation slots), and will allow you to present a better product than if you say up all night and send them the 11:59pm-I-really-should-be-in-bed-and-I'm-totally-freaking-out version.

I hope this helps some of you out. I don't recommend making any major decisions when you're in freak out mode. They're almost never the best choice, or the choice you'd make if you were thinking clearly. I hope the From Abstract to Contract situation did not send any of you down the freak out path, and I apologize if it did. Perhaps it turned into a learning experience for you too...

--Dawn