The title of this blog is inspired by my favorite film Marley and me. Back to the blog, obviously it is not about sharing knowledge. But don’t be angry at me, it is still about the way I will become a data scientist. I will tell to all of you about my story with PhD. Hope you all enjoy this (I know that there is no one but me read it but never-mind :d)

Today, I just miss another PhD offer that I thought it was very close to me. I know this position thanks to a former colleague who now is a post-doc in ENAC(Toulouse, France). I have a strong reference and (which I think) strong CV. Furthermore, it is also in the middle of the semester, so I believe there is not much competitiveness. But in the end, it is still out of my reach.

As you both know that I earned a Master scholarship to study in France. Back then, I was inspired by Mr.Quy, he, just like me, earned a scholarship after 4 years in university, then he got a internship in a company and then, did an industrial thesis there. He now has double nationality, a well-being life. Me, I wanted to follow his way. I set my target of getting an internship in CEA, a well-known research organization in France and I achieved that. However, the way after this is somehow out of control. My application for PhD position is too bitter. They turned down every application of mine until a canadian professor accepted my application. I was very happy back then not knowing it is in fact a scam. Since I got accepted, I just barely prepared for the other applications so that I missed it.

After going back to Vietnam, I contacted canadian professor and told him I would stay in Vietnam for a while to prepare the visa and do a temporary job just to discover more about my career. 3 months after, I contacted him by email and he told me he was gonna retire so he couldn’t keep his promise for me to conduct PhD research.(!!!) I comforted myself that I was more fit for a life of engineer than a researcher and life in Vietnam is not so bad. In fact, it truly is. It just that I miss so much european vibe there. Miss my weekend, miss the sunset there and also miss the board game Catan. But life is moving on, I bury these emotions to live a happy life here. But they resurface when Mr.Dat told me that he could get me a PhD slot in his school: the money is well-paid, the topic is interesting. I sent my CV with that hope not knowing that I would will miss it again.

Life is hard I know and now I will have to rearrange my plan again, maybe my life doesn’t work that way. I will definitely strike back, try my best. But today, I allow myself to be depressed. It is simply necessary for the next step of my life.

Stumble and fall, is the heart of it all

When you fall down, just try again