The weather is getting better, so I tried to ride my bicycle, but unfortunately, I couldn't remember the code for my bike. Anyway, Let’s work out to improve your physical strength.

 

How have you been with ZOOM lectures or ZOOM seminars?

After two months of non-face-to-face lectures, there were a lot of efficiencies, but also online lectures revealed that there were some losses in terms of contact with people.

 

Contact vs. Contactless

It is said that this age of contactless communication has been accelerated by the coronavirus spreading. It is also known that the younger generations tend to feel more comfortable with the contactless culture. For example, when I ask my kids to go eat out, they answer me that they prefer to order delivery. We can't deny that the contactless trend will intensify. However, rather than just following the trend recklessly, we need to think about what we should do as a young researcher to prepare for the future that will come suddenly.

 

Now, with the development of online technology, anyone can easily post information. As a result, anyone can publish a draft paper on the internet, but there will be a lot of unverified information. Therefore, Internet information will be unreliable in the flood of information. As you may know, there is a lot of fake news with a high number of views on YouTube, making it difficult to filter out unreliable papers by citation numbers. There are even countless pirate academic journals that publish fake papers for money. In this situation, instead of having a large number of papers, having a reputation as a trustworthy laboratory with reliable results will be more important. Likewise, individuals must make efforts to increase their credibility.

 

Also, you can't see how others are working in the contactless era. Since it is not possible to give suggestions and directions in real time, it is inevitable to trust the judgment and responsibility of the person in charge. Because face-to-face work is limited, you'll want to work with people who understand quickly and have a good sense of future plans, even with brief communication. In that case, I think you should invest in your own brand to become a person who we can trust. Therefore, you should make it a habit to keep to the strict deadline,  prepare the project deliverables in advance, and report and discuss the potential bottlenecks immediately.

 

Who is considered trustworthy by employers to recruit? It's really hard to tell just by looking at your resume that lists five papers and ten international conferences. Such formal records lack information about who is appropriate for the hiring department. Ironically, the more it becomes a contactless society, the more students who are in a group that can be trusted will be given hidden extra points. So what we need to do is to make trusting relationships with the people we meet at work. We may consider this kind of encounter as not a big deal, but I think it is as important as learning technical skills in graduate school. Let’s invest as much as possible in a meaningful network with people. A good opportunity will come through people. even in the contactless era.

 

Also, please say "Let’s work together someday" to a student at a different lab, a student at another school, or a researcher at another research institute. There will be no more powerful contact impact than this. Contact may not happen immediately, but it sows the seeds of possibility for you. These words will make them remember you. If they find an opportunity, they will contact you, and if possible, they will create an opportunity to work together, if you are trustworthy.

 

In conclusion, please invest in your credibility. Also, invest in relationships with people you meet at work. Then try to contact them in a way that conveys your desire to work together. Then you'll have an invisible network that will keep your name in mind and invite you to a new opportunity in the contactless era.