Shu Chin
Ma

Breaking up is so hard...

One of the earliest and probably the most important professional relationships you will ever have is with your academic mentors. It shares many similarities with a parent-child relationship. We are the eager ducklings learning to dive into the pool of knowledge, with the help of gentle nudging an...


Shu Chin
Ma

J1 visa and home residency requirement

Does the word “home residency requirement” cause an unsettling tingle down your spine, and cause you to utter a muffled curse each time you hear it? Does it put an annoying stumbling block on your future plans and career development within the U.S.? 


Shu Chin
Ma

How to speak with confidence-part 1, public speaking and presentations

Does your stomach do flips when you hear the word “presentation”? Does your throat get drier than the Sahara desert when you have to speak to more than one person? Do you sweat profusely when you have to “network”? Do your legs wobble if you have to resolve perceived conflicts and unequivoca...


Shu Chin
Ma

How to speak with confidence - Part 2, networking

How many of you shiver when you hear “networking”? Or do you jump for joy? If you are in the latter category, then congratulations and you can stop reading. However, if you are from the first category, here are some tips that might be able to help you to overcome the crippling anxiety. You ...


Shu Chin
Ma

Cut the productivity clutter

I will be the first one to admit that I am mighty talented when it comes to finding ways to procrastinate or frivolously waste time on a daily basis. You’d think it was an Olympic sport. So, past the half way mark of 2015, I am finally getting around to my awfully neglected New Year’s resol...


Shu Chin
Ma

Where do all the good generic drugs go?

The Office of Generic Drugs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), of course. In 2014, generic drugs saved the U.S health care system $254 billion dollars, and with the recent outrageous price hiking of an HIV medication (cough, cough, by a greedy you-know-who), it’s even more crucial ...


Shu Chin
Ma

A day in the Office of Generic Drugs

As follow up to my previous post about work flow at the Division of Bioequivalence, Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) at the FDA, you might ask, what does it really feel like to work at the OGD? When you first join the office, you are assigned a team leader, who will be the secondary reviewer for y...


Shu Chin
Ma

How to make sure you will never get any help again

Okay, I will admit it, I am writing this with a tight jaw and clenched teeth, and possibly a weird tick with one of my eyelids. As the title stated, I will explain how you can make sure that people will avoid you like the plague, and pretend they are deaf, mute and blind when you obliviously sk...


Shu Chin
Ma

Becoming a Scientific Writer the Hard Way

Let’s start by clearing something up: I am not a scientific writer in the sense that I get paid per word, finger-pecked on the keyboard. Althought, I do a fair amount of writing in my work, and I thoroughly enjoy it, thus, I may have some tips on getting started on becoming a scientific write...


Shu Chin
Ma

Pros and cons of working remotely

When you hear the words “working remotely,” does it conjure up an image of someone sloppily dressed in their ratty pajama, hair unkempt, with a huge mug of coffee cradled in one hand, while sitting in front of the television with a computer, haphazardly propped on their lap? How about someo...


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