Reviews

An Honorary Senior Fellow with the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne, Simon Clews is very active both nationally and internationally in the Three Minute Thesis and Visualise Your Thesis competitions. Simon offers a range of training options, online and in person, for researchers and other university staff – both academic and professional – in writing, presenting and engaging with audiences outside academia. Inger Says: “I love working with Simon – when he comes  to ANU, I know my students are in the hands of a consummate professional”

Indago Academy provides leadership, career planning, and other programs for academic researchers across different career stages. Tseen says: “Indago founder, Professor Kylie Ball, is an excellent, knowledgeable, and warm facilitator. Backed by years of high level experience as a researcher and academic leader, Kylie and her colleagues provide sessions that are insightful and prioritise university research cultures that are sustainably productive and kind.”

PostdocTraining is an independent organisation focused on supporting the professional and personal development of researchers in academia. It specialises in providing practical help with the planning, strategies and skills critical to researchers’ careers that are rarely addressed as part of a PhD.
Tseen says: “I invite Postdoc Training in whenever I can. Every workshop gains glowing reviews and participants rave about the spot-on, valuable content and warm, savvy delivery. As well, the Directors – Kerstin and Steve – are brilliant professionals who are a joy to work with.”

Designed by a PhD student who was frustrated with MS Word (look, who isn’t?), this software is purpose built for the busy writer. Unlike MS Word, or other conventional word processing software, Scrivener treats your writing as a series of ‘chunks’ which can be moved around at will. Inger Says: “Oh Scrivener. What would I do without you? Scrivener allows me to write four times faster (yes, I’ve measured it!). You can read my glowing review here.”

The mother, father and parent of no specific gender of all project management software. Omnifocus acts like an external back up brain, reminder service and database of frequently used information. Unfortunately, it is only available on Mac. There is nothing really comparable on PC – sorry. Maybe buy a Mac? Inger Says: “My team hear me say all the time “If it’s in Omni, it happens. You can read my review of Omnifocus here.”