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Onboarding Guide

ToDo Kevin

  • Prepare hosting agreement for visa application
  • Provide funding proposal for new team member to read
  • Approve MacBook specifications and place order
  • Add new member to Zulip group
  • Add new member to Notion workspace
  • Add new member to GitHub organization
  • Add new member to Huggingface organization
  • Add new member to Wandb organization
  • Add new member to ChatGPT Pro subscription
  • Add new member to Vicuna and Alpaca
  • Schedule initial project discussion meeting
  • Review individual development plan
  • Sign advisor-graduate student compact
  • Provide virtual apartment viewing assistance if needed

ToDo Onboarding Buddy

  • Introduce new member to other group members
  • Help with German administrative processes (registration, health insurance)
  • Assist with Thoska application process
  • Guide through university cluster access setup
  • Help arrange language courses
  • Introduce to other research groups and local community
  • Share practical local knowledge (grocery stores, transportation, etc.)
  • Assist with housing search and application process
  • Help with initial computer setup and troubleshooting

ToDo New Team Member

Before Arrival

  • Apply for visa (if non-EU) with hosting agreement from Kevin
  • Arrange health insurance coverage from first day in Germany
  • Find housing guest houses, student housing, or private market
  • Get contract through Anette Bodien and Katja Gattung
  • For PhD: Sign up on Doc-In portal with Kevin as advisor
  • Provide MacBook specifications to Kevin for approval and ordering
  • Set up University of Jena account through self-registration
  • Read funding proposal for your position
  • Read guidelines on good scientific practice
  • Provide email addresses for access to platforms like Zulip and Notion. Also provide GitHub and Huggingface usernames.

First Days

  • Complete German admin: city registration and health insurance
  • Arrange language courses if wanted
  • Schedule weekly meeting slots with Kevin
  • Send Kevin image and text for homepage
  • Fill out individual development plan and send PDF to Kevin
  • Apply for Thoska (university ID card)
  • Set up MacBook using group tech stack guide
  • Set up VPN
  • Apply for university cluster access via servicedesk
  • Configure SSH access to Draco cluster
  • Read this group handbook
  • Read key papers from group "must read" list
  • Work through https://missing.csail.mit.edu for computational basics
  • Review The Turing Way for research best practices
  • Complete Unix tutorials if needed: https://matt.might.net/articles/basic-unix/

The 1st year

  • 1-1,5 Months of Orientation and planning of the 1st year
  • Think of the first project as 2nd Master thesis with publication potential
  • after 100-days: report and meeting for research plan for the PhD

The first year is like drinking out of a firehose. There will be many new things, and you might be overwhelmed from time to time. But you will get there.

You will not — and don’t need to — know everything when you start. A very important purpose of the Ph.D. is to help you grow: As a scientist, but also as a person.

Resources