Wow, not being allowed to present your own first author paper is pretty bad - unless someone else contributed a lot of the work and was made second author + presented?
Not at all. The papers where I was first author were essentially 100% all my work. Second or third authors were advisor and a committee member that helped edit, closely read proofs and pseudocode. Certainly helpful and deserving of authorship but a steep drop off in contributions from first author (me) to them.
Advisor had family in Europe (I am in US), and would use these conferences to create extended family vacation plans.
Of course when I think back on this I am still pissed! But years have passed and I am doing well in my career. I am able to not get too fixated on it.
And yes, I agree with the people saying it was terrible and very wrong. In terms of all the possible terrible and very wrong things that can happen to a graduate student this is maybe, in the grand scheme of things, about mid-range maybe?
Advisor had family in Europe (I am in US), and would use these conferences to create extended family vacation plans.
Of course when I think back on this I am still pissed! But years have passed and I am doing well in my career. I am able to not get too fixated on it.
And yes, I agree with the people saying it was terrible and very wrong. In terms of all the possible terrible and very wrong things that can happen to a graduate student this is maybe, in the grand scheme of things, about mid-range maybe?