Research:

• The article I recommend most strongly to students about to enter research is Richard Hamming's You and Your Research. You can also see the talk on youtube.

Getting a Ph. D.

• Thinking about a PhD? Check this quick illustrated guide to a Ph.D. by Matt Might.
• My thesis co-advisor Shri Kulkarni has some tips and instructions for those applying to Caltech. The same tips apply to most grad school applications.
• Two thorough articles on what grad school is like: How to Be a Good Graduate Student by Marie desJardins, and the more recent "So long, and thanks for the Ph.D.!" by Ronald T. Azuma. Both articles are written from a computer science perspective, but the lessons are relevant everywhere!
• Go ahead, take a year&endash;long drop if you want to: good advice from astrobites.org

Amateur-friendly serious astronomy

• Want to do photometry on data? Check out APT and AstroImageJ - both are tools with an easy graphical interface, and are useful for professionals too.
• I have made a tutorial on DSLR photometry with APT with the ASI public outreach committeei.
• Make RGB images automatically from three filter fits images: Trilogy software

Writing Email:

• Matt Might has some handy guidelines on writing email.

Careers in Astronomy:

• How to be an astronomer? - IUCAA's page about astronomy options in India
• So you want to be a professional astronomer! - a nice, short introduction to career options in Astronomy, by Duncan Forbes
• Careers in astronomy - a twenty page PDF from the American Astronomical Society that goes into details about various astronomy jobs, required skills, etc