Hello 2014

It's been a while since I've posted. Mostly because I took a pseudo vacation, gotten sit, worked a bunch on my stuff and reviewing proposals for an upcoming panel. I'm starting to get caught up on critical stuff, but now I'm getting sick again :(


Not much academically interesting stuff has been taking place. My proposals from this summer are still swirling around in an infinite pending vortex. My papers are getting written, rejected, revised, and resubmitted. I'll miss GMP's blog! Anyway, I feel like I've settled into this job finally. I'm not worried about teaching any more. My trainees all have lots of interesting stuff to work on. I'm doing everything I can and don't plan to go any crazier than this. My career is in the hands of the tenure gods and other mythical characters, such as program managers and editors. It's like AA (academics anonymous) says, you have to surrender your life to the higher power and just live in the moment.

bubble phds looking for postdocs

Like most faculty, I'm pretty regularly bombarded with emails from people looking for graduate student and postdoc positions in my lab. One thing that has really started getting on my nerves are grad students and postdocs looking for a postdoc position in my lab like I just have money to through around. For qualified people, which most of them are not for my research, I usually reply back saying that I don't have funding, but that I would be happy to help them apply for external fellowships to work in my lab. What boggles my mind is the standard reply  that I receive back: great, what are some fellowships that I can apply for? Umm, you are about to get your PhD or already have one, you want to get a postdoc position, and you haven't bothered to look at fellowship options and you can't be bothered to do some research on your own? How about writing me: I'm looking for postdoc positions and I'm planning to apply for such and such fellowship so that I could work in your lab. Would you be willing to be my mentor or be listed as a potential supervisor. I'd be all over that.

When I was applying for postdoc positions, I was told to offer to write fellowship applications when I applied for positions so that I didn't look like some moocher that just wants money. Especially in engineering, where postdoc positions are relatively short 1-2 years normally, the last thing most faculty need is to pay a person to be in there lab that is actively looking for another position, because that is what most engineering postdocs are doing. They are thinking about their future independent research and applying for faculty jobs, not devoting all their time to their current project.

I'm more than happy to help you get your own money, but at least try to make some effort. You are not the hot shit that you think you are where I just absolutely have to hire you to work in my lab. Why aren't faculty telling their students about how to do these things?

Editorial Discretion

After a nice start to my career as the PI on manuscripts, I've recently run into significant road bumps. For some reason, all of my manuscripts are being rejected by editors without review. Now, I know this is common practice for glam mags, but since when is this the case for society level journals? I'd like to think that I have pretty good judgement for where I'm submitting the work. I regularly read and review for these journals. I know the other readers and people that publish in these places. When I presented these results at conferences, I've gotten some very positive comments from top people in the field about how cool the work is. So what gives? Am I being penalized for being a new PI? Are solid, interesting, reproducible data now not enough for decent journals? Have they become complete slaves to the impact factor? Or is my work derivative and inconsequential and no one is willing to tell me in person? My "mentors" think I'm cool. Who else can I ask about these things?

Stupid Karma

I shouldn't have written that last post. I've had nothing but bad luck since then. Two papers rejected, a cold, issues with students in the lab, and several other things that I've managed to block out of my mind. That's life for you.

Time for an update

For those of you that follow my blog, you might have noticed that I tend to blog less when things are going well. It's been a month since my last post and things are going really well. Somehow after the miserableness of year 3, things magically improved. I'm teaching my undergrad class again this fall and for the first time, I feel like it's running smoothly and that I'm really comfortable with the material. It could be that the better time slot and smaller class size are making all the difference, but whatever the reason, things are working on that front.

Research is humming along as well. We have multiple papers currently under review and several more in the pipeline waiting for me to polish up. I shifted focus this year away from grant submissions to paper writing and I feel much better. I'm still putting in some grants and have three pending right now, but not the 7 that I had wasted my time on last fall that had not got funded anyway. With the funding rate, and now even government shutdowns, I much rather write papers, which I actually have control over instead of the crapshoot of getting funding. I've also been able to unload some of my service obligations.

I've finally embraced the attitude of either I'll get tenure on my terms, or I'll find another job in 3 years. If you're unhappy before tenure then you'll probably be unhappy after tenure, because nothing in your job description changes.

Discrimination against boys

Interesting article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/how-to-make-school-better-for-boys/279635/

I think it ties in well with the movement to regain interest in blue collar jobs.

Annual Slowdown

After a fairly productive summer and even a rare enthusiastic outlook toward the fall semester, I've fallen into the start of the school year slump again. Adding teaching into my activities seems to throw everything out of whack. It tips the scales toward having my "to do" list growing instead of shrinking, which in turn leads me to lose enthusiasm and productivity drops to the bare minimum of putting out the each day's fires. In previous years, my productivity starts to recover and increase exponentially as the fall proposal deadlines approach in October. We'll see how the rollercoaster plays out this year.