12 Months of FR

The rules are simple and had been done by other people here and here. The rules for this blog meme are quite simple -- post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year. So here we go.

January: None

Feb: I think the adrenaline from yesterday has wearied off today. 

Mar: Those of you who have been following the blog know that I have been invited for a on-site visit and interview at New University (NW).

Apr: So, I heard from the head of the department yesterday, and he told me that they are not interested in supporting my area of research

May: None

June: I have a draft of K99 that I had completed 2 months ago. 

July: None

Aug: None

Sept: Recently a friend of mine left academia in favor of an industrial position. 

Oct: I went to another interview for a faculty position. 

Nov: How long does it take you to start conversation over the email using the recipients first name ?Is it after a single email, after two ?

Dec: Recently, I declined a request for an on-campus interview.


Look pretty funny to me :P

Declining an On-Campus Interview

Recently, I declined a request for an on-campus interview. Yes, I am aware that I am not suppose to apply at places where I am not going to go. But I applied anyway because of the fear that I might not get interviews this year (which does not seem to be the case).

The university was in a big city and had some interesting research going on in the department. However, the amount of teaching and research did not seem to be right for me i.e. teaching counted way more than research for tenure and promotion. This is what the head of the department told me over the phone/email and this is what I gauged from the faculty profiles. Hence, it would not have been a best fit for me and therefore, a waste of time, energy and resources for both parties.

I had double thoughts when declining the interview because I really liked the city (from what I have heard) and do not have an invitation for another on-campus interview, yet.

I still think it was the right thing to do. I want to conserve my energy for future interviews that could be a potential fit for me, for the department and for my family.

Interviews this season

Since the number of interviews is increasing at a rather rapid pace, I am going to keep a log of progress here:

Phone/Google_hangout/skype Interview(s) = 3 4 5 8 11 12          

On-Campus Interview(s) accepted = 1 2 34
On-Campus Interview(s) request declined = 12
On-Campus Interview(s) completed = 1234

Offer(s) = 1  (YES ! )

How long ?

How long does it take you to start conversation over the email using the recipients first name ?Is it after a single email, after two ?

I have observed that when starting a conversation with some one that I don't know and the first interaction is over the email; I start out in a formal way saying Dr. family name. But after a few email exchanges I find it difficult to keep conversing in a formal tone and I get to the point and start using first names.

I don't know if that is a good thing and how do people perceive it.

Meeting schedule

There is a certain situation in the lab that prompted me to think: How many meetings between a PI and a postdoc/student /staff is sufficient: daily, once a week, once a month or on a need basis.

I always had this need-to-meet schedule in the grad school and I liked it because: 1) It gave me more time to think and contemplate about the question that I may want to ask my advisor; and generally I came up with a solution of my own during this time. 2) It didn't waste my time with unnecessary meetings 3) I felt more of an academic with my own free will to get my work done.

I do not know what the optimal meeting frequency would be in my group would be (if I do land a tenure-track position some day, fingers crossed). But I find it distasteful to have to meet every day/week/month. The reason is that rigid schedule of meetings would not accomplish anything if the student does not have anything to talk about. Hence, waste of time for the student and more importantly, a waste of chunk of my time. Therefore, theoretically the student would see the advisor on a need-to basis and should suffice in my group.

However, I am not sure how this scheme would work for non-focused students. I am beginning to think what if having a rigid meeting schedule keep student on track? more focused?

I would love to hear any experiences regarding more/less/non-existant meeting schedule some of you may have in your grad school etc.

Another Interview

Hi all

I went to another interview for a faculty position. The university is in a small town of a state and is very pleasant surrounded by river, lake, green trees and mountains...although I have never lived in a place like this (it has been big cities all my life).

The interview also seemed to go very well. The appointment is suppose to be between two academic departments, and seems that it can be a good fit, although I am still thinking seriously about pros and cons. The visit seemed to be very pleasant, the faculty seemed to think that my research is important (in both depts) and my seminar went very well, it looks promising.

They have 3 other candidates, so I am not sure what will happen.

Time will tell...

Leaving academia

Recently a friend of mine left academia in favor of an industrial position. The reason of leaving academia was not that he had an awesome offer he couldn't refuse, or geography, or family etc.etc. He left academia in utter despair.

This was also his second postdoctoral position and I thought he was doing okay with papers and stuff. He had searched for a faculty position for two years and had applied to many, many places.

To give you a background, he is one of the people I consider to be very smart. We have similar backgrounds and have worked in the same fields in our graduate study (although different sub field). Also we were in the graduate school together, and both of us graduated with a PhD much sooner than the average time in the department. Both of us got postdoctoral positions and had vowed to get into academia. We have spent countless hours talking about the strategies for applying to faculty positions, to get papers accepted, strategies for networking and exchanged numerous drafts of research and teaching statements. For all intent and purposes we were in this together .

Now that he has decided and accepted a position in a big shot company, I respect his decision. But I do feel that he abandoned me ( although he abandoned academia). I also feel that if he had waited a bit more and/or changed some of his strategy, he could had made it.

All of my friends and colleagues have stopped looking for academic positions. It seems that I am the last one standing and it is a lonely and frustrating place to be.